My 'skin care' routine, until recently, consisted of sticking my face under the shower in the morning. No make up (except for the odd night out), no cleansing, toning, mosturising or the like.
I cycle to work in all weathers though and recently noticed that my face seemed to be a bit redder and more thread-veiny in places (I'm 33), I have been persuaded that using a moisturiser with SPF in is probably a sensible move to avoid future skin damage.
Excited by my decadent pampering developments I decided to get some tinted moisturiser, in a bid to disguise the red bits as well as protect my face. I went to one of the make up counters in John Lewis and ended up being given a 10 minute work-over/lecture by a lady at the Bobbi Brown counter.
Apparently my skin is badly dehydrated and therefore I would benefit from primer, water-based moisturiser (to go under the tinted moisturiser) separate water-based eye cream (because the skin round the eye is different) a touche eclat type of thing,then the tinted mouisturiser, then blusher to put back the colour that I've just taken out of my cheeks, and then an oil-based cleanser to clean it all off again afterwards, then a night cream or face oil to use overnight.
And most of these things apparently need replacing frequently (I was trying to suggest I use some of the Clarins stuff my mum bought for me when I got married 3 years ago).
I'm a bit of a bad science fan and general skeptic. I'm not convinced that there is any skin care technology that can actually do anything more than temporarily alter the appearance of your skin, though I'm willing to concede that probably that's enough for most people.
I also have a 2.5 year old and the amount of time I get during a day for my own personal toilette barely extends to a teeth clean and private trip to the toilet.
On this occasion, I escaped with just the tinted moisturiser (£26), would have been prepared to buy the under eye lightening thing (£22) but they were out of stock. She suggested that I should therefore but the eye cream (£33, replace every 6 months) instead but I legged it.
My question is, oh wise beauty and style gurus - do I need this stuff? If I now moisturise and protect my skin, is there additional benefit from eye cream? If I don't use it, will I wake up in 10 year time and find my eye bags lower than my cheekbones? Or is it all just nice smelling gloop and one look at my mum will tell me if I'm going to be wrinkly or not...
thank you
(As an aside, there was a thread about nostalgic smells the other day and the oh so pink looking and smelling original Oil of Ulay was always a big part of mum's beauty routine.)