My understanding is that the cool younger set, call this a shelfie, but don’t worry, I won’t go there. Being neither cool nor young. I do want to talk about some of the skincare on my bathroom shelf though.

I am a subscriber to the Caroline Hirons skin care routine, which incorporates cleanse, tone moisturise, but with a few variations thrown in. Caroline has a totally no nonsense attitude, which I love (I believe she’s a fellow scouser, so maybe that’s why I relate so much). If you’re interested in changing your skincare routine, you should follow her on insta @carolinehirons and/or buy the book. Skincare. It walks you through how to look after your skin, debunks a load of myths and helps with particular problems like rosacea, acne etc.

Skincare is too big a topic to do in one post, so I’m just going to focus on one area today. Cleanse. A few points before we start:

• NEVER USE WIPES. I’m going to quote Caroline here “Wipes are for flights, fannies and festivals” and I couldn’t agree more. They’re rubbish for your skin. They’re rubbish for the planet. Don’t even keep them in the house as an emergency back up, because you’ll find yourself using them when you’re tired or drunk. Don’t do it. WASH YOUR FACE.
• Ditto micellar water. Well, actually, don’t put it on your fanny. But flights and festivals are ok.
• I use a clean face cloth/flannel (does anyone say that word anymore?) or muslin cloth every time I wash my face.
• My skin type is dry, sometimes dehydrated (not the same thing apparently) and mature. The cleansers listed below all work beautifully on my skin type. But if your skin type is different to mine, maybe not so much. That’s your call I guess.

Let’s dive in. First up..

This is a very gentle cleanser that I use in the morning. Foaming cleansers sometimes get a bad rap amongst the skincare set, but I really like this one. It leaves my skin feeling clean without drying it out. Doesn’t sting your eyes. I let my kids use this too. As an added bonus, and if you’re old enough to remember this, there was a pop song by Robbie Nevil called C’est La Vie which I always change to “CeraVe” and sing when I use this. Small insight in to the strange way my brain works. Moving on….

CeraVe SA Smoothing Cleanser 100ml £10.99

Next up, this foaming cleanser from Pure Lakes. This is gentle, doesn’t dry your skin out, smells ace and has Vitamin E, Avocado and Rosehip Seed oil in which are great for cleansing and brightening. Doesn’t hurt your eyes. Works on teenage skin. The company do refills too, so you can send your bottles back and save the planet after you’ve cleaned your face.

Pure Lakes Rosehip Seed Foaming Facial Cleanser 250ml £22

I use this in the evening. It’s got a massive cult following this cleanser, with good reason. Excellent at removing make up (not so much at waterproof mascara – you need to wash your face twice), fine around your eyes. Leaves my skin feeling like silk.

Clinique take the day off cleansing balm 125ml £26

I use this in the evening to remove make up too. Sometimes I use this and then the Clinique one. Gets your make up off (again, if you use waterproof mascara you may want to wash your face twice). If I have any waterproof mascara on, I often use this, then the Clinique one. This leaves my skin feeling clean and soft. Love it.

Plenaire Rose Jelly Gentle Make up remover from £16

The sales have started in earnest now, with pretty much everyone on board (apart from Hush, who have only done a sale preview so far). I’ve had a disastrous sale experience all round. Missing the boat on pretty much everything I wanted. Zara being the worst. It started at 8pm, I put 2 dresses in my basket and checked out at 8:11pm. By which time both dresses were out of stock already. Gutted.