Monday 30 May 2011

Beauty LAT 103: The Body Shop Vitamin C Skin Reviver- what is it?

I do love The Body Shop just a little bit too much. The main appeal has always been their ‘natural’ angle. I know that nowadays if you have a wander round Boots you can spot a dozen organic ranges that have natural ingredients too, but The Body Shop isn’t quite the same. It says ‘it’s natural, but it’s still going to be effective, it’s still proper skincare’, which is a fantastic bargaining position to be in.

I initially received the Vitamin C Skin Reviver through one of the many deals The Body Shop do. It is seriously worth checking out what they are offering, because you can sometimes get a huge amount free. There was the infamous Body Shop trip I did a few months back with the family where we came home with maybe £40 worth of free products? A-ma-zing. I was really excited to get this along with the Vitamin C Microdermabrasion scrub because I’d been really curious about trying this range. 



My first reaction to this was ‘Ooooohhhh exciting… what is it?’. No really… what is it? Because it’s really not that obvious. The name is pretty ambiguous let’s face it….

  

So, trying to work it out, I read the instructions…

Ohhhhh! It’s a primer! (You may think I’m exaggerating, but I literally did that.)

I have a bit of a love/hate relationships with primers. I love the idea of them, but honestly I’m not convinced they do anything other than add time and mess to my already over long skincare routine. The texture is not bad, there is something of a silicone-y feel (I don’t love overly silicone-y primers) but it’s not as bad as some, and I like the orangey nutty smell it has.



My biggest problem with primers is what to do with it. I don’t find they work on my oily areas, so I’ve tended to try them on my dry cheeks, as foundations can go cakey when the area underneath is dry. I tried it on the whole of my cheeks, chin and forehead and put my Nars Sheer Glow on top…

Hmmm. The tops of my cheeks (the really dry bits) look ok. Not mindblowing, but maybe slightly better. The weird bit is the bottom of my cheeks and my chin… I can feel the primer through the foundation. Primer, you may be new, but this isn’t cool. I tried to leave it 5 minutes before applying foundation but it didn’t feel like it was sinking in, and still doesn’t feel like it has. Look wise it doesn’t look horrendous, but there are a few spots where it’s kinda clogged together and the coverage doesn’t look as good.

I know only using it once might seem like a lack of proper research, but I can’t see this as something I’d reach for again. I think if you have dry skin this might be quite good actually, because it does seem to sink in better on those dry areas. I’d be wary though, if you don’t, of spending quite a lot of money on something which doesn’t seem to prime that well and won’t sink in properly, which really fails what a primer is supposed to do.

You can find this in The Body Shop retailing at £13.00, although as I said I got it free as part of a 'Spend over £25 on skincare and get free products' deal.

Rating: 3.5/10

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