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Style and beauty

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Original poster

So, Caroline Hirons. Full of good advice or full of the other stuff?

60 replies

Jacksmania · 27/12/2013 18:30

Was drawn to reading her review of Clinique's Take The Day off balm. I'm tempted to try it...

But then I started reading the rest of her blog and I'm not sure what to think. Is it worth reading any more? Or would it be one of those "that's a half hour I'm never going to get back" experiences?

OP posts:

madamecake · 27/12/2013 19:16

I really enjoy reading her blog, but if you are not sure, just read through the cheat sheets. You don't have to take it all as gospel as some do, but I picked up some great tips.

My skin looks the best it has in years but I'm not using every product she recommends, especially as I can't afford it!

If you're happy with your skin stick with what works for you, if not then it's definitely worth a read.

treaclesoda · 27/12/2013 19:18

I have picked up a lot of tips from her blog but I don't necessarily agree with everything she says. Her writing style can be fairly entertaining, but at the same time she is very withering and critical of anything she doesn't agree with, and sometimes I just think 'oh, give it a rest, just because you think something is crap doesn't make it 100% true'.

Having said all that, the biggest tip I have taken from her is to cleanse properly and to do it with some sort of oil based product, and to avoid mineral oils, and my skin has been so much smoother and healthier looking since I started following her advice on that particular topic.

Original poster

Jacksmania · 27/12/2013 19:21

So do you double cleanse? I started another thread asking about it but no replies yet. If you cleanse with something oil based, is that all you cleanse with or do you wash the oil off with something else after?

OP posts:

phinz · 27/12/2013 19:48

I'm not sure to be honest. I bought the Clarins exfoliating toner on her recommendation. She recommended that it was safe to use it twice a day but Clarins only recommend using it twice a week. I used it once a day for a couple of months and had trouble with constant breakouts on my chin. A couple of weeks ago she posted on the blog that lots of people were experiencing breakouts on it and that actually it might be best not to use it daily. Moral of the story I felt a bit of an idiot for not following the manufacturers advice and now have a chin full of pigmentation from the spots.

treaclesoda · 27/12/2013 19:53

I cleanse with an oil based balm cleanser and clean it off with a hot flannel. Then I use toner and facial oil. Previously I had used a foaming cleanser, no toner and an oil free moisturiser. My skin definitely feels smoother. I had always been 'afraid' of oil because I have oily skin but have found that using oil based products works much better than all the oil free stuff.

CecyHall · 27/12/2013 19:57

Yes I found her post a few weeks ago where she back tracked on a few things interesting.

Half of me thinks that that is part of the trouble if she is states things as fact but the other half thinks fair play for saying hands up I'm changing my advice now.

I pick and choose the advice I take from her but do enjoy her writing as a whole.

jasmine1979 · 27/12/2013 20:27

Honestly, I think take a look at Caroline's skin and you have your answer.

I find her writing style very obnoxious myself, but can see why some might enjoy it.

I follow quite a lot of beauty bloggers. So many of them started raving about Caroline in the last year and how amazing she was and that they were following all her advice. At least 70% of them I would now say have been suffering from horrible congested looking skin when previously it looked lovely.

I think you really need to just use your common sense when reading her site, and cherry pick what you think sounds like good advice. Don't be swayed by her trying to explain things in scientific terms either, because an awful lot of the time she clearly does not understand what on earlth she is talking about.

Cristiane · 27/12/2013 20:50

I have bought a few things in her recommendation - clarins comfort cleansing cream - awful. Now I have been using the clarins exfoliating toner but I now realise it may be the cause of breakouts. My skin is worse. I then followed her advice (baa baa I feel like a sheep) And now have my face covered in clarins lotus oil.

My skin was better using Simple cream cleanser taken off with a damp washcloth and Aldi moisturiser, I am gutted I have wasted so much money.

I think her 'cheat sheets' must then be made up on the spot, not tried and tested if people have so many issues with them. She was ADAMANT about double cleansing, now says it doesn't have to be done every day.

I guess it is intertesting, this is the power of the internet, we think we know the 'authority' but actually there is no filter to quality, and it could just be someone popular who means well instead that many listen to.

AlwaysSleepingBeauty · 27/12/2013 21:04

I love her blog, I find her philosophy makes a lot of sense in most cases. I don't follow her advice to the letter but do find it helpful and apply it to my own individual skin as I see fit. I think it's like anything really; some things work for most people but nothing works for everyone.

SundaySimmons · 27/12/2013 21:37

What jasmine1979 said.

I find Hiron's manner to awful. She writes as if she is the be all and end all of beauty recommendations.

I wouldn't want to look like her and don't think her skin or looks are a great advertisement for the products and regimes that she advocates.

She reminds me of one of those annoying beauty counter women who are trying to flog you stuff and tell you that X product is what you need and they use it and so so all their customers and it's wonderful and you are dying to point out that they look awful and why If it's so good, is she trying so hard to give you the hard sell?

Perhaps if her writing style wasn't so grating I could read more of her, but unfortunately nothing so far that I have read isn't anything I haven't heard before or is about a product or a method of doing something which hasn't worked for me.

crossparsley · 28/12/2013 02:27

I like her writing style, mostly (not sure about the mentions of her family but that's taste, not style). She's a facialist, not a model, so I think we could dial down the comments on what she looks like.

Alternatively, here's mine: she doesn't look like someone who makes unnecessary comments about what someone looks like. Which is probably a bloody good thing in a facialist, or none of us would go.

madmomma · 28/12/2013 10:28

If I'm taking advice from someone about skincare, then I'm very interested in what their skin looks like. Hers looks distinctly average, despite all the money she spends on it, so I wouldn't be that interested in her advice. Plus I find her tone patronising. Much prefer Sali Hughes, Josephine Fairley and Lisa Eldridge.

madamecake · 28/12/2013 12:32

I'm very surprised about the comments on her skin, I think she has great skin! I've never seen her in the flesh, but in photos it looks smooth, even toned and glowing.

Each to their own I suppose, but if my skin looked like that in my forties I'd be very happy.

MrsCampbellBlack · 28/12/2013 12:44

The clinique take the day off balm is fab - way better than eve lom/ren versions.

I don't rate Sali hughes personally.

TripTrapTripTrapOverTheBridge · 28/12/2013 12:51

Just had a look at her site for the first time and looking at her photo on the 'about' page made me want to slap her.

Therefore,I highly suggest she ain't all that LOL

sultrywinter · 28/12/2013 13:03

I don't like being told to 'do this' and then being told I don't need to a few months later. Double cleansing was her mantra and now I don't need to unless I wear heavy make-up or a high SPF.

She has recently changed her website and now it takes forever to download the ads so I doubt I'll bother reading in the future.

UsedToBeNDP · 28/12/2013 13:05

I love Take The Day Off Balm and read Beautymouth but tbh I take her advice with a pinch if salt. Not because I think she doesn't know her stuff, she has been in the industry for a very long time indeed but because I know that her recommendations very rarely work for me (hydraluron breaks me out, Clarins exfoliating toner is way too harsh on my skin). I think it's just a case of my skin type being a bit on the sensitive side, hers seems to be pretty robust.

UsedToBeNDP · 28/12/2013 13:08

Agree though her 'science' is utter balderdash, but then she isn't a scientist and doesn't claim to be.

Original poster

Jacksmania · 28/12/2013 17:49

Huh, I just looked at her picture and I think her skin looks ok - although I really suspect she's been Photoshopped.

If her skin really isn't that good in person, I wonder if she has that type of skin where that's as good as it gets, IYSWIM. Maybe if she didn't do/use all the things she does, it would look like a half-decayed pizza. Who knows.

Anyway, having wasted a further ten minutes, I think she's an entertaining (if scathing) read, so reading her blog will be one of those "if I have the time" things.

OP posts:

coffeeinbed · 28/12/2013 17:55

I'm getting increasingly with all that double cleansing and triple exfoliating.
It's skin, it's not got nuclear waste on it. Well, not usually.

scripsi · 28/12/2013 17:55

I tried her recommendations for quite a while, very hit and miss for me and her ignorance of science really undermined my confidence in her. Would rather listen to dermatologists. Anyway, our skins are so individual that I don't really see the point of this kind of approach.

coffeeinbed · 28/12/2013 17:57

I do agree with her dislike of mineral oils though.

noddyholder · 28/12/2013 18:00

She is irritating and her skin is no better than mine and I am nearly 50!

MrsCampbellBlack · 28/12/2013 18:01

Yes I avoid mineral oils too.

I'm currently obsessing over Esther Walker's food blog - but I tend to overdose on blogs in one go and then rarely look at them again.

noddyholder · 28/12/2013 18:04

Decleor transformed my skin in about 2 weeks and I have used it ever since and it keeps improving it First thing ever to have a dramatic effect although I think a lot of skin condition is hereditary

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