Jack & Hill: A Beauty Blog - make-up, cosmetics, perfume, and the substance of style

Blink Eyebrow Bar

At left: My eyebrows, now, after the mastery of Hemini Patel at Blink eyebrow bar in Harvey Nichols was unleashed on them today.

I can't even describe to you how out of control my eyebrows were this morning. I don't think I've let them go that wild for at least a decade. It had been months since my last professional brow job, and I had kept them tidy by plucking in the meantime...but not for the last couple of weeks.

My excuses: I was busy, and I wanted to get them done at Blink, as recommended to me by beauty editor Kathleen Baird-Murray, author of How to Be Beautiful, after my Shavata trauma. I  have had no business in Knightsbridge lately. Then I made an appointment to see my awesome dentist in Sloane Street for today (he didn't even charge me - that's what I'm talkin' about) and knew I'd hit Blink on the way home. Which is what I did. So that's why I let my brows go lately. I know there's really no excuse, which is why this paragraph is so long.

Glytone Rejuvenate Facial Cream

So, skin woes. Mine is combination - tends to shine, but with occasional dryness. And I guess it's a bit sensitive...but then most skin is sensitive when you're irritating the hell out of it.

Until recently, I felt like my skin was a nightmare that would never end. The dry patches were really getting me down, because despite the fact that no one else (said they) could tell they were there, I knew. And sometimes they'd be itchy, which drove me crazy, because I couldn't do anything about it unless I wanted red raw dry patches.

But a month or so ago, I started getting some treatments for certain problems at a skin clinic. I described my skin nightmare to the nurse, and she could see for herself what was going down, and she told me in no uncertain terms to ditch my Eve Lom cleanser and steer well clear of any granular scrubs. Instead, she advised me to use a glycolic acid cream every night (easing into it with twice a week usage to start), which would exfoliate away the dry skin without irritating the rest of it. For daytime, she insisted I use a 30+ SPF sunblock, which functions as my moisturiser.

I bought from the clinic a pot of Glytone Rejuvenate Facial Cream, and have been using it faithfully ever since. I don't know whether the improvement my skin has seen is due to that or the Avene Gentle Cleanser (which the same nurse recommended and sold to me), but the difference is dramatic. The itching is gone, as are the dry patches, and I've not had any sort of breakouts or other annoying/gross skin issues.

...Until, that is, I tested a toner for the purposes of this blog. It may just be a coincidence, but the morning after using the toner, I woke up with a blemish. Toner ditched, everything's back to normal.

I'm quite pleased with the Glytone cream - it's not cheap, but after using it for a month, I've barely skimmed the top layer. At this rate, it will need to be thrown away for freshness reasons before I've actually managed to use it all. And it doesn't irritate my skin, despite the alpha-hydroxy acid content.

Now that I've got a skin routine that seems to be working for me, I'm now faced with a whole new set of circumstances: I may just have no real reason ever to try or buy any new skincare products. The prospect of that fills me with horror, boring as it would be, but it would also be a nice problem to have.

Eve Lom Starter Kit

This week was a good one, for many reasons. One such reason was an unexpected windfall; it's a modest windfall, but surprise money? It's all good.

"I am tempted to spend all that money on some really fun stuff - a treat," I said to Antoine, my boyfriend. "I know I shouldn't, but I want to."

"I think you should spend at LEAST some of it, if not all of it, on whatever you want. You deserve it," he replied.

I wasn't looking for permission, but I was certainly open to affirmation of my urge. With it granted, the matter was decided.

Yesterday, after a work meeting in Soho, I wandered past the Space NK shop in St Anne's Court. And then I walked in and bought £122 worth of products. A small splurge, the majority of it accounted for by my new Eve Lom Starter Kit, which cost £100.

I first tried Eve Lom's cleanser about four years ago, and really liked it. You have to complete a seven-step process to use it, one that is supposed to encourage drainage of the lymphatic system and boost skin circulation, and it certainly seems to do a good job on one's skin. The essential oils smell like a dream, too, and the cleanser is so exfoliating that it quickly whips skin into smooth shape.

The starter kit also comes with Eve's eye serum and moisturiser, both of which I tried for the first time last night. I'll report back on those, but so far I'm liking them, especially the fast-absorbing eye serum (my stand-by, from Molton Brown, takes about fifteen minutes to absorb completely; my back-up, from Guinot, is better, but not as good as the Eve Lom serum).

The oddest thing about yesterday's shopping trip was that I didn't feel as guilty as I'd expected - as guilty as usual - after spending the money. Whether that's a good or a bad thing remains to be seen...