7 days of Liz Earle skincare vs problem skin

[As some of you may know, I’ve been trialling Liz Earle this month, and documenting the effect this has on my skin. I’m a fantastic test subject: I have whiteheads, blackheads, milia, and the ability to grow a rockin’ beard should the need ever arise.

Naturally, this all leaves me with very little confidence in my skin. My go to foundation is Clinique two in one foundation and concealer, but I still need a variety of extra concealers (Soap and Glory’s green concealer stick and Collection’s cult concealer – gosh Leah, say concealer more) – and I imagine this probably only serves to make my skin worse in the long run.

So, every morning and night I have been following a strict Liz Earle routine

In the morning, I use the Grapefruit and Patchouli Cleanse and Polish. I love this process, because at no point do you really need to fully wet your face. Just squeeze out a bit of product and gently massage it into your skin, then wet the muslin cloth with warm water and gently ‘polish’ it off again. Finish with a splash with cold water to minimise the pores. It’s way easier than the typical cleanser + flannel job – although not as convenient as a face wipe.

Next is the superskin intensive moisturiser. I’ll either leave it there or apply makeup once the moisturiser has mostly soaked in? I wore makeup of some sort (either full foundation, contour etc or light CC cream with mascara) about 3 days this week. Been keeping it varied. You know. For science.

In the evening I’ll perform the same routine, but during the day I’ll occasionally spritz with the tonic water, although to be honest I’m still not really sure what that’s for.

Anyway, I know you’re dying to see how it turned out, so here goes!

Enjoy 32 selfies, excuse my grumpy face – I took these every morning after the routine, and I hate mornings.

Gosh. Look at those eye bags. Let’s take a closer look at what’s going on here. These pictures below are shots from day 0 (before I started) and day 7.

Looking at the pictures side by side, I don’t see a huge difference in my skin.

However, looking across the week, it does generally seem to be improving. The big spots are still there, but some of the smaller annoyances – like blackheads and patches of dry, flaky skin are gone. To be honest I’d kinda expected some of the larger blemishes to overstay their welcome – they’re the major players, clearly, and aren’t going to go without a fight.

Overall, my skin feels nicer to the touch. It’s softer and maybe tighter (I’m young enough not to have to worry about that sort of thing just yet, but it has noticeably improved in that aspect.)

So what about the individual products?

Well the tonic water I’m still trying to figure out – so i’m going to talk to you about the two big stars this week – the moisturiser, and the cleanse & polish-er.

The cleanser is great,

I was given two muslin cloths with it, and I’ve been using them four times (two days) and then switching so they can be washed regularly. They’re not as rough as a flannel, but I can actually see the crap I’m washing off my face. For example, last night I had a bath before bed. I knew I was going to do my Liz Earle routine after I got out, but I still gave my face a bit of a wash in the bath. I hadn’t worn any makeup that day either. But when I was polishing my skin there was visible stuff on the cloth. (Brown and beige bits of stuff, idk) Those muslins don’t miss anything. They’re like the most gentle exfoliator in the world. I’ll try and take a picture for you next week if I remember.

I’ve always had problems with the moisture levels on my face.

It always seems greasy and oily, but when I wear foundation it catches loads of dead or dry skin I didn’t even know was there, and looks terrible. That hasn’t happened since this moisturiser. My dry areas (mostly under my cheekbones/at the divots in my cheeks) now feel soft to the touch, and don’t collect product like they did before. Score!