Welcome to a new column for Beauty2 - Splurge VS Steal! In this series, we will dish on our favourite products, both upscale and drugstore. We hope that our suggestions will give you some options when considering your beauty budget. Steals are generally items that can be found in a drugstore (or kitchen!), while splurges are generally the stuff of department store counters or available online. Whenever possible, we will give you the most accurate price for the item (in Canadian dollars).
To start off we will describe our skin types to give you a background as to the products we use.
Jill: Combination with an oily t-zone. I rarely break out but the few pimples I get tend to be fairly deep & painful. I sometimes suffer from puffy eyes. I live in an extremely dry climate.
Catherine: Combination skin - normal on my cheeks, oily in my t-zone. My skin is rarely without pimples, but they tend to be small. When I don't exfoliate, my skin gets flaky. I live in Toronto, a city with a temperate, moderately humid climate.
This column is all about cleansing and getting that skin of ours (and yours) as smooth and fresh as possible. It's so very important to wash your face every night so it can do it's thing while you sleep and breathe and refresh. Read on for our picks!
Cleanser
J: SPLURGE - Clinique Liquid Facial Soap Mild ($20.00 CA)
STEAL - Cetaphil Oily Skin Cleanser ($17.99 for 500 ml)
The Clinique cleanser is a great for those who like foaming cleansers but don't want to overstrip their skin. I like them both but do find the Cetaphil the tiniest bit more drying.
C: SPLURGE - Philosophy Purity Made Simple (24 fl.oz., $52/16 fl.oz., $42/8 fl.oz., $26)
Purity Made Simple is a multi-purpose product, acting as a cleanser, make-up remover and toner in one. For removing make-up, which I do nearly everyday, this is a fantastic cleanser. For the few days where I'm not wearing make-up or for first thing in the morning, it can be a little drying.
STEAL - Kibio Fresh Pureness Foam(125 mL, approx $12)
Kibio has a fresh, clean scent and I like that I can get it at Shoppers Drug Mart. It's also very effective at removing make-up and doesn't dry out my skin. It's also gentle enough to use in the morning.
Toner
J: STEAL - I don't use any!
C: STEAL - I don't use any either, although I will occasionally on summer mornings. In my opinion, toner is an unnecessary product. It does give your skin a fresh, clean feeling so if you like that, go ahead and keep using it. It certainly won't hurt your skin.
Eye Makeup Remover
J: SPLURGE - Lancome Bi-Facial ($34.00 CA for 125 ml)
It has a cult following because it works! Despite the fact it has an oil component in it, it isn't oily at all. It is the only remover I know to effectively remove the waterproof mascara I wear everyday.
C: STEAL - I simply wash off my eye make-up with my facial cleanser.
I don't use a separate eye make-up remover because I simply wash my whole face with a facial cleanser (Purity Made Simple works especially well for this). I am extremely cautious about my eye area as I have loose skin there naturally and I know genetically, that's where my face will age the swiftest. I find that using water and a sudsy or creamy cleanser reduces dramatically the tugging and wiping on the eye area and my make-up comes off cleanly! Even MAC's Fluidline and false eyelash glue. Of course, if I wore waterproof mascara, it may be a different story.
For Part Two and Part Three of our Skincare Splurges and Steals featuring our picks for masks, day moisturizer, night moisturizer, eye cream, exfoliators and pimple treatments click here and here.
And as always, let us know what you think, if you have any questions and what your splurge and steal picks are. The two of us have very similar skin types so we want to know what you dry-skinned, sensitive-skinned and problem-skinned folk like and love!
C & J