Later on this week notes:
But first my skin: my skin is classified as oily+resistant+tight/wrinkled (I’m at that age where fine lines are approaching) I think I got the Susan classification right! I might be missing one category though. It is generally very well behaved, but it is on the oily side. In the summer I find I can just wear a moisturising toner and go on my way, but now that I am going on 37 next month, I cannot just do the young girl thing and slap on a toner and walk away I should have some extra oomph. Especially around the eye area.
To test, I rubbed AVC on the right side of my face and ZEN on the left.
AVC: still remains the one I prefer for face moisturising. My skin feels amazing with it! I really do think the Chinese translation of it “ice lotion” is a good description as it makes my face feel plump, very soft, silky and “fresh”. I really really like having a small tub of this in the fridge then applying as my face feels very happy using this as a cold “cream”. I apply toner, apply a generous amount of the AVC and walk away. My face doesn’t feel overly oily though the day, my skin feels great, and I don’t know why, but I have stopped having acne. I’ve mentioned before, it could be a couple of reasons (using the AVC or I began taking oral evening primrose around the same time).
pros: VERY quick to make, on the cheap side, a little goes a long way, love the feel
cons: no silk, aloe, very picky about extracts, no salt
ZEN: I so wanted to love the ZEN. But upon application, it made my skin feel somewhat tight. And I hate any kind of “tight” feeling on my skin. I found it also made my skin look a little on the shiny side. I stopped using it on my face after a few days as even my students were pointing out that part of my face looked different than the other part of my face. Also the making of the ZEN took some figuring out. There are some tricks to getting it right. I also discovered that this worked better around my eyes than the AVC. So for the past few days, I’ve been using the ZEN as an eye gel, and the AVC as a face gel and have been quite happy with the results. I’ve another batch going on at the moment to test out coffee essential oil and the other batch is to test out green tea extract. My hope is to make a great eye serum/gel with the ZEN using: cucumber extract, green tea and hydrolised oat peptides/protein (the site I buy from translates into both). But need to do some searching to see if those are compatible.
pros: does seem to tighten a little, silk, aloe, salts, and more are happy in the ZEN, pretty easy to make,
cons: hard to leave it alone! Having to leave it alone for many hours, requires some figuring out
@Belinda: I need to put on another pot of coffee, tend to the wash, then I shall be looking at the latest batch of ZEN to see if my theory is correct. If it is, I have a solution for you!!! If not, then it is back to the drawing board.
