We are very lucky to have a post here by Cindy Vincent, who tested out on our behalf the Trish McEvoy Beauty Booster Cleansing Balm and that tubey mascara thing. Take it away Cindy..
I have had the same cleansing routine since I was around fifteen. It is very simple, and it was inspired by Paul Newman. I once read that he washed his face every day in really cold water, the implication being that this was probably the reason he looked like he’d hopped down from Mount Olympus to act and mix salad dressing. Not his genetics, or having eyes carved from lapis lazuli or anything like that. Now, OBVIOUSLY, as a teenage girl, I wanted a complexion like Paul Newman’s. I wasn’t going to wait around to find out what Audrey Hepburn had to say on it. Or even someone contemporary. No, how does the Hustler wash his face? That’s good enough for me.
And it was good enough for me for a long time. I never wore a lot of makeup. Not having suffered with spots out of the usual way, and being a bit of a square, I wasn’t really driven to it in my teens and wouldn’t have known what to do with it anyway.
Then I had children, and nothing drives one to makeup like young children do. Bad night follows bad night, hormones hate you, your eyelids droop and blacken like flowers left in a frost, red patches bloom over your skin like…flowers left somewhere warmer, so you start whacking it on. Meanwhile everyone around you has gone beyond simply cleansing and moisturising – suddenly becoming alchemists, with various serums to target different areas – and Paul Newman is letting you down. Maybe its tiredness, maybe its Maybelline you haven’t removed.
I was, then, quite keen to try the Trish McEvoy Beauty Booster Cleansing Balm, especially as it said 3-in-1 on the tube, as it made me feel like I was finally catching up whilst everyone else was still unscrewing all their bottle tops.
It goes on really nicely, on dry skin, like a gel, and then you ‘emulsify’ it with warm water – warm! You rinse it and it goes all milky, and then you can wipe it off with a cloth, taking your makeup with it. I have to say it works really well. You know how you think your carpets are pretty clean, but then you get a new vacuum cleaner, and think holy shit, what have we been living with – that’s what they’re supposed to look like?! Well I had a moment like that, only with my face.
I usually put on moisturiser like Mrs Doubtfire, face-in-cake style, but this left my skin feeling quite soft even without it, so it’s not overly drying either. It also, don’t get too excited, zapped away a few hormonal spots that were threatening an appearance.
The 3 of the 3 in 1 is a face mask. I wasn’t sure there would be a lot extra to be gained using it this way as opposed to as a cleanser, but I left it for the minimum ten minutes before tissuing it off – you can go longer, but I’m a timid soul – and yes, ok, Trish, you win, my skin did indeed feel even smoother.
I also tried the Trish McEvoy tubing mascara Esther talked about previously and can confirm it is very good (I know you’ve been waiting for this). I have even gone running in it and it doesn’t bleed, or crumble (unlike me). Most importantly, it has not irritated my eyes or caused problems with my contacts, yet it does come off very easily – even the Paul Newman way.
I to am of the era that remembers the article about Paul Newman washing his face in ice cold water every day!! I always double cleanse every night as it really makes a difference to your skin, but in the morning I just rinse with ice cold water ‘the Newman way’ and always get comments on my skin.
It’s such a habit now and all because of some throwaway line. It does feel as though it should be good for you. But until I get cast in a film with Robert Redford there’s no way of knowing if it works!
Love this. Elaine x
Thanks Elaine x
I might have to buy this cleanser, you’ve made a good (and amusing!) case for it. I am currently using the Superdrug vit E hot cloth cleanser, because Sali Hughes recommended it about a million years, and because it is dead cheap. Mainly the cheapness to be fair.
It’s good stuff, but is it good ENOUGH? I’ll switch and let you know.
Thanks – I am quite partial to hot cloth occasionally as well and at that price you can’t go wrong. I get very attached to things that work and don’t experiment enough.
I don’t wash my face at all but loved this nonetheless! Thank you Cindy.
This was VV funny. And informative 🙂
I remember reading that Paul Newman said he plunged his face in a bucket of ice every morning, but thought it was a joke, as in ‘as if I’d be that vain’ or ‘I have plastic surgery like all the other movie stars’.
It could well have been, or entirely made up. I read it in a kind of coffee table photo-biography I had of him (just a small obsession) I think it was in one of the captions.
Maybe it’s Maybelline… brilliant.
Thank you Cindy and Esther for both the chuckle and the information. I too am one of those ‘just water’ types who has been very lucky with my skin but now the children and turning 30 are making me look at skincare products out of the side of my eye… how much longer can I get away with doing nothing for?! Might give this a go. My (Dutch) sister-in-law uses Rituals and has lovely skin but apart from that I am clueless. TEACH US YOUR WAYS.