I’ve spoken before about the importance of looking after your skin, and moisturising, especially as you get older, is so important – this includes the boys too you know 🙂 !

In my piece on bridal make-up I spoke about prepping your skin for your big day but to be honest this applies to every day really. If you look after your skin every day then when you wear make-up it will always look better than if you ignore your skin completely. You don’t have to use expensive products or have a truck load but a few basic products that work for your skin type is all you need.

It’s important to know what skin type you are so that the product can benefit your skin as best it can. For example if you have oliy skin and you use a heavy/thick moisturiser then it’s likely that you’re skin will become even more oily and shiny and your make-up will slide off by the end of the day. On the other hand if you have dry/dehydrated skin and you use a light moisturiser then you’ll probably end up with dry or even itchy patches and your make-up will be cakey in areas and look awful.

I think it’s also very important to use either a moisturiser with an SPF or an SPF cream under your daily moisturiser. The latter is better but to be honest I’m not very good at doing this religiously. The daily moisturiser I use, Olay Total Effetcs (below), has an SPF of 15 so I wear this every day and if I know I’ll be in the sun for prolonged periods I will use a full Sun Cream. I really like the Olay as it’s nice and light but still moisturises my skin enough that it feels hydrated. It drys in pretty quickly and works as a great base for my make-up too. At night I use Liz Earle Skin Repair (below) http://www.lizearle.ie and I love this because it’s just that little bit richer and soaks in nicely over night. I have combination skin so I get quite oily on my T-zone but can be dehydrated on my cheeks and around my hair line and nose in the winter months so both these products work perfectly for me. As my skin matures I’ll have to look at the products I use as your skin will change over time but for now these work for me.

Clare xox

OLay.Liz Earle