My Current Skincare - For Sensitive/Dehydrated/Eczema Prone Skin

So I haven't really posted for a long, long time (apart from college related posts) and to ease myself back into it I thought I'd dabble a bit into skincare and write about my current favourite products.

For the past two years my skin has been all over the place and a major knock to my confidence. Up until my last year of school my skin was very clear and I only had a bit of dryness on my face, although I'd suffered with eczema on my hands since primary school. Stress and changes in weather seem to make my eczema flare up and my face to become extremely dry and flaky between my eyebrows, on my cheeks, on one side of my face and even my eyelids and it's only recently that I feel I finally have control over my skin with the products I'm using. I'll admit I've never been very good at drinking enough water, the one factor which aids for better skin, however even drinking more didn't seem to make a difference, and other moisturises for 'dry/sensitive' skin have never been hydrating or gentle enough for my extremely awkward skin.

After becoming frustrated at having to apply multiple layers of cheaper brands of moisturiser (Simple, Nivea, Garnier) just so that my skin actually felt moisturised, I spent ages reading reviews for La Roche Posay, Vichy and Avéne products on the Boots website. I decided to try Avéne Skin Recovery Cream for hypersensitive and irritable skin and got the thermal water spray for free on offer at Boots. So far I've really been enjoying using it and I feel like it's made a massive difference to my skin. In the morning I'll wipe my face with a cotton pad soaked in water, gently pat dry, spray my damp skin with the thermal water, wait for that to soak in, and then apply the cream to lock in as much moisture as possible.

The spray is really cooling and has really helped to calm down any redness in my skin, and the cream has pretty much eliminated any dry patches I had while leaving my skin feeling plump and well moisturised. The cream is £16.50 (Boots) so more than I'd have usually spent on a moisturiser, but it's well worth the money because it does exactly what it says on the bottle, and the thermal water spray (usually £10) came free with it so a win win :-).

The consistency of the cream is quite thick, and has no scent whatsoever as you would expect. 



To remove my makeup I use Garnier Micellar Cleansing water which I've been using for over a year. It removes makeup really quickly, adds hydration, and is great for sensitive skin because it doesn't irritate or leave the skin feeling tight afterwards. For my night time routine, I use this, followed by the Avene thermal spray and cream.

Aveeno is a really great brand for eczema prone skin. For years I used E45 recommended by my doctor, and although it may work perfectly fine for some people, it left my hands red, greasy and raw looking. Aveeno hand cream is non greasy, absorbs quickly, lasts through hand washing, and above all it really moisturises my skin and has helped to improve the appearance of my hands. The daily moisturising lotion is also great to use if you suffer eczema/dry skin on your body.

So there are my current skincare favourites. I really hope this is helpful for anyone who has a similar skin type and has been struggling to find products that work because I know for one how much dry/sensitive/eczema prone skin sucks!

Thanks for reading!

Em x



Sketchbook and Illustrations (more photos to be added soon)

Here are photos of my sketchbook and illustration boards.

For my illustrations I developed my own style from Deanna Kennedy’s quick, sketchy, black and white corpse like figures. I really liked how her signature style was to draw the hair messy and flowing, the face with one eye completely white and full pouty lips, creating an eery and dishevelled feel but still glamourous illustrations which would compliment my designs perfectly. To develop her style into my own I sketched a couple of illustrations in my sketchbook which had long straggly eyelashes, white eyes, and indications of colour on the skin and lips, finishing them off with fineliner. I decided to add a hint of skin colour to add a bit of life into the corpse like illustration and again to symbolise growth and decay.  For my boards I used a variety of media including watercolour paint, watercolour pencils, acrylic paint and fineliner. After completing my first board using a lot of white acrylic paint on the brush to a 3D wadded effect on the skirt on one of the designs I decided that I would incorporate white paint in all of the designs to add further depth/ detail.

Photoshoot of Final Garment

Here are the photos I took of my lovely pal Eleanor in my final garment around Kelham Island in Sheffield. To go with my theme of growth and decay I wanted to find derelict buildings to use as a background but any that we found just weren't accessible so instead whilst wandering around we found a wall with archways and river behind which worked really well.

For hair we went for a slicked back style, and after a failed attempt at 'glossy eye makeup' we resorted to smoky metallic eyes and a dark red lip.

 

I'm really happy with how the photoshoot turned out and I really enjoyed taking the photos - as part of this project I also produced a lookbook which will be included in the next post.

And Finally here are just a few photos in the studio of my garment on a mannequin.

 



 Em x

Sewing Ruffles and Finishing Touches

 To make the 'ruffles' to represent shrivelled/decayed flowers I started off by using gathering stitching and gathering the organza fabric with elastic, as well as pleating strips to make circular shapes but neither proved to be a success, so instead I took to pinterest to look for diy flower tutorials. I then followed a tutorial by cutting out lots of 4cm circles and sewing four folded circles to a base circle, and repeating with four more trimmed down slightly and sewn on top. After this I literally ruffled the layers and made 11 more to be sewn onto the collar and waistband.

Finally I added some beads onto the petals, tacked the petals to the bodice and voila! Here is my finished garment!