The Ordinary by The Abnormal Beauty Company (or how I dipped my toe in to Deciem)

The Ordinary by the Abnormal Beauty Company; If you haven't heard about this cult brand yet then you might not know they are hot shit right now and with their parent company, Deciem, being bought up by Estée Lauder they're only going to get bigger.

The internet has been a buzz for months now with beauty gurus far and wide raving about these high end products for low end prices. I couldn't believe it myself when I saw that there wasn't a product in the range that cost more than 8.00 quid!

So I joined the cult. I have to say that I was really impressed by the counter staff in House Of Fraser Belfast, they were friendly, knowledgeable and able to point me in the direction of the products I needed with just a short chat about my skin. I bought the Hyaluronic Acid 2% and the Niacinimide 10% Serums. If you have no idea what these mean then basically the Hyaluronic is for hydration and, whilst The Ordinary say that Niacinimide combats blemishes, I would actually say that the Vitamin B3 formula is more suited to helping pigmentation than actual spot removal. This is an important distinction if, like me, you're trying to combat severe breakouts.

I have to be honest and say that my first impressions of The Ordinary serums weren't great. Cheap prices means cheap ingredients; Cheap ingredients mean that you're not necessarily left with instant results. The serums have a thick tacky consistency and leave my skin sticky, which I hate! However, after a few minutes left to sink in this stickiness goes away and my skin feels soft again leaving me surprised. Ok, so they aren't instant wonders but I can see why people are hooked. Over a month later and I'm still alternating each serum every night. My spots haven't cleared up and to be honest neither has my pigmentation but my skin does feel soft so I guess they're doing something. I'm not overly enthused or hyped up but I just can't seem to say anything really truly awfully bad about them because "for the price" they're fine.

Not great. Just fine.

I think next time I'm looking for something new I'll step up a price level with Deciem's slightly more expensive sister brand, Niod, to see if they work with my temperamental skin but it is fabulous to know that when I'm broke, as I regularly am, I can trust that I will be able to keep up good skin care without breaking the bank!

*NB since scheduling this post I have been catching up on YouTube subscriptions and the beauty guru that is Caroline Hirons has done an awesome side by side demo (starting at 13:40 minutes) on the Deciem ranges to show the difference that the price of ingredients makes on the consistency of the formula. It's a long video but if, like me, you are fussy about the texture of your products it's worth checking out!

"Brand New Mint In Box"

Of the ways to describe the most premium of items in your makeup collection "Brand New Mint In Box" should not be one of them. One of my most awful habits is buying makeup and then not using it and to my even greater shame it is usually with my most expensive purchases. There is an Alan Carr joke about the extortionate price of a Spanish Onion, the punchline is "when do you save an Onion for best?" This is kind of how I feel about expensive makeup. It's so pretty and so precious that if I get up the courage to actually purchase it, I'm then usually too scared to use it. The pride and shame of this habit is these two items from Dior. The absolutely sublime Dior Skin Nude Tan highlighter which I purchased as a pre-release special edition from House Of Fraser TWO YEARS AGO has sat in box all tightly wrapped up only being shown the light to show off to my friends and family. Yes I do show off my prettiest of pretties to my friends and family...

No Halloween Costume Needed

It's become an accepted norm that once December 1st comes around the nations will don their snowflake print leggings and their novelty jumpers but so far the other seasons are lacking in their effort. Yes, Halloween is famous as being the single greatest costume day of the year but I need October to step and represent in the seasonal apparel game. Thankfully retailers have heard my inner goth cry and have come up with some seriously cute Halloween inspired items. For those who love a slogan tee you have every variation of saying that could possibly be made by rhyming witch with bitch and if you don't say every one of with Emma Roberts' attitude then you need to watch season 3 of American Horror Story immediately! Dressing with the seasons is clearly big money but it doesn't have to cost the world. Here are my choices of how to get into the Halloween spirit all under £30. Boohoo Starting with my favourites because I can! I actually bought the f

The super cuteness of Studio Ghibli nail art

These were done with various Gelish colours over a Hard Gel overlay with embedded glitter. Characters featured are Totoro - My Neighbour Totoro, Soot Sprites - Totoro & Spirited Away, No Face - Spirited Away, and Calcifer - Howls Moving Castle.

SOFIAADOT3 July 2017 at 10:05
I really want to try it too!

xx Sofia | SOFIAADOT
Angloyankophile3 July 2017 at 10:06
SO glad I read this ... I've been wondering about this brand for some time! I've seen a lot of people buy it but ... not a lot of reviews, so great to have these details (i.e. the way the serums feel on the skin).

FaeriWood

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