Guest writer: One Little Vice | The Beauty Audit

Hello! I'm Angelica and I write a beauty blog called One Little Vice. Georgina's very kindly let me guest post for her and today's post is my beauty audit.

If any of you are magazine readers you may have seen 'The Beauty Audit' feature that InStyle ran a couple of months ago. It was a fascinating piece, especially for a beauty junkie like me. It gathered together four women who worked for InStyle and tallied up how many beauty products they used on a daily basis - it was essentially the beauty equivalent of a food diary. The results were really interesting and it really highlighted just how much stuff gets patted, slathered and buffed onto most women's skin every day. It's been a long time coming but I knew that I wanted to do a post of this nature eventually and now is my chance. Below is an image of all the products I used on one, very normal, day (Thursday 6th June, for those interested).

The Body Shop's Cool and Creamy Wash (£5), Soap and Glory Sugar Crush Body Wash (£6), Naked Strength Renewing Shampoo (£4.19), Moroccan Oil (£12.85), Nivea Sensitive and Pure Deodorant (£1.64), L'Occitane Shea Ultra Gentle Moisturiser (£25),  L'Occitane Angelica Ultra Matte Fluid (£26), Hydraluron (£25), Bioderma Sensibio H2O (£3), The Body Shop's Aloe Calming Toner (£8),  L'Oreal Lumi Magique Primer (£9.99), Dior Nudeskin BB Cream (£25), L'Oreal Illuminating Touch (£8.19), Rimmel Wake Me Up Concealer (£5.49), Rimmel Wake Me Up Shimmer Touch in Shimmering Sand (£4.99), The Body Shop Lip Butter (£4), Dainty Doll Cream Blush (£2), Rimmel Eyeliner (£3.99), The Body Shop Brow Definer (£8), Maybelline Color Tattoo in On and On Bronze (£4.99), Mac Lipstick in Vegas Volt (£14), Benefit They're Real Mascara mini (£9), Nip Fab Shine Make-up Fix (£9.95), Bioderma Photoderm SPF Matt SPF 30 (£13.70), Garnier Ambre Solaire Sheer Protect SPF 30 (£12.49).

25 products, totalling £253.46

I knew I was going to be surprised but I didn't think I was going to be as shocked as I was when I added all of the products up. There are a couple of things that I feel like I learnt just from taking a moment to look at my beauty usage this closely. Firstly, we have to start with numbers; twenty five products and £253.46. Both those numbers seem so high, I had no idea quite how much money it all costs and I certainly had no real idea that I used so much on my skin every day and. I think this brings me to the main lesson that I've learnt from this close analysis.

Everything we use on our bodies is part of a big cocktail of products that forms our beauty regime and the less chemicals or 'bad' ingredients (whatever you might personally hold those to be) is probably going to be better for us in the long run. I might like to argue that the total of my day's products is so high because I've chosen high quality products but I can see where I've skipped corners (that Nip Fab Shine Make-up Fix is a less effective, chemical ridden replacement of a product I loved from The Body Shop) and I can see where there's room for improvement (maybe I should use a deodorant that's free from aluminium, for example).

It's also been a wonderful exercise for pinpointing any products that might be past their use by date, for example I'm sure that my L'Oreal Lumi Magique Primer is more than a year old, as is my Garnier Ambre Solaire Sheer Protect SPF 30 (SPF degrades so should be replaced each year). Taking stock of what you use, like I've done today, is a real eye opener. I don't think it's necessarily meant to shame you into using fewer products, rather, it's purpose is to open your eyes to what you use and re-assess what your version of 'normal' is. The products I've listed in this post is what I would consider to be my normal every day beauty useage and if I can make even the slightest improvements then every single day I'll be reaping the benefit of these changes.

I hope you enjoyed this post, writing it was a really great experience and I have to say a big thank you to Georgina for letting me write it for her! I'd love to know what you think about the number of products I use and about the amount they cost, do you think that I use a crazy amount or do you perhaps you more?

Thank you Angelica for writing this awesome post :) Make sure you go and visit her lovely blog here :)

This months Bigest-Pixi3 advertiser is the lovely Shang from The Feminine Crusade

 

Written by Georgina Kent