Bye-Bye Dry Eyes

This stuff is amazing! I genuinely want to tell everyone about it, it's the best thing ever! What is it? I hear you ask, well, it's lubricating eye drops, that are suitable for use with all contact lenses!! Aahhh *angels sing* Honestly I love this stuff!! 

After wearing contact lenses for over a decade I know the troubles of finding eye drops suitable to use with contact lenses. You either have to chuck them out after four weeks of opening or you can buy those individual sachets, which you can never find when you need them, scratchy to use and impossible to get open. 

So you can imagine my absolute delight when I discovered HYLO-FORTE^®  (also know as HYLO^® -GEL)  This my friends, is the answer to all your dry eye nightmares!

What makes it different to all the rest? It has the super cool (patented) pump thing at the bottom, which you press and it releases the perfect amount of drop right into your eye, so no tears running down your face or that horrible anticipation, waiting for the drop to eventually reach your eyeball.

The nifty container keeps the solution completely sealed, so no bacteria can get in there, making it preservative free and suitable for all contact lenses, hurra!!! As it's normally the preservatives in eye drops that react with most contact lenses, damaging the contact lenses.

You can keep it for up to 6 months after opening after that it is recommended to be discarded.  Although it normally lasts me around 4-5 months, so perfect timing. There is said to be around 300 drops in each packet.

When I put this in my eyes, I have immediate and long lasting relief, no more burning or dryness, it is aaamaazing! You can't actually feel it go in, it doesn't sting, burn or make your eyes cloudy.  It just kind of soothes your eyes, making them all happy, I guess once again living up to its name and lubricating your eyes!

I have definitely noticed a reduction in the little red veins in my eyes, thank goodness!  And of course I also use it on my beloved puggies if their eyes are looking a little dry or if they have something in them, and it is really easy to get in their eyes with the cool pump dispenser thing it has.

Now we have established that they are amazing and if you suffer from dry eyes and wear contact lenses, you have to get this, but here is a fun fact!  The ingredient that's in it to make it all silky and delicious on your eye ball is sodium hyaluronate also referred to as hyaluronic acid and is one of the most abundant components of your skin and is proven to help reverse and counteract the signs of aging caused by UVB. Ooo interesting.

If you look closely you'll find this ingredient in a lot of the expensive eye and face creams. So after using it in my eyes during the day, at night I pop a bit around my eyes, in-between my eyebrows and round my mouth, basically where I can see those lovely fine lines starting to appear. Funny thing is it actually feels lovely on my face as well!! Multi tasking product or what! 

Now it is expensive for an eye drop, around $32 (NZD) or £15 (GBP) but oh so worth it! I just get it from my local pharmacy and I have never regretted any money I've spent on this and you never know you might have even found yourself a less expensive anti-wrinkle cream! Bonus!! 

Bedroom black

Over the past year I have been steadily growing my collection of Charlotte Tilbury goodies and one of those goodies, as you've probably already guessed, was her Rock'n'Kohl Iconic Liquid Eye Pencil in Bedroom Black.

When trying it out for the first time I was actually quite shocked by how good it was, now my expectations were pretty high as her other items have been sooo good but this did not disappoint.  It just glides on the eyes like well a lipstick or liquid (guess the clue is in the name) it just seems to melt into your skin at the point of contact, which means no tugging on the delicate eyelid area.  But at the same point it doesn't transfer, you have a small amount of time to play with the product, blend it out or create a lovely smokey eye but then once it sets that's it.  Perfect!

I also like using this product to tight line my upper eyelid and to use in-between the lashes as it is so soft and creamy.  It has also been a dream to use on my waterline as well, as I normally avoid wearing eyeliners in my waterline due to the fact that my eyes are super sensitive and they are very prone to becoming red, super quickly, if you get those rogue floaty bits in your eye (you know the ones) when using eyeliners in waterline, but my eyes don't seem to react with this eyeliner and there are minimal/no floaty bits when applying this in the waterline.  Yay! 

The consistency of the product very much reminds me of a gel eyeliner but in a pencil format, which I really like.  And the colour pay off it amazing, its bedroom black alright!

It has been my go to product to create a black flick, like above.  And to create the tail of the flick I took some product from the pencil tip on an angled brush, I used a MAC 266, to get that sharp tapered end, like how you would use a gel eyeliner but I find this much easier to work with.  It doesn't transfer onto my eyelid when I open my eyes and it stays put all day long.  This little beauty certainly has been a pleasant surprise. 

 

Bioderma, how does it work?

The Back Story

I love make-up, I love everything about make-up, how it can make you feel, how it can be transforming, magical, therapeutic, expressive, an outlet and sooo much more to sooo many different people.  I just love make-up. 

The only thing I dislike about make-up, is taking it off.  I used to dread taking off my make-up, due to the fact it would hurt.  To be clear it would hurt my eyeballs, yes my actual eyeballs, as I have extremely sensitive skin and most of all eyeballs, if any make-up remover/cleansers got in them, one ouch and two I would look like I was ready for a casting of the black swan.

The Hunt

I scoured the beauty world to find something that wouldn't react with my eyes, and yet take my make-up off properly.  So in turn I tired a lot of make-up removers/cleansers.  A lot.

And I'll tell you what, eventually, with the help of the delightful thing called the internet and YouTube, I found it!!  I found the one, the one that has helped me get over my one and only dislike of make-up.  I discovered BIODERMA Crealine H2O. 

I think if memory serves me correctly I was watching one of Lisa Eldridge's YouTube video's and there is was.  I was intrigued, I trust her opinion, she knows her stuff, so what was this mystical bottle?

So I researched it, purchased it, used it and well it was.. glorious!!  It was like heaven!!  It just kind of, dissolves your make-up, even water proof mascara and best of all no pain if it gets in your eyes.

But how?

BIODERMA is a French Pharmaceutical company whom specialises in dermatology, basically they have super intelligent people working on things for the skin that actually work.  They have a range of products which I would like to try more of but first things first back to BIODERMA Crealine H2O. 

As the bottle was in French (didn't do too well at French at school) I didn't really understand what it was and how it worked, I was so very intrigued.  It was like water but got rid of waterproof mascara?

Actually even after reading the English translation I still didn't quite understand it, micellar water?  What is that?  So I have asked the help of my beloved husband whom is a Pharmacist and has a much higher grasp of Chemistry terms than myself to explain it to me in a way I would understand..  So here goes.

How it actually works? (in layman's terms)

BIODERMA Crealine H2O is basically like some of the two part oil in water make-up removers/cleansers that you shake to mix up, but with a little extra magic thrown in. The main ingredient is water, at a higher ratio than most other removers/cleansers. This is due to it being a micellar/micellaire water based cleanser.  It is also free from SLS, parabens and benzoates, which are known to cause sensitivity reactions.   Good to know. 

So what is micellar/micellaire water?  Basically the oil part is wrapped up into little spheres (a micelle) by a surfactant. The easiest way to explain a surfactant is to think of a sperm, yup just like that. So the head is attracted to water and the tail is attracted to the oil, this attraction forms tiny spheres of oil with the tails going in and the heads facing out, protecting the oil from grouping together in the water.  Just imagine a load of sperm all around the oil or an orange covered in cloves. 

Now in the case BIODERMA Crealine H2O the surfactant is such a small size that the micelles they form can't be seen by the naked eye and so it appears clear. When you put it onto a cotton pad and remove your make-up the surfactant (mixed with the water) and oil both help break down the make-up, the oil parts removing oil based (waterproof) make-up and the water part with surfactants removing the rest.  There are also a few lovely things in there that help firm and refresh your skin as well. 

Try not to think about sperm next time you are taking off your make-up and please note there is NO actual sperm in BIODERMA its just an analogy.  If you don't understand it, don't worry, just think of it as fairy dust in water. 

Why I love it?

Because it makes taking off my make-up a joy.  Just put some on to a cotton pad, put it on your eye, leave it there for a few moments and wipe away, your make-up comes off without any scrubbing, rubbing or soreness.  My eyes don't nip, no redness and what's better is my skin adores it.  I feel actually clean after using this and it feels like there is nothing on my skin, no slimy oily residue, no smell, nothing.  Must be those little micelle thingies working their magic. 


See no rubbing required!

Another major plus, you can reapply make-up straight away.  As with some make-up removers, if you try and reapply your make-up after taking it off, it will just slip right off your face but not with this bad boy it's like a completely fresh face to work with.  Yay!! 

This is by far one of best things I have ever purchased.  I just couldn't live without it.  If you are considering trying this, go for it.  It has lived up to every positive review I've read and more.  I love it!! And Beautylish has just started stocking it as well, which will hopefully make it a lot easier for everyone to get a hold of! Whoop whoop!