La Vie Est Belle: Avène Cleanance Range - The Secret of French Beauty Rituals

If you read some of my last posts (here) you will know that the kids have been giving me major stress lately. One of the side effects of all this stress has been that my skin is terrible! I have had break outs all over my face and neck, and they have lasted for weeks without calming down. I know things like the lack of sleep and the insane amount of chocolate I eat to stay sane contributed to that, but even though I've tried to clean up my act, my old La Roche Posay Effaclar (review here) just wasn't cutting it. My host mum swears by Avène products, so I thought I would try some too. But I wasn't just going to change face wash. I was going to start washing my face like a real Parisienne. I was going to start a full cleansing ritual with Avène's Cleanance range whilst on my holiday in the Alps, to make my pampering complete!

Nuxe Bio Beauté High Nutrition Body Lotion For Sensitive Skin

On my recent trip to the Alps, I made a promise. I was going to practice a little self care and try to repair a little of the damage that my body had undergone since coming back to au pairing in January. I went on a mini-pharmacy binge before jumping on the TGV and picked up a few treats to boost my apres ski regime. My first choice was this - Nuxe Bio Beauté High Nutrition Body Lotion For Sensitive Skin. After receiving an entire handful of free samples of this in a Monoprix para-pharmacy near Notre Dame, I decided to go out and buy the real deal.

Champs Elysées Christmas Market

It's the most wonderful time of the year! Or if, like me, you loathe crowded spaces and shopping its time to get your game face on and reluctantly trudge around desperately trying to find something to take home for Christmas. This is made all the more difficult by the fact that your whole family wants something "from Paris", a city famed for luxury and chic, and your au pair wages just won't cover a Chanel coat for everyone.

The one upside to this time of year is that is more or less acceptable to consume hot alcoholic beverages in public at anytime after midday under the ruse of 'being festive". This helps to take the edge off the dreaded christmas shopping stress to the point where elbowing strangers in the stomach to get to the last box of macarons is almost bearable.

So in the spirit of christmas, and drunken public disorder, have you checked out the Christmas Market on Champs Elysées?

La Vie Est Belle - Clinique Repairwear

You may remember about a month ago I turned 26. I wrote a post about being an older au pair. Well here is one of the things they don't warn you about having your mid-twenties crisis - you start thinking about whether your moisturiser has anti-ageing properties.

Then you start investing night cream.

It's all downhill from here.

La Vie Est Belle - Sephora Poudre exfoliante métamorphose

Ok, so you knew it was coming. How can a girl write a beauty post from France and not mention SEPHORA?

It's beginning to look a lot like christmas in Paris

Well, it's time to admit to my addiction.

La Vie Est Belle: Klorane Shampooing Sec à l'ortie

Ok, I have said this before but it bears repeating. I am all about minimal effort when it comes to beauty products. There are very few products that I think are essential products that I would use everyday. A face-wash, a good moisturiser, brown mascara and a concealer are my everyday products. I can get quite happily by with just them, and one other thing.

Dry shampoo.

I love dry shampoo. It is a godsend. Anyone who has fine or oily hair knows that there is nothing more disheartening than waking up the day after your shower and your hair is already lank at the roots. I have tried several brands, to varying success. I am a big fan of Batiste original formula, but find the added volume version too sticky and the overly fragranced versions overwhelming. Here in France I have been unable to find Batiste. I was using Timotei Pure which I bought from the local supermarché, but it was very heavy and left me looking grey and flat. But now I have discovered Klorane.

La Vie est Belle- Evian le Brumisateur spray.

Yep, it's time for another French Beauty product review. This week i'm looking at Evian le Brumisateur Spray. 

This type of spray is incredibly popular in French pharmacies. Brands such as La Roche-Posay, Avène, and others market these as miracle sprays that can do anything from set make up to healing scars. It is also a cult favourite amongst beauty bloggers and youtube reviewers. I'm going to take a look at Evian's version, which I found at my local supermarché for 3€.

La Vie est Belle - Nuxe rêve de miel lip balm

Bonjour! It's time for another French beauty post. This time I'm looking at a cult beauty classic by Nuxe - rêve de miel lip balm.

Packing

This was going to be a joke about how little you can fit in a suitcase -
then I became REALLY worried

I hate packing. I've always been somewhat 'scatter-brained', and I can guarantee that I will forget something. This has led to me making lists upon lists of things to pack. The result is that I have lots of lists, and not much time left to actually do the packing, let alone go out and buy anything I've forgotten. If there's one talent that I possess above all others it is procrastination.

But that's just regular packing, the sort one does for a holiday or long weekend. If you are off as an au pair (or any long term stay) packing is a whole other ball game.

La Vie est Belle: My First Beauty post - La Roche-Posay

I have an admission to make. At twenty-five I am utterly clueless about beauty products and makeup. Not to mention totally useless. Yes, I am ashamed.

Why is this? Well I grew up in the countryside and I spent a good deal of my time on rain- and windswept hillsides in England and Wales, where anything short of tattooing my eyeliner on couldn't have held it in place. Second of all I went to a quite strict girls' school where even a hint of concealer was forcibly scrubbed off by the school nurse. Thirdly I've never really bothered. Don't get me wrong, I am by no means a natural beauty and I'm not vain enough to think that I 'don't need' makeup. What I AM is lazy and unwilling to sacrifice the extra five minutes in bed to put mascara on my bleary eyes. I never spent the hours as a looks-obsessed teen practicing my technique and now in my mid-twenties the thought of trying to perfect my eyeliner wings seems like a chore rather than a part of my morning ritual (which actually involves about nine cups of tea...).

But what better place to try and get to grips with all things beauty than in Paris? The origin of some of the world's great beauty brands and home of some of the most chic and beauty savvy people in the world. So I'm going to post a few reviews of some of the French brands I think you have to try. Most will be available in the UK, or at least over Amazon. Some may be a little more difficult to source, but they will be worth it!

So here we go - my first ever French beauty review of La Roche-Posay

Apologies for the rubbish photo quality - taken on my phone during a thunderstorm.