The Sunday Review – Estée Lauder Advanced Night Repair

I have been using the Estée Lauder Advanced Night Repair products since early Autumn 2009. Both the Synchronized Recovery Complex and the Eye Recovery Complex have been very good to me over the past few months. They were prizes; I love entering competitions (read more about my hobby here) because its a great way to find out about new and existing products which you wouldn't otherwise buy; every once in a while, you get to try out a product where the competition really does achieve its goal – you become a convert and will go back to buy the product time and again. Now that I am approaching the end of the bottles of Advanced Night Repair, I have been evaluating whether or not I love them enough to justify forking out real cash for them when I run out.

Image courtesy of Estee Lauder

The Synchronized Recovery Complex is an anti-ageing serum that you apply to your skin each evening beneath your existing moisturiser. Using the integral pipette, you apply just four or five drops and then massage it onto your face and neck using your fingertips. The serum feels incredibly silky smooth on your skin and you'd be surprised how little you need to use in order to coat your entire face. Before I received these Estée Lauder products, I had been on the lookout for a new moisturiser (I've yet to find the perfect moisturiser and tend to flit from brand to brand). After using Advanced Night Repair for several months, I've found that no matter what moisturiser I use after the serum, that when I wake up in the morning my face feels well hydrated, soft and healthy. It has given me a chance to use up all the odds and ends of moisturisers with which I had previously fallen out of love.

The Synchronized Recovery Complex claims to both repair existing damage to the skin, and to protect against future damage. It's anti-ageing claims are three-fold:-

• Reducing/preventing the appearance fine lines (check!)
• Evening out skin tone (check!) and
• Continuous hydration (most certainly check!)

The Eye Recovery Complex is a restorative eye gel designed to reduce the fine lines around the delicate eye area. It has its own funky applicator (but fingertips will do just as well). It is recommended for use both morning and night but one of the things I love most about using an eye gel is that feeling of refreshment and renewal I get when I apply it after a long day staring at a computer screen as I sink down into my pillows at the end of the day. Sadly, there was no sense of refreshment with the Eye Recovery Complex. Don't get me wrong, it does feel gentle and non-greasy but it is missing that wow factor, that sense of zing and immediate recovery that I look for in an eye gel. After about two weeks using the Eye Recovery Complex, I could notice a difference to the skin around my eyes but since then, there has been no further improvement. I would be interested to see how quickly those barely perceptible signs of age return if/when I stop using it.

So, would I spend my own money on Estée Lauder Advanced Night Repair? Yes. Certainly (although I think I'll drop some hints to Mr. B. first and see where it gets me). I genuinely feel that over the past four or five months, my face has felt a lot healthier, more resilient to the winter weather than in previous years and generally more even in tone and hydration than I have ever known it before. I am very likely to be purchasing the Synchronized Recovery Complex but will have to consider carefully whether the benefits of the Eye Recovery Complex are great enough to compensate for the lack of wow factor.

The Synchronized Recovery Complex is available from £36 and the Eye Recovery Complex is available for £33.50.

Passing On Parenting Tips

This week, one of my bestest pals in the whole wide world announced that he is going to become a Daddy later this year. After a few hours of squealing with excitement, giggling to myself (my colleagues were giving me funny looks by this point) and generally smiling from ear-to-ear, I stopped to think about what advice I could offer a couple just starting out on their pregnancy and parenting adventure.

I could tell them to take advantage of any free baby bits and pieces they may be offered over the next few months. I could recommend they fill their freezer with lots of home-cooked meals (sans onion) to help them survive the first few days. I could scare them with humiliating stories of mummy-dom. I have lots of tips and advice on Mummy, Baby and Daddy products to buy (or not). But I don't want to overwhelm them with information at such an early stage in proceedings.

Perhaps I'll just recommend they do what we did – draw up a list of “stuff you want to do while there's just the two of you”. There's a tendency to focus too much on the birth of your first baby and to forget that up until that point you have the freedom to do whatever takes your fancy (within reason – I don't think I'd recommend bungee jumping) but that once your baby comes along, there are things you can only do with a lot of planning and/or a lot of confidence. I'll tell them to make the most of the next wonderful few months and to do all the things that they've been planning on doing for a while. For us it was:-

• go for a Spa Day
• watch a film at the cinema
• see a West End show
• go for dinner at a very posh restaurant
• go for dinner at your favourite restaurant (posh or not!)
• go on holiday, somewhere quiet and grown-up
• play computer games (that was Mr. B, not me)

I think, looking back, the only thing I'd add to that list is “read loads of books because you won't get another chance for a while”.

So, what piece of advice would you pass on to some new parents-to-be?

Stories & Songs – A Meme

I hadn't listened to any music for months and months but Mr B bought me the much-celebrated IPod for Christmas and now that I am back at work, slaving over a keyboard, I have had time to explore my music collection.

Hayley at SingleMotherhoodChallenges tagged me in the 'Stories & Songs' meme. So here's my song of choice, and the story behind it:-

I chose Dodgy's “Staying out for the Summer” because its reminds me of meeting and getting to know one of my best friends (who I don't see anywhere near enough these days). Meet James. Our paths first crossed in the summer of my 17th birthday party. If I remember correctly, he actually gate-grashed my party, stole the beer from the fridge and hid it in the woodland across the road from my house. Not exactly the best way to start a relationship, but at least it's memorable. James may not be my most frequently-visited friend these days, but he's one of the best; I love him to pieces, so much so that he was my maid of honour (sorry, mate of honour) at my wedding.

That year, as one of my birthday presents, my folks gave me a copy of the Dodgy album, 'Free Peace Sweet'. The single, 'Staying Out For The Summer' had just been released, I was half way through my A-levels, loving college life during the week, and discovering the joys of the local pubs at the weekends. In my head (if not in reality), the whole of the next 12 months were sunny, bright and a a huge amount of fun. Mind you, this was a good few years ago and my memory could be playing tricks on me. Although the song feels summery, I guess the lyrics aren't as cheerful as the music but for me, it is the anthem of that year.



The following summer James invited me to his summer ball at the Southampton Institute. For reasons you can probably imagine, I can't remember an awful lot about the ball itself but I remember this photo being taken in the afternoon before we started (properly) drinking. I spent a lot of money on that dress and now I look back, it makes me look quite ill and skinny, but at the time, it was perfect. I matched the dress with a pair of huge 12cm white chunky heels which meant I towered over everyone around, especially James. I can clearly remember watching Dodgy perform this track live at the ball inside a huge marquee and me having the perfect view because I was a clear head's height taller than almost everyone else in the room! It was a brilliant night.

I'm not planning on tagging anyone else with this meme because it has nearly run its course, but if you fancy it and haven't already been tagged, feel free to give it a go.