The Winter Complexion Savers

The weather in the UK has all of a sudden catapulted into Winter (I keep reminding myself that I shouldn't be surprised, it is the 2nd week of November lol). It's around this time of year that my skin seems to go to ruin and become flaky, dull, I get break outs - you get the picture. So far I've avoided this though, so I thought I'd take a look at the products I'm using to see what I'm doing differently this year and share some winter skin savers. 

Of course the best skin comes with a good skincare routine - I'm planning a whole new post on my holy grail products but for a quick overview... I love using the Liz Earle Hot Cloth Cleanse and Polish, Weleda's Almond Facial Cream in the morning and the No7 Lift and Luminate Night Cream at night. A note about that last product - I would not normally be one to buy an anti-ageing product but this one was gifted to me and regardless of whether it's fighting off any wrinkles and laughter lines, it leaves my skin feeling sha-mazing. 

Now onto the products I've been using recently. I'm never one for a matte foundations (which always comes back to bite me when I'm an hour into a night out throwing shapes in the club and I feel like my face is melting off) but that means it's no surprise that I love the Burberry Fresh Glow Foundation (I wear the shade Ochre Nude No.12 which is pretty spot on).  It does exactly what it says on the bottle and since I started wearing it a few months ago, not once has it bunched up around dry skin, something I find lots of foundations do on me. 

Next is something to hide those under-eye bags (boy-oh-boy do they need covering). Enter a new favourite and an old faithful. The new favourite is Sleek's Corrector and Concealer, the concealer in the middle of the palette really adds coverage and is the first step in brightening my dark circles. It warms up nicely if blended in with your fingers and isn't drying at all, so makes as a nice base for the second step to camouflaging my eye-bags. The second step and old faithful is of course the Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer. I know it often gets trodden down for being quite cakey but it's great if you're on a budget and the lightest shade really covers my dark circles and brightens everything up.

The next 2 steps I've mixed up are my bronzer / contour step and my highlighter. My new bronzer to add a little colour to my face is another from Sleek - their Face Contour Kit in light. This shade is a little more grey toned and much better now I'm back to my pale old self - I was using a Maybelline contour/highlight palette which was great, but it's a little to warm for me now so I've shelved that until the warmer months are back. I haven't used the highlighter in this Sleek palette though, instead my heart has been taken by the Benefit High Beam Highlighter. I normally use a powder highlighter in a pearly white/gold shade but I've switched to this because of it's pearly pink shade. My skin can look a little lack-lustre in winter but I've been really enjoying using this recently. It blends nicely over makeup too - I don't feel like it's smushing around my makeup and with it being a liquid its been working nicely if my skin is a little dehydrated. 

Last but not least... a nice sheer, rosy lipstick for my chapped lips. I always thought the first luxury brand lipstick I bought would be a bold red or dark berry colour saved for special occasions, but in the end it turned out to be something of an everyday, wearable shade. I bought the YSL Rouge Volupte Shine in 47, Beige Blouse over the summer and its been my go-to since. It's so comfortable to wear and seems to be doing a good job of stopping my lips from chapping!

Have you used any of these products - what are your favourite things to use in cold winter weather?

*So there it is! Everything I've been doing over the past month now the weather has been turning colder. Let me know if you guys enjoy posts like this - outfits are what you'll usually find on here but whilst I'm no makeup artist I love beauty! Speak soon, Ru xx*