Best affordable luxury skincare routine: Day to night

After seeing how popular my New Year TLC night-time skincare routine was, I thought now would be the perfect time to write up my day to day top skincare favourites. Most of these would be pigeon-holed as 'affordable luxury' skincare items, which means that they aren't drugstore products (a number of these items can be found in Harrods beauty hall), but they aren't Birkin prices.

Arguably, this makes them great products for students or young city workers who are on a budget (adding each expenditure to a neat little Excel spreadsheet) but who still want a tip-top complexion - and of all the things to skimp on, skincare is not it; you can thrift clothes, but you can't thrift skincare.


For ultimate ease, I have listed my go-to favourites in a handy list, starting with:

Step 1: Facial Wash
My current favourite face gel is The Body Shop's Tea Tree skin-clearing wash, made with tea tree oil from Mount Kenya, making it perfect for detoxifying blemished skin. It's 100% vegan and surprisingly gentle, making it useable for day and night-time cleansing.

Step 1.5 (optional): Facial scrub
My go-to scrub for buffing my skin is Clinique's 7 Day rinse-off scrub cream - I switch between this and the Good Things charcoal scrub. I don't necessarily use it everyday - more likely every two days - but both of these scrubs are textured enough to thoroughly buff dead skin cells away, and gentle enough for sensitive skin.

Step 2: Toner
My toner of choice right now is The Body Shop's Tea Tree skin clearing mattifying toner, which is a gentle astringent made with oil-absorbing powders, to help remove impurities and excess oil. You will find your skin satisfyingly matte after each use.

Step 3: Moisturiser
To reinstall the necessary hydration to my skin post-wash and post-toner, I have been using the Clinique dramatically different moisturising lotion, which is has a medium-thin texture, perfect for not oversaturating your skin with a cakey layer of cream, and instead simply giving it instant quick-absorb hydration.

As you will see in my upcoming weekly vlog, I have a couple of Holy Grail make-up items in my collection for a natural look, so I thought I should drop my top five here!

1: Foundation - Clinique anti-blemish solutions liquid foundation in 01 Alabaster
2: Blush - No 7 hypo-allergenic powder blusher in Peony Mist
3: Eyeshadow - Clinique shadow quad in 06 Pink Chocolate
4: Mascara - Lancôme Hypnôse Drama in 01 or Yves Saint Laurent Volume Effet Faux Cils in No 1
5: Lip-liner - Barry M lip liner in First Date


So these are my go-to favourites - this post is not in any way gifted or sponsored, it is a truly genuine reflection of my daily routine! What are your top skincare products? Drop a comment below or send me a message via one of my social channels!

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