Review: Clarins workshop (Afternoon session 1st Nov 2010)

Thanks Miu for organizing another Clarins workshop. I was a little apprehensive as my skin problems recently made me ban myself from all skincare and especially makeup workshop.

Earlier this year, milia seeds, comodones and white heads have erupted all over my jawline and spread to my face. Reluctantly, I took roaccutane pills and it has subsided.

A day after the workshop, my skin was smoother and hydrated – no longer flaky from the medication. I’m impressed enough to buy the hydrating mask from Miu. I can’t afford other skincare products for now as the pills have made a huge hole in my piggy bank.

I’m not going to tell you what exactly happened step-by-step during the workshop except that you get to use a skincare product (from any range you like) for each step while the presenter will explain the usage and differences. (There are other bloggers’ review on the workshop which you can easily google)

These are the skincare products I used.

I do like the way they portray the 4 major types of skin problems with pictures. Graphically meaningful!(forgot to take a picture of the slide; so here are some alternative pictures)

Skin problems
1. Dry = dry earth

2. Oil = french fries (now I know my skin loves fast food - hence it's oily! Ha!)

3. Pigmentation = ladybug

4. Wrinkles = raisin

Besides learning how to use the products; hands-on, you get some good tips from the presenter. Here are some tips from what I understand (forgive me if I misunderstood some)

Eye care
1. Do not rub your eyelash vigorously – it takes about 4 years for it to grow back.
2. To clean eye makeup (mascara), carefully soak 2 pieces of cotton pads with your eye make-up remover. Fold one to line below your eye and take the other one to rub gently over the lashes. The lower cotton pad is to avoid staining your skin. Yes, wearing smokey eyeshadow daily might really give you permanent smokey eyes! (normally, I just rubbed the best I could… sigh)
3. Take 2 cotton pads and soak with toner and press it gently over closed eyes. This can de-puff your eyes!

Skincare Routine (most of us do the 3 steps : cleanse, tone & moisturise)
Day time: 6 steps
a) Cleanse
b) Tone
c) Eye care
d) Serum - max 2 tyeps
e) Moisturize
e) UV- Sunblock

Night time: 6 steps
a) Remove
b) Cleanse
c) Tone
d) Eye care
e) Serum
f) Moisturise

Sunblock
1. Always wear sunblock because it takes 5 years for the pigmentation to appear!!
2. To calculate the efficiency of sunblock, e.g. 50spf X 10 minutes of direct sun. After 500 minutes in the sun, you need to reapply sunblock.
3. There are 2 things from the sun you should fear : UVB (causes sunburn) and UVA (causes you to lose the elascity of your skin)
4. Hence,run for cover! ;)

Cleanse/ Tone
1. Double-cleansing is important to remove your makeup and even other residue of sunscreen products at the end of the day.
2. Using the analogy of the amount of either 3 pumps , 5 cents coin size, helps to gauge how much of the product to apply.
3. Soak 2 cotton pads with your toner and wipe from the center out (symmetry). I find this helps to shorten the process. I’ve been only bullying one hand when I tone. Lol

Moisturise/ serum
1. Pour 5 cents coin-sized of moisturizer in your palm and rub together to warm it up. Then press lightly with your palm to your face to “dab” on the moisturizer/serum.
2. The palms of your hands will fit the contours of your face somehow.
3. This also makes the process faster for me. Instead of fingers!

Mask
Do not be stingy on the amount of mask – it has to be thick enough to work. Place a generous amount onto your palm – about 50 cents coin to slather on your face. (It depends on what kind of mask but the one I'm referring here is the hydration mask)

Facial
The effects of the facial will work better if you relax or even allow yourself to catch some shut-eye. Clarins facial has no extraction at all and uses the 5 senses to maximize the effect of the facial for the skin.

A very brief introduction of their makeup ended the session. Some pictures I remembered to take are shown here.

The makeup products available for testing...

Alina's hands showing the effect of a product - before and after (forgot which product)

I did buy one of their trial pack because I was intrigued by the cleansing. But I forgot to put the bottle in this picture! Ha!

Thank you Clarins for such an educational workshop. I truly believe that this is the best way to introduce and educate the skin-preservers like me out there to try your products... As the saying goes, seeing it (and trying it oneself) is believing! ;)