Renee Rouleau Skincare

My love of the hard-to-get-hold-of peaked in my skincare for a couple of years when I would only use the Renee Rouleau line (which is a independent US salon line.) I only stopped using it when our currency went down the pan, and I've honestly spent a lot more in the year or two since than I would have if I'd just stuck to the Renee Rouleau.

The basic routine is quite simple:

morning
cleanse with facial wash
tone
vitamin C serum
spf 15 or 30

night
cleanse with cleansing milk
tone
glycolic serum (one week), other treatment serum (alternate week)
night cream

There are also eye creams, masks, exfoliators and blemish treatments in the range, including the anti-cyst treatment for those horribly painful underground bumps that don't ever come to a head.

So far, this sounds like a solid, but nothing earth-shattering, line. What makes it such a good fit for me is that the line avoids the use of mineral oil, isopropyl myristate and isopropyl palmitate, alcohol in toners, sodium or ammonium lauryl/laureth sulphate and synthetic dyes and fragrances. Instead it used cold pressed plant oils and has non-pore-clogging formulas, which I really found work well to keep my skin hydrated without clogging my pores.

There are also 9 different skintypes and products to suit each of them, rather than the normal dry, oily, sensitive. Renee Rouleau recognises you can be oily and sensitive, for example (skintype #4.) I changed formulas depending on season; I used the spf 15 in winter and spf 30 in summer, and used the richer Hawaiian Nourishing Cream in winter, and the lighter Multi Vitamin Cream in summer for my night cream.

If you're in the US, this is a line that's well worth a look at. I'll be reordering in the summer; although my Sarah Chapman suits me well in the Winter it's too rich for my skin in the summer, and the Renee Rouleau spf 30 is one of the best high spf day creams I've ever found.

The website is at reneerouleau.com. They can ship overseas, but you need to email before ordering (Lydia, the Customer Services Manager, is lovely and very helpful, and I'm not just saying that because we share a name!) EDIT: Apparently the website is now set up to take international orders, so there is no need to email before ordering from outside the US.