Unfortunately, it appears that not all of us follow a regular skin routine, which can not only ruin our self-esteem but can result in wrinkles and other skin issues most women dread as we get older. Although probably inevitable, we can probably stave off any premature ageing, just by looking after our skin.

In an independent survey carried out, 2/3 women interviewed wore make-up at least once a week, and in over 57% of cases, it was because they either felt self-conscious without it, or wanted to hide blemishes, such as blotchy skin tones or pimples. Well, fear no more, as by following a simple skin care routine, you can be reliant on having radiant skin rather than a decent (and often expensive) foundation.

Up until recently, I was myself negligent with my skincare, but after seeing the promising effects of proper care, I can’t recommend enough the importance of adopting one yourself. Pre-epiphany, I would spray my face with water in the shower in the morning and use face wipes to take my make-up off at night, and did little else. However, I am a skincare convert, and I hope you all will feel the same after trying out a few new products, which will leave you gleaming.

img cred: guilliardsbeauty.com

As stated above, a regular skin care routine is vital in making sure that you’re skin stays healthy. Facial skin is more delicate than that on the rest of your body and so requires extra special love and attention. In the interest of making sure the rest of your season is jolly, follow these steps daily to ensure you’re looking bright and confident for this Christmas season and New Year.

1. Using a liquid soap specifically for facial use ensures any chemicals in body soaps that are too harsh for your face are avoided, preventing the dreaded blotchy skin tone. Using soap for sensitive skin doesn’t always work either, make sure it matches your skin type. You can find this out at most make-up counters.
2. Exfoliating is key to rub off any dead skin cells, which leaves skin looking dull and block pores, which can result in spots. Do this after washing off any excess oils with the liquid soap, but although it is often recommended for use daily, I would suggest you only use this 2-3 times a week, as it can be harsh on skin if you’re constantly rubbing off skin cells and leave it sore.
3. After a long day of wearing make-up, you need to make sure you take it off in the right way. Face wipes are too harsh on our delicate facial skin, and can leave it discoloured. I recommend using a facial soap that doesn’t require water (such as Clinique Cleansing Milk) as it’s soft and moisturising on skin.
4. Following your removal of make-up, make sure you’ve got every last bit off and unblock all your pores with a cleanser. It leaves you with a clean feeling too!
5. Finally, you need to make sure you use a moisturiser to close pores and keep your skin nice and soft, which it’s vital in this cold weather to prevent sore and chapped skin.

img cred: beautyde.com

There we are, two easy steps in the morning and a few small steps at night to make sure you have beautiful skin all year round. Make sure you check back again next month, as I’ll be talking about skin care on a budget, to make sure you can keep an eye on the pennies after, no doubt, indulging this month!

Michelle xo

At this time of year, in December and January, two types of “Christmas gift blog posts” become more and more common, and, to be honest, I think we could all probably do without them – and do a little bit better.

The first offender is The Christmas Gift Guide, which might be great fun to read and compile, but sort of takes away from the spirit of it all, don’t you think?

I actually love reading Christmas gift guides on blogs, I can’t lie. And, this year I’ve read some particularly wonderful ones (the ones on rachelphipps.com are particularly good). It almost pains me to say this, to be honest,  but I really do think that the blogosphere – and blog readers, specifically – would be better off without them, though.

Gifts this festive season should, in my opinion, be personal. If you don’t know someone well enough to be able to buy or make them a gift tailored specifically to them, then maybe you shouldn’t be giving them something at all. Gift guides are fine as inspiration – but they shouldn’t be the way you pick what you give.

And then there’s the commercial aspect. Call me old fashioned if you will, but I think that if a blogger is going to endorse a product, they should really be endorsing it. That email we all get in about October, from a bazillion different companies, asking when we’re going to be posting our Christmas gift guides, and if we’d like to write about x, y or z is killing the spirit of it all.

Harsh, but possibly fair, I’d like to think.

And then the second, and arguably worse, evil of the festive season, the “look at all my lovely gifts, aren’t I lucky?!” post.

I think we all know, deep down, that this one is a bit wrong. Yes, it’s lovely to show off what we got, and to be proud of our new whatever-it-is, but if we have readers or blogger friends who didn’t get so lucky, it’s a bit of a stab in the heart, don’t you think?

And yes, you can argue that as fashion bloggers, we spend our lives showing off our possessions… but if you do, you’re taking fashion blogging to its basest level, and ignoring everything else that this community is all about.

So, yes: be happy with your presents, and tell your friends how excited you are – but try not to write a whole blog post about them. The spirit of Christmas means that we should all be grateful for anything we receive, and so I guess we can think of more inventive ways to show this.

Try an old-fashioned thank you letter.