Estée Lauder: Idealist Pore Minimizing Skin Refresher & DayWear moisturiser

Estée Lauder Idealist Pore Minimising Skin Refresher
(my considerable a*se it is)

Estée Lauder Idealist Pore Minimizing Skin Refresher (serum)


A gorgeous feeling, but highly perfumed (sweet citrus-scented), comfortable, silky-smooth serum with a lightweight gel-lotion feel.  On its own, or together with the moisturiser below, I thought I had been liking it.

Looking at the list of ingredients, however, for the sake of this review, told me a different story:

• Silicone.  Very very high on the list of ingredients, and quite easily felt in the product.  Don't get me started on my distaste for this one in skincare products.
• Wheat germ & barley extract.  Watch this one if you're coeliac.
• Caffeine (for that "woken-up" feeling!)
• Quite a lot of fruit, nut, herb and seed extracts, antioxidants and general all-round goodies.  Major pro.
• A bunch of chemicals, some preservatives and a hell of a lot of other stuff that's a little OTT.  Con. 
• Hyaluronic acid.  May or may not help with anti-aging.  The jury is out (essentially, it is determined by whether the hyaluronic acid is "low molecular weight hyaluronic acid" or not.  I can't seem to find out if this is or isn't (for this product).
• Mica.  Sleight of hand trickery (actually it's just a mineral but it makes your skin appear young, rested, glowy).
• Titanium dioxide.  Watch out as this can cause flashback in flash photography.
• Grapefruit, limonene, linalool.  That'll be the citrus scent then.  Depending on whether or not you like a sweet, soft, citrus scent, you will love this or hate it (it's quite strong, but does fade after a short while).

The levels of silicones in a skin care product are Very Bloody Annoying.  In addition, it in no way minimises pores.  Despite liking how it feels, I won't be using it up, having discovered the ingredients.  Personally, I recommend this one instead.  This has such a high concentration of silicones that it could be nicely used as a foundation primer, but as it contains titanium dioxide, watch it if you're going to need to photograph the final result.

Look here for more information on this serum.

Estée Lauder DayWear Advanced Multi-Protection Anti-Oxidant Creme SPF15

Estée Lauder DayWear Advanced Multi-Protection Anti-Oxidant Creme SPF15 (moisturiser)

Strongly cucumber-scented (which is fine if you like cucumber, I personally don't mind it), this is a soft, comfortable-feeling lightweight cream (this one has almost a gel-cream feel to it).  Together with the serum above, it really gives your skin a lovely light relaxed-but-awake, comfortable feeling and a nice glow, and I have loved using it as my day-wear moisturiser.  I have the normal-combination skin version, but you can get one formulated for dry skin also.  It seemed sufficiently moisturising for winter time (a first, as I usually revert to CDLM in winter in particular) but it's the same old ding-dong here as with the serum above, ingredients-wise:

• Silicones.  There is absolutely no need or place for these in any skincare product, in my opinion.  They will help your skin feel soft, sure,  but they won't actually do anything good for it.  Not good.  I've whinged about this one before.  Cosmetics, sure.  Skincare, no no no.
• A bunch of fruit, root, herb rice, flower and seed extracts, antioxidants and general all-round goodies.  Definite pro.
• Barley and wheatgerm extracts.  Not good if you're coeliac.  Be careful with this one.
• Alcohol.  Sadly, occuring in more and more skincare products these days.  I don't personally think it should occur in a moisturiser, given that alcohol is generally an astringent (drying).  It is way down on the ingredients list, but still.
• Caffeine.  Aha!  Hence the "awake feeling".
• Hyaluronic acid (appearing in everything these days, supposedly purporting to be "anti-aging" and "healing" but there's no empirical proof of this available just yet).
• Mica.  *sighs*.  This is the trickery behind the glow so.

It would seem that this one has some good stuff, some stuff that I would argue shouldn't be there, and some stuff that may or may not make a difference.  Plus some sleight of hand trickery ingredients.  Up to you.  Now that I know what's in it, I won't be using it up.  Damnit.

Look here for more information on this moisturiser.  Alternatively look here for a decent moisturiser.  Or perhaps here.  And of course there's this stuff too...

My personal tuppence is that good face/skin care products are only worth the price if they do the job (no for these two products) and the ingredients are actually good for your skin (not so much in either of these cases).  It shouldn't be all about silicones to make your skin "feel" good. This stuff should "do" good too.  Pass.