My French "No Water" Skin Care Routine

Read article : My French "No Water" Skin Care Routine

I know, I know. I have gone AWOL again. I guess you can say I am still in my adjustment phase. Imagine, a new baby and a new home (yes, we moved three weeks after Xavi was born!), on top of all my other responsibilities. 

So yeah, writing really took a back seat. But anyhoo! I am slowly getting back into the groove of things, and hopefully I can squeeze in more "me time" (which these days means just having enough time to take a bath, nyarks). But ahhh! The bonus of not spending time in front of the computer and having to unpack and organize our stuff also means more time for me to organize my stash of baby and beauty products and testing them on the kiddos (baby prods) and myself (beauty prods). 

I have so many discoveries and re-discoveries. Plus of course my old reliables that I ought to share with you (seriously, I get Aha! moments while using these products when I realize I have been keeping them to myself. To think these are too good to not be shared here in the blog).

But before I go to all those, I'll start off with my starting point for skin care - cleansing. My cleansing routine is sort of revolutionary really. I have tweeted about this on and off for months now, and for my Twitter friends, you know what I am talking about - Garance Dore's "NO WATER" skin cleansing routine.

Yes, you read that right, NO WATER. Tap water that is. Because there's thermal water involved here:

Ok, quick background. Six months or so ago, I happened upon Garance Dore's post on skin care. Apparently, tap water is our skin's worst enemy (I can practically see my friend Kris aka OC Mom in Manila seconding this one, with the statistics to back it up!). 

1/ The milk makeup remover Hydrabio Lait
2/ Avène’s Thermal Spring Water
3/ The moisturizing cream Ictyane H.D. “for severe dry skin.”

Then, I realized, I had two huge spray bottles of Avène stashed in our bath - 1 unopened and 1 that I barely used. It was kismet really. Finally a reason for being here, considering the sort of reasons I bought them back when we were still living in Singapore, were really flimsy:

1/ It was on "Buy 1, Take 1" which came out to about SGD $29.90 for 2 or something like that
2/ It's a French beauty brand, a drugstore brand yes, but it's French. So there.
3/ I like the packaging okay?

But since I do not live in France and have limited access to European beauty brands, I made do with the products that worked extremely well for me all these years. So my 3 essential products looked like this:

1/ Cetaphil Gentle Skin Cleanser
2/ Avène’s Thermal Spring Water
3/ SK-II Facial Treatment Essence

Yes, it was with a bit of trepidation that I started eliminating water in my cleansing routine and began sticking to three products. "How effective could it really be?" I thought. Images of blackheads on my nose and yucky skin came into the picture. But since I was staying home most of the time anyway because I was on bed rest, I went ahead and took the plunge, ironically.

Fast forward to 6 months later and you know, my skin has been better than ever! No oiliness, no enlarged pores, not even a zit! None of that "greasy Peking duck" skin Garance was afraid of. She herself said it this way, after taking her dermato's advice:

"But quite quickly, the shine started going down. My skin started to get more supple, clearer and even if it shined a little (it’s just how it is, so stupid.), it was at its healthiest… It looked pretty."

Yes. I feel the same way about my skin now. Yes, ever since I started quitting tap water. A few days ago though, I started using Clarins Anti-Ageing Double Serum in lieu of SK-II Facial Treatment Essence and oooh la la! It's like magic! 

Why do I say magic? Well, a lady at my OB's clinic thought I looked 15 years younger than I actually am (ok, maybe she was just being nice). But just this afternoon, my mom asked me what makeup I've been using and I said, "Huh? None!" And she said my skin looked really good. This coming from a woman who would tell me the truth, even if it hurt and damaged my self-esteem. Haha!

Once I've used my Clarins Double Serum longer than 2 weeks (results visible in 4 weeks actually but if I were to believe the feedback I've been getting, 2 weeks should do it), I will do a more comprehensive review. Meanwhile, let me do an FAQ on this "No Water" Skin Care Routine.

How do you take a bath?

I had an Aquasana water filter installed, so no worries about tap water touching my face. But if you don't have a shower filter installed and it can be helped, just avoid getting water on your face.

If its any consolation, I have been sans filter the past three weeks because I need to have it installed in our new bath room, and so far, I have just been trying not to get my face wet in the shower and it hasn't had any bad effect on my skin.

What's the step by step?

1/ On your dry/dirty face, pat with Cetaphil and massage onto skin

2/ With a cotton pad, wipe off Cetaphil

3/ Spray face with Avène Thermal Spring Water and let it dry

4/ Follow with moisturizer

If you use heavy make-up, its fine to use a cleansing oil. Whatever cleansing oil works for you is fine. I use shu uemura's brightening cleansing oil.

What if I can't find Avène Thermal Spring Water here in the Philippines?

Try using Evian.

Dear Readers, if you have further questions, feel free to leave it on the comments section. I will do my best to answer!

Willow Ceiling 8 Light Fl2299/8

Read article : Willow Ceiling 8 Light Fl2299/8

Willow eight light ceiling fitting, with a bronze finish.

This stunning light has a round ceiling rose, which attaches to a length of chain and cable.

This is complimented with an eight arm fitting with beautiful curved arm detail and crystal sconce's and droplets.

Requires 8 x 60w E14 (Small Edison Screw) candle bulbs (not included with this product).

This is part of the Willow Light Range.

Class 1 Requires an Earth..

Finish:Bronze.

Light Source: SES-E14 Incandescent.

Alternative Light Source: Retrofit LED Bulbs are also available.

Dimming Info: Dimmable. A high quality dimmer switch is recommended.

Size:

• Height: 1600mm
• Width: 800mm
• Min Height: 590mm
• Max Height: 1600mm

Ideal Standard Senses Cube Polished Bath Shower Mixer Tap | Departments

Read article : Ideal Standard Senses Cube Polished Bath Shower Mixer Tap | Departments

The right taps can be the perfect finishing touch for your bathroom. Whether you’re fitting a new suite, shower room or cloakroom, or simply updating an existing bath or basin, your choice of taps can set the tone.

Features that make your taps easier to use, help to keep your basin clean or those which help to extend the life of your tap are a bonus for busy bathrooms. And through innovative designs with sleek profiles, lighting and water-saving features, this small change offers big results.

With a wide range of styles and finishes to choose from, it’s easy to find something that can complement other elements in your bathroom, from towel rails and hooks to shelf brackets and other accessories. And we’ll also guide you through any tricky choices, such as finding taps which work best with the water pressure in your home.

So, what are you waiting for? Let’s get started on that bathroom update.

Shop bathroom taps

Orchard House, Tisbury Road, Fovant, Salisbury - 4 bed - Guide Price £750,000 - Humberts

Read article : Orchard House, Tisbury Road, Fovant, Salisbury - 4 bed - Guide Price £750,000 - Humberts

Bedrooms: 4

A traditional four bedroom stone village house offering fantastic accommodation with superb character and excellent proportions. Enjoying a delightful setting, with about an acre of gardens, ample parking, oak, double open bay garage and workshop.

Beautiful period house

Character 4 bedroom accommodation

Spacious and light interior

Oak open bay garage and workshop

Well maintained gardens and grounds

Charming streamside setting

In all about one acre

Orchard house is without doubt a perfect example of a traditional stone village house with beautiful mellow elevations and slate roof combining to create a classic façade. Add to this the prettiness factor of the setting, a small brook with bridge and rose covered arch to the front door and extensive, well established gardens and the property easily becomes one of the most desirable in the village.

The character continues to the interior, with much of the original stone exposed, along with beamed ceilings, latch doors and wonderful Inglenook fireplaces. ensuring that the house retains a lovely period feel. Offering superb entertaining space, the accommodation has a pleasing, sociable layout with spacious light rooms that flow from the central reception hall.

Beautifully presented in a relaxed, faintly contemporary country style that allows the features of the house to speak for themselves, complemented by the addition of oak floors, updated bath and shower rooms and a Rupert Williamson bespoke kitchen.

An impressive Inglenook fireplace with fitted woodburner, and original bread oven provides the most inviting welcome in the large Reception Hall, with the inner hall offering excellent fitted storage and cloakroom.

The Drawing Room is beautifully light, rising to full height with attractive beamed ceiling and double, glazed doors opening to the garden, making it a wonderful space in which to entertain in the summer with direct access to the paved terrace. A separate, generous Sitting Room with stone walls and further Inglenook fireplace creates a comfortable place in which to relax and retreat to in the winter months.

Opening from the Reception Hall, the exceptional Kitchen/Dining Room runs along the back of the house, with a bank of windows overlooking the garden and doors to a secluded courtyard. Hand fitted with a limed wood kitchen under granite worksurfaces, and carefully laid out to provide room for a substantial table and chairs as well as sofas and seats, the room forms the hub of this lovely family house. A separate Utility Room offers further storage and appliance space.

On the first floor the Master Bedroom enjoys lovely views of the garden, has built-in wardrobe cupboards and an en suite bathroom with modern suite including vanity unit and matching storage. Bedroom 2 has a large walk-in wardrobe and there are two further bedrooms and separate shower room.

OUTSIDE

A gravelled entrance drive provides ample private parking and leads to the oak, open fronted double bay garage with attached workshop with power connected.

The Gardens are extensive and well maintained, bounded by clipped hedging and with a paved terrace close to the house. Raised stone borders filled with herbaceous planting flank steps up to spacious lawns, with a curving gravelled path leading the eye up through the garden, interspersed with many specimen and ornamental trees providing height and interest and including a lovely mature walnut tree. A clipped Yew hedge, bisects the lawn and at the top of the plot there are some lovely village-scape views to be enjoyed; the lawns giving way to naturalistic planting for ease of maintenance and including a carpet of spring bulbs and flowers, plus orchard with fruit trees and soft fruit cage.

SITUATION

Set in the sought after village of Fovant in the heart of the rolling countryside of the Nadder Valley. The thriving community of Fovant offers a good local shop, post office, inn, doctors' surgery and church whilst Tisbury, approximately 3½ miles, has everyday shopping facilities, schools and a main line railway station for London Waterloo and the West Country.

Fovant is approximately mid-way between the hilltop market town of Shaftesbury and the Cathedral City of Salisbury with their more comprehensive shopping, educational, arts and recreational amenities. The area offers a variety of rural pursuits including walking, cycling and riding.

Clarins: Get 20% off treatments

Read article : Clarins: Get 20% off treatments

MOST POPULAR

Aug 1, 2014

HOW TO ACTIVATE

To activate your 20% discount on a Tri-Active Face or Body Treatment at a Clarins Skin Spa, register below by 3 September 2014. A message will appear on the screen once you've successfully registered. You can then go on to book your appointment at your nearest Clarins Skin Spa by calling 0800 036 3558. When booking, please quote ‘ELLE offer’. The discount is redeemable at all Clarins Skin Spas in the UK. Appointments must be booked by 12 September 2014 and redeemed by 31 October 2014. Please read the full terms and conditions on the link below.

By registering your details below, you agree to receive the ELLE newsletter plus information and special offers from ELLE. By registering your details you also agree to receive information and special offers from Clarins.

ADVERTISEMENT - CONTINUE READING BELOW

 

MOST POPULAR

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

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This offer is available at all Clarins Skin Spas nationwide when you register your details above, from 31 July 2014 until midnight on 3 September 2014. Your appointment must be booked by 12 September and redeemed by 31 October 2014. This 20% discount offer on a Tri-Active face or body treatment is not to be used in conjunction with any other offer or promotion. After your appointment you will receive a free pampering kit worth £31* and will include a Beauty Flash Balm, Relax and Bath & Shower concentrate and one of four travel-sized selected serums, tailored to your skin type. To find out more about the Clarins Tri-Active treatments, visit clarins.co.uk. For a list of Hearst full terms and conditions please click here Full Terms and Conditions.Full Terms and Conditions.

For a full list of Clarins Skin Spas please see below:
DEBENHAMS SPA – Aberdeen, Birmingham Bullring, Cardiff, Carlisle, Chelmsford, Browns Chester, Dundee, Glasgow, Harrow, Lakeside, Leeds City Centre, Leicester, Meadowhall, Metro Centre, Milton Keynes, Norwich, Oxford, Oxford Street, Romford, Stirling, White Rose Leeds
FENWICK SPA – Bond Street, Brent Cross, Canterbury, Newcastle Upon Tyne, Tunbridge Wells, York
HOOPERS SPA – Harrogate
HOUSE OF FRASER – Birmingham, Cardiff, Cheltenham, Glasgow, Guildford, Manchester, Metro Centre, Leamington, Reading, Sutton Coldfield, Thurrock, Wolverhampton
JENNERS SPA – Edinburgh
JOHN LEWIS SPA - Bluewater, Cambridge, Cheadle, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Kingston, Leicester, Liverpool, Milton Keynes, Newcastle Upon Tyne, Reading, Southampton, Solihull,
PETER JONES SPA
SELFRIDGES SPA – Oxford Street, Manchester City, Trafford Park

More from ELLE UK:

A History of Baths and Showers

Read article : A History of Baths and Showers

A History of Baths and Showers

By Tim Lambert

Baths and Showers in the Ancient World

The Egyptians are known for their cleanliness (they bathed frequently) and they used many cosmetics. Meanwhile in Babylon before 2,000 BC a form of soap was made. The Greeks knew that diet and exercise and keeping clean were important for health. The Greeks even invented a form of shower, which sprayed bathers with water.

Most Greeks washed in a bowl on a pedestal called a louterion though the rich sometimes had bathrooms. People rubbed themselves with olive oil then rubbed it off with a tool called a strigil.

The Romans also knew that dirt encourages disease and they appreciated the importance of cleanliness. They built aqueducts to bring clean water into towns. In Roman towns an important building was the public baths. In Roman times people went to the baths not just to get clean but also to socialize. Roman Baths consisted of a frigidarium or cold room, a Tepidarium or warm room and a caldarium or hot room. You usually finished with a dip in a cold pool. To clean themselves Romans rubbed their skin with oil and scraped it off with a tool called a strigil. (The Romans also made soap).

Roman women also used razors, pumice stone, tweezers and depilatory creams to remove unwanted body hair.

Baths in the Middle Ages

In the Middle Ages there were bathhouses in many towns were people could pay to have a bath. Furthermore in Northern Europe in the Middle Ages people took sweat baths.

In the 14th century Edward III installed a bathroom in the Palace of Westminster. Other people made do with wooden tubs in their bedrooms.

Furthermore in the Middle Ages there was an important soap making industry in England (although many people made their own soap at home). In the Middle Ages people used combs and tweezers. They also used toothpicks and mouthwashes.

In the Middle Ages in monasteries streams provided clean water. Dirty water was used to clear toilets, which were in a separate room. Monks also had a room called a laver where they washed their hands before meals.

Baths and Showers 1500-1800

Most Tudors cared about their appearance. People carried mirrors made of glass or steel. They also carried combs and used tweezers, ear scoops and bone manicure sets. In the Summer people sometimes had a bath in the local river. Sometimes they heated a cauldron of water and had a strip wash. Or they could have a 'dry wash' by rubbing themselves with clean linen.

In the 16th century bathrooms were very rare but Henry VIII had a bathroom in Hampton Court Palace. It had a simple boiler for hot water.

In the 17th century people used toothpicks but in the latter part of the century toothbrushes were introduced. (Toothbrushes came from China. They were first mentioned in 1498). People also made scented soaps. Then in 1767 Englishman William Feetham invented the first modern shower. However in Britain showers did not become common until the late 20th century.

Baths and Showers in the 19th Century and 20th Century

In the mid 19th century middle class homes began to have bathrooms. Having a bath was also made much easier when Benjamin Waddy Maughan invented the gas water heater in 1868. The electric water heater was invented in 1889 by Edwin Ruud. Working class houses with bathrooms were first built around 1900 and in the 1920s council houses were built with bathrooms. However at that time bathrooms were still a luxury. As late as the early 1960s many homes in Britain did not have a bathroom.

From about 1800 portable metal bathtubs gradually replaced wooden ones and in the 19th century some people used hand-pumped showers.

In the 19th century toothpaste was sold in jars until 1892 when Washington Sheffield invented the collapsible toothpaste tube. Meanwhile in 1888 the first modern deodorant was invented. It was called Mum.

The first safety razors for men were sold in 1901. Women first began to shave under their arms in the 1910s. The first razor for women was introduced in 1915.

In the 19th century most homes also had a scullery. In it was a 'copper', a metal container for heating water for washing clothes. The copper was filled with water and soap powder was added. To wash the clothes they were turned with a wooden tool called a dolly. Or you used a metal plunger with holes in it to push clothes up and down. Wet clothes were wrung through a device called a wringer or mangle to dry them. The clothes wringer or mangle was invented by Robert Tasker in 1850.

Simple hand operated washing machines were invented in the 18th century. The first electric washing machine was made in 1907. In Britain washing machines first became common in the late 1950s and 1960s. Meanwhile The electric clothes dryer was invented in 1935 by a man named J. Ross Moore. The first laundromat opened in Fort Worth, Texas in 1934. The first laundrette in Britain opened in 1949.

Joel Houghton invented the first dishwasher in 1850. However it was not a success. Josephine Cochrane invented the first successful dishwasher in 1886. By 2009 36% of households in Britain had a dishwasher. Steel wool cleaning pads were invented in 1913.

Meanwhile soap was rationed in Britain from 1942 to 1950.

People used to wash their clothes with soap flakes. The first synthetic detergent was invented in Germany during the First World War. In the following decades detergents were gradually improved and became more common. Today washing is much easier than it was in the past.

A brief history of Cosmetics

A brief history of Housework

A brief history of Public Health

A brief history of Toilets

A brief history of Electric appliances

Home

Last revised 2017

Kitchen tap with swivel spout and single lever handle. Hydra HI-KITCHEN306

Read article : Kitchen tap with swivel spout and single lever handle. Hydra HI-KITCHEN306

Product Details

Kitchen tap with swivel spout and single lever design.

• 1/4 turn ceramic disc cartridge for smooth operation and long life.
• Brass with a polished chrome finish.
• Swivel spout with diffuser for smoother water flow.
• Fitting kit and flexible hoses included.
• Minimum recommended pressure: 1 bar.

£33.99 inc VAT & Delivery
£28.32 excluding VAT
RRP: £71.99  Save: £38.00
BUY NOW

Product Code: HI-KITCHEN306

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