My mosituriser holy grails

Being a scientist, I've always been very sceptical of any claims made by the beauty industry regarding their products and also by any overly enthusiastic praises from users of said products. I guess we all know about the placebo effect!

But, having said all that, there are a few moisturisers that I really swear by. Firstly, I think the key to keeping healthy skin is to be very careful in the sun. I know people sometimes make fun of me for wearing products with SPF everyday, even on the greyest of London days. However, I'm a firm believer that the biggest damage done to our skin is by UV rays (unless you're an excessive drinker or smoker of course) and those are not completely blocked by clouds! (in fact, some suggest that there is an effect called cloud enhancement of UV rays: http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/pub/sunshine-on-a-cloudy-day )

So daily, I tend to use any facial moisturiser with SPF15. I'm currently using Olay's Complete Care Daily Sensitive UV Fluid SPF15.

Image from: here

In the summer months, I use products with much higher SPF. My favourite is a Japanese product made by Bioré called UV Perfect Face Milk SPF 50+ PA+++.

Image from: http://beautyknot.wordpress.com/2008/10/31/biore-pefect-face-milk-spf50-pa

However, as I can only get hold of this in Japan, I also use Anthelios Extreme Face Fluid SPF 50 by La Roche-Posay but it really pales in comparison to Bioré's product. What I love about is that although the Perfect Face Milk is liquid, it dries onto the skin in a very fresh, powdery finish which doesn't shine. The La Roche-Posay product is unfortunately a little bit sticky and leaves more of a shine which can make the skin look a bit oily.

Image from: here

At night, I use Steamcream which I only started using about a year ago. I feel like this product has really changed my skin. I rarely have breakouts now and people keep on mentioning how much smoother my skin is. Perhaps I'm just eating better and having a healthier life-style and it's got nothing to do with the cream... But because I love the light texture of the moisturiser and it's soothing scent, I continue to use it. It also comes in the most beautiful tins with many different designs. Here are a couple which I currently have:

Image from: http://www.steamcream.co.uk/shop.html