Singaporebrides | Beauty

December 2014

6 Skincare Products To Try Before Your Wedding

By Audrie Soh

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Earlier this year, we’ve talked about the importance of a good skincare routine by sharing five simple tips you can follow for a radiant and clear complexion for your wedding day. While the basic three-step cleanse, tone and moisturise routine may work for brides who are blessed with problem-free complexion, those who are faced with more specific and common skin woes such as large pores and dull skin may seek a more targeted skincare routine in their pursuit of beauty.

You don’t have to be a bride to want flawless and beautiful looking skin. Like most, I do not have a flawless complexion and in my pursuit to shrink pores and eliminate dark eye bags and circles (amongst other skin concerns), I’ve spent much time, effort and money trying out different low and high-end skincare products over the years.

Now, as a bride, you may not have the luxury of spending that much time or money experimenting with different products to see which yield the best results for your specific skin problems. To help you narrow down the most effective solution at the lowest cost in the shortest time, I’ve decided to open my doors and share 6 of my holy grail skincare products I use to keep my skincare woes at bay.

For Soft and Supple-Looking Skin

Keeping your skin happily moisturised is essential for soft and supple-looking skin no matter what skin type you have. Because I have combination-dry skin and am an avid hot yoga fan, my skin can dry out very quickly if I do not make an effort to moisturise. Sometimes, even my day and night moisturiser aren’t enough for the job, especially when I spend most of my time in an air-conditioned environment. So, I make sure I supplement my usual skincare regime with a facial mask like SK II‘s Facial Treatment Mask at least once a week. Each SKII cotton mask is soaked with Pitera™, boosting the skin’s natural surface rejuvenation process to reveal a radiant and crystal clear complexion. And the result of religiously applying a facial mask is softer and more moisturised and radiant skin by the end of the week.

My makeup also applies smoother and I don’t have to worry about developing dry spots and flaky skin throughout the day! To maximise the absorption of the mask’s serum, I use a facial exfoliator to get rid of dead skin cells before using it and lock in the benefits of the serum with a night moisturiser so that I’ll wake up to soft and moisturised skin!

For a Radiant and More Even Skin-Tone

The Korean glowing-skin complexion was much coveted by every girl and I was no exception. Constant late-nights and my love for sun-tanning in my younger days has led to dull and uneven skin tone, prompting me to look for a skincare product that will give me a more radiant and clearer skin. Before the Lancôme AdvancedGénifique Youth Activating Concentrate became one of my skincare holy grails, I had doubts about its 7-day youth-restoring, glow-bestowing and fine-lines-banishing claims. So it wasn’t until they launched the second generation Advanced Génifique Youth Activating Concentrate that I decided to take a gamble on this rather expensive skincare serum.

The Advanced Génifique Youth Activating Concentrate claims to target the 10 key signs of youth: texture, resiliency, elasticity, firmness, sagginess, fine lines, wrinkles, radiance, even skin tone, and clarity, with noticeable results in just sevendays, for all ages, ethnicities and skin types. While my skin did not recover the elasticity and clarity it had when I was 16 years old (not that I thought it was possible to), it did brighten and even out my skin tone considerably. What I love about this light-weight serum is its exclusive self-loading dropper, which automatically loads just the right dosage I need for each application, minimising unnecessary wastage of the product. It also takes no time for this light-weight serum to be absorbed into my skin without leaving a sticky feeling on the face afterwards, which means I don’t have to wait seconds before I put on the next step in my skincare routine. Perfect!

For Less Visible Pores

Constantly exposing my skin to the extreme hot temperatures during hot yoga lessons has caused the pores on my nose and the areas surrounding it to enlarge and become visible. Instead of concealing these enlarged pores with pore-fillers,I turn to pore tightening essence like Laneige’s Pore Tightening Essence. It tightens enlarged and drooped pores with a pore-tex peptide ingredient that contracts the skin around pores to keep skin looking smooth and clean by elastically tightening pores and controlling excessive sebum. Does it work? Definitely! And I say this with confidence. I once stopped using the pore essence for a week and I was horrified at how visible my enlarged pores were. Although my pores did not disappear after I resumed using it (and I didn’t expect it to), they did shrink and were less visible within a week.

For Youthful Looking Eyes

Out of all my skin woes, the area under my eyes is my biggest problem and the one I spend the most time, effort and money on. To be more specific, I have hereditary puffy eye-bags, as well as dark eye circles as a result of my late night endeavours. I also have fine lines under my eyes due to vigorous eye-rubbing in my younger years and a drier under-eye area, which ages me and makes me look more tired than I really am. Age, of course, also had a hand in creating and worsening these problems. To combat these problems, I’ve tried the chilled teabag, spoon and cucumber methods and spent hundreds of dollars on all sorts of eye gels and creams ever since I started investing in proper eye care. But I’ve never found one product that worked until I stumbled upon Lancôme‘s Génifique Youth Yeux Light-Pearl and Génifique Yeux Youth Activating Eye Cream two years ago.

An eye-illuminating serum, the Génifique Youth Yeux Light-Pearl claims to brighten and smoothen the under-eye area and deflate eye bags. While I did not notice much brightening effects on my eye contour, my forever-there eye-bags did lessen considerably when I used the serum. The unique rotating and massaging applicator that comes with the serum fits nicely into the corner of my eye contour and helps deflate the puffiness with a delicate and precise massaging action too! Ever since then, the Génifique Youth Yeux Light-Pearl has been an integral step of my skincare.

After the serum, I follow up with the Génifique Yeux Youth Activating Eye Cream, which claims to reactivates the key signs of youth and fight against visible signs of fatigue by eliminating dark circles, fine lines, eye bags and under-eye circles for younger and brighter eyes in seven days. This eye cream has more of a light-weight gel consistency that is easily absorbed after application, which is great because it means I don’t have to wait too long before applying makeup under the eye. To be honest, the Génifique Yeux Youth Activating Eye Cream did not live up to all its claims as well as the Génifique eye serum. But when paired together with the serum, it produced the smoothest and softest finish for my under-eye area, which was why this is one of my holy grail skincare product. If you’re only looking for a moisturising eye cream, then Kiehl’s Creamy Eye Treatment with Avocado is a strong contender for supplying moisture to your under-eye area.

For Moisturised and Full Lips

While it’s the least of my problems, I still like to keep my lips properly moisturised with a lip balm. It makes a better base for a smoother application of lipstick, or when worn by itself, keeps the lips looking soft and supple. Unlike most lip balms that come either with a pre-fixed or no colour at all, the seemingly colourless Dior Addict Lip Glow reacts directly with the unique chemistry of each woman’s lips before releasing its colour ingredient, resulting in a customised colour to complement every skintone. Formulated with wild mango and luffa cylindrica, the Dior Addict Lip Glow continuously protects and moisturises throughout the day to revive lips for a fresh, full and radiant glow.

These targeted solutions can be incorporated into your daily skincare routine for radiant looking skin every day, just like I did. While there are other products in the market that target the same problems, I prefer sticking to what worked for me rather than experimenting with others since what I have yielded results for me. Although my skin took to these products very well (no break-outs when I first introduced them to my skin), if your wedding is a few months away, you might not want to try new skincare products just in case they break you out badly. But if your big day is a year or more away, feel free to try out different products to see which gives you the best results. Just remember to check the list of ingredients used in each product for any that you’re against using or are sensitive to before trying them out.

Credits:
Pearl Necklace Strand: Lovisa
Brass Cups and Tray: Merrylove Weddings
Photography: A Little Moment Photography

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