REVOLUTION X SALI HUGHES SKINCARE | NEW IN

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One of the most 'pleasant surprise' skincare launches of the year for me has been Sali Hughes' collaboration with Revolution Skincare (also available at Superdrug, Look Fantastic and Asos). I've always felt that Revolution Skincare is a lot better than people want to give it credit for and I've read Sali's beauty column in the Guardian for years and loved both of her books. Sali describes this line as the 'jeans and white t-shirt' of skincare: simple but classic and pretty much always a winner, so let's get into the formulas...

I don't normally start a post with what I think is my favourite product but what can I say? It felt chronological! The Clean Sheet Morning Cleanser* | £10 | is pretty much everything I want from an AM cleanse but it actually makes a really great travel cleanser if you're short on space because it will also remove sunscreen and light / everyday makeup. It comes out as this sort of creamy, balmy gel hybrid which is just my sort of thing! As you massage it into the skin, it melts down into something a little more oil-based to offer a gentle, completely non-foaming cleanse. It emulsifies really easily and leaves no residue at all, plus is formulated with skin-loving ingredients like shea butter esters, glycerin and grape seed oil to moisturise, hydrate and offer the gentlest cleanse possible. It is formulated with fragrance, which I think is absolutely fine for almost everyone in a wash-off product. This feels luxurious to use and it's one I reach for instinctively time and time again: I love it!

Next we have the Must-C Anytime Daily Serum* | £15. This is formulated to be your gently-active, hydrating 'every single day' antioxidant serum. Ascorbyl Glucoside is a gentle Vitamin C derivative; whilst not as proven as pure-form ascorbic acid in terms of boosting up collagen production in the skin, that ingredient is notoriously tricky to stabilise and can be irritating for some people, whereas derivatives can still provide some antioxidant benefit (protecting the skin from free radical damage), give it an overall glow boost and also even out the skin's overall tone. It's supported by Vitamin E and Ferulic Acid, which help to stabilise Vitamin C and boost up its effectiveness. We also have niacinamide in here, which is a multi-functional ingredient, doing everything from boosting up the skin's barrier function by encouraging it to produce ceramides to helping regulate overproduction of sebum in the skin (which causes excess oiliness and therefore breakouts) to stopping pigmentation spreading through the skin, so that spot or insect bite doesn't turn into a scar that's bigger than the original injury. Plus it has antioxidant benefits! I really love Vitamin C paired with niacinamide and this reminds me a little bit of a more affordable Sunday Riley CC Me (it does also contain fragrance). There's glycerin and hyaluronic acid in here too; your humectants to draw water into the skin so it's plump and hydrated - just make sure you apply this to slightly damp skin and lock it in with a moisturiser to get all of those benefits. Overall, I really like this serum: it gives my skin a healthy, fresh glow, it's really gentle, it gives a good dose of hydration and my skin is looking clear and even! It's a really great one-step serum option for those who want a shorter, simpler routine in the morning without compromising on getting great ingredients into it.

It seems time to talk about the Cream Drench Rich Anytime Moisturiser* | £14. Although this is billed as a 'rich moisturiser' and it's definitely a deeply-moisturising formula: don't be scared! It's more that the ingredients are deeply nourishing and replenishing than a comment on the texture, which actually feels pretty fluffy and melts into the skin wonderfully, leaving behind a satisfying emollience. I really like the concept of an 'anytime' moisturiser - for my normal-to-dry skin during the spring months, this is a pretty perfect AM-or-PM option to pack when I'm away for the weekend. I would say that for dry skin, you could do the same (maybe top it off with an oil for the evening) and even if you're oily / combination: this would make a lovely night cream, and there is a summer-friendly gel-formula moisturiser in the pipeline too if you'd prefer to wait for that. In terms of ingredients, we have niacinamide again, alongside ceramides which are a fundamental component of your skin barrier, glycerin and hyaluronic acid again and squalane, which is a plant-derived oil that kind of imitates the oils our skin naturally produces, so your barrier is happy and things feel soft, smooth and replenished. Overall, this is a pretty stellar moisturiser, getting all the ingredients I love into a texture that's easy to incorporate into my AM or PM routine.

For your evening routine, we have the Butterclean Makeup Meltdown Cleansing Balm* | £15. This is your traditional solid-to-oil cleansing balm to remove makeup and sunscreen at the end of the day. As a double-cleanser, I don't worry too much about what's in my first cleanses if they're gentle and work but this is formulated with lots of moisturising stuff like squalane, safflower oil and jojoba oil. Look, this is a nice enough cleansing balm: it does emulsify but it doesn't get quite as milky as I'd like it to in order to remove makeup cleanly without me needing to rub with a cloth too much (which generally makes me cringe). Also, this does have a scent to it, which I don't mind and actually do usually enjoy in a cleansing balm to get that sensory experience, but it was a bit much for me in this product and did sometimes irritate my eyes a little. It works ok and it leaves my skin soft after use but I think there are better options out there, even at this price-point.

Finally, we have the Placid 5-Acid Daily Exfoliant* | £14. It's a chemical exfoliant complex with salicylic acid (to dive into the pores and help clear breakouts), tranexamic acid for its anti-dark-spot benefits, glycolic acid for that brightening effect, lactic acid to resurface the skin in a gentle, hydrating way and malic acid, which is kind of like a booster for the overall formula. Again, it's wrapping potentially several products into one by including ingredients that exfoliate the skin on multiple levels plus it has humectants to act as a bit of a buffer. This really sounded like a bit of me on paper however I don't know what happened! It was just quite irritating on my skin so I couldn't hack it for more than for 1 week (during which I used it 3 times before giving up). I'm not sure what caused this, I know a lot of people like this product and I've definitely used stronger exfoliants without getting that unpleasant prickle, but here we are. My reviews are based on my personal experience with a product, so it doesn't mean you shouldn't try it but that's just how it was for me!

Other than the acid (and to a lesser extent, the cleansing balm) not working out for me, I'm overall pretty into this range! It looks good, and the packaging is functional alongside that, plus it's at a really good price-point: obviously Revolution is very affordable, but this strikes the balance between cost and ingredients / formulation. My only slight gripe is that niacinamide and hyaluronic acid are in every step of the routine, which isn't so much a problem if you're just using a couple of these products within a wider routine but just be aware that if you're using only this line: even though I'm confident both ingredients are formulated at skin-friendly concentrations in the individual products, the accumulation of them might be a bit much for some people. The standouts and must-haves for me are the moisturiser and the AM cleanse, but I did really enjoy the Vitamin C too (it just might not be heavy-duty enough for some)!

Have you tried anything from this range?

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