3-step challenge!!

Just over a month ago now I went into Clinique after always hearing quite positive reviews about their products and decided to look for a new skin care regime to help me care for my skin. I went in with the ambition of smoothing over my skin tone just slightly (I never usually have massive blemishes or rough patches), I also had some concerns with how oily my skin was becoming after wearing my makeup for a few hours, I would get in at the end of the day and have a shine on my t-bone area so I aimed to also fix this. However my main concern when heading into Clinique was pores! I fear getting really big, open pores so much and I'm always worried that I will end up with really noticeable pores on my face, at the moment I have slight pores opening on the inside area of my cheeks, but I’ve never really suffered with this problem before, until the last few months. Over the summer I travelled into London on tubes and trains 5 days a week and noticed since then my pore size has increased (not happy about this- bloody pollution) but I was determined to target the problem before it got out of hand so I looked at Clinique to help me out. 

After a consultation with the lady at the Clinique counter, where we discussed every problem I may have, she then went through a step-by-step chart to evaluate the skin care that would suit me best and after a 10 minute discussion we finally decided on the ‘3-step skin care system’ in 'Skin type 2/dry combination', I was a bit apprehensive as my skin being dry is never something I’ve had to worry about- so it couldn’t have been that dry? I still went ahead and bought the smaller (£20) sample pack, aimed to last roughly 1 month! I used the products for 1 month, morning and night, everyday without fail! I felt pretty proud of myself for my persistency! I'm always willing to take the time to improve my skin! The whole routine of using the products made me feel good about my skin and at first I started to think “yeh, my skins getting better” but after I stopped kidding myself and 2 weeks into using the products I realised my skin hadn’t really improved, it was slightly softer from using the moisturiser (third step) but I hadn’t seen any improvement in the shiny/oiliness of my skin. I continued to use the 3 step until the end of the month like the beautician advised, but still no improvements. 

Skin type 2/ DRY COMBINATION.

The good thing about Clinique is that they are positive they can find a product that is good for you and YOUR skin so it didn’t stop there. I later went into a different Clinique store just to ask for some advice, when speaking to the lady this time and discussing my problems which the ‘Skin type 2/dry combination’ failed to help before. She carried out another skin examination and ensured me it was the wrong one for my problems and that I actually needed the ‘Skin Type 3/Combination Oily’ I wasn’t happy that I had been recommended the wrong type in the first place but after the consultant told me I was entitled to an exchange and didn’t have to spend another penny I was very happy to swap over my almost empty type 2 for the new type 3 (better suited to my skin). So far I have only been using the new ‘Skin Type 3’ for 4 days but already I'm slightly happier with how it feels on my skin compared to the previous product. The moisturiser is definitely more suited for oily skin and I'm really hoping I notice a difference this time, especially with the effort I'm going through using all 3 steps, twice daily! I can see the ‘Skin Type 2/Dry Combination’ working for someone where their main issue is dryness but if you tend to have an annoying shine or sometimes feel slightly oily then that one probably wouldn’t give any satisfaction. Apparently it takes 2 weeks for results to show and a month to see final improvements so I will keep you all updated in how this skin care treats me! Fingers crossed this one doesn’t fail the job!

Skin type 3/ COMBINATION OILY.

 

Has anyone tried this out before? Or recommend any skin care to minimize pores/reduce oiliness?

 xx