all hail queen hirons.

i have a skincare problem.

Firstly, huge apologies for being absent from this corner of the internet for a rather notable period of time. I don't really have any kind of excuse ready to give you all, except that real life got in the way, as it so often tends to. I'm still not sure how regular blog posts on here will be going forwards, but I shall do my damnedest to keep you all abreast of just how much money I'm spending in Boots at any given time. And hope beyond hope my mother never reads this blog...

Today's post is all thanks to a certain lady of the blogosphere, one whose skincare advice I have been avidly following for a while now. (I also therefore hold her personally responsible for the sizable dent in my bank account after my most recent shopping trip. I just wanted that to be officially recorded somewhere.) The lady in question is skincare extraordinaire and cleansing balm enthusiast Caroline Hirons. Caroline has a blog, a very very good blog, in which she divulges all the skincare secrets she's picked up after years working in the industry. What a babe. 

For a rather long time I can tell you I wasn't all that interested in skincare. I'd always ensure that my make-up was removed before going to bed (because frankly, sleeping in it is the cardinal sin), but I'd often just casually skim over it with a face wipe, and that was that. *cue audible gasp of horror and chorus of babies crying the world over*. Still, at least I tried. But more recently I've become more and more interested in how to get the most out of my skin. This change of heart was no doubt partially prompted by my ongoing battle with anxiety - after negotiating puberty with only ever the odd blemish, I soon discovered that stress does absolutely nothing for your complexion, except have a tendency to bring it out in more craters than the surface of the moon. Pleasant.

I've also since learned that even once I had got a solid routine in place that I followed with often military precision (read: getting home from a club at 3am, ever so slightly giddy, and painstakingly putting cleansing milk onto cotton wool whilst trying hard not to fall over), a lot of the products I was using, for one reason or another, weren't actually doing my skin much good. And it's this realisation that's prompted the entire skin overhaul that I'm about to tell you about.

Clinique Take The Day Off cleansing balm. 

Why do my hands always look crablike in blog photos? 

The first purchase I knew I had to make was a cleansing balm. I've long been lusting after the Emma Hardie Amazing Face Moringa Cleansing Balm after reading countless rave reviews, but at roughly £35 I felt it was a tad too much to be shelling out for a cleanser when I was buying all manner of other products at the same time. With that in mind, I decided to purchase a different balm cleanser, but one that's also had it's fair share of  rave reviews - Caroline has dubbed it a 'hall of fame' product, and therefore it must be bloody good - Clinique's Take The Day Off Cleansing Balm. Now I know what you're all thinking: 'Clinique?!! Are you crazy?!' And I must admit that, initially, similar thoughts went through my head, punctuated by the numerous horror stories I've heard in relation to their, frankly disastrous, clarifying lotion. But this cleansing balm is actually incredibly lovely, suited to even the most sensitive of faces (it's fragrance free and doesn't contain any plant oils and the like which can be irritant to some skins). It also has absolutely no connection to the infamous three step system (which ought to go and burn in hell where it belongs).

Other skincare purchases I decided I just had to make were:

• The Clarins Exfoliator Brightening Toner - another Hirons approved product, to be used in place of gritty exfoliators, which do nothing but irritate skin and spread infection around. A nightmare if you're blemish prone.
• Superfacialist by Una Brennan Tea Flower Pore Purifying Clay Mask - a mask that's been talked about by a lot of my favourite blogs (Read: Anna and Lily). The Superfacialist range is also Caroline Hirons approved, and at under ten pounds you literally can't go wrong.
• The Origins Morning to Midnight gift set - containing the Ginzing Energy Boosting moisturiser and Ginzing eye cream, Night-A-Mins Renewal cream, and the Intensive Overnight hydrating mask. All absolute gems and the perfect tester set or gift for any skincare obsessive. Origins products are also free from parabens and paraffin and other nasty things like that, making them a great all round choice.                    

from left to right: Clarins Gentle Exfoliating Brightening Toner, Balance Me Radiance Face Oil, 

Origins Ginzing energy boosting moisturiser, Origins High-Potency Night-A-Mins, 

Clinique Take The Day Off Cleansing Balm, Una Brennan Tea Flower Clay Mask, 

Origins Ginzing eye cream. (jeez. that's a lot of product.)  

On top of this shopping trip, I also made a cheeky order on the You Beauty Discovery website. Their Balance Me limited edition box is the perfect way to be introduced to the brand and is an absolute steal at only £19.95. I've had my eye on the Radiance Face Oil for a good while, and that on its own is £15, so buying the box made absolute sense. (I'm not sure my mother quite agreed, but that's neither here nor there.)

So those are the majority of the products that I've added to my skincare routine recently, and although it's probably a bit too soon to make any bold claims, I've already noticed huge differences in my skin. I know that to many people - probably a lot of you reading this included -  this might seem a ridiculous amount to be spending on skincare, but you only get one face, and I think it's really important to take really good care of your skin from the word go - it'll thank you in later life. Prevention is better than cure, and although my skin is only just over twenty years old (I don't know about you, but I'm feeling 22...) I'd rather put in the time and energy into my skin now, while the going's good.

I'm hoping to do some more skincare orientated posts soon: probably a brief overview of my entire skincare routine AM and PM and all products I use (that'll be a lengthy one), and then some more detailed posts about individual products and how I feel they're performing.

Thanks for reading this post (if you did indeed make it to the end) and for sticking around, even though I've not been updating a lot - I'll try to do much better in the future. I'm currently planning on doing a series of mini posts in the run up to Christmas, probably beginning on December 1st, so make sure to watch this space.