Ad | Mature Skin: The Importance and Benefits of Using Moisturiser With SPF

If I had a time machine that I could only use to go back and give myself advice, the one thing I’d tell myself would be Sun safety, Catherine, sun safety.

(Actually I might use it mainly to tell myself not to buy that terrible car from auction in 2002 and to damn well stop spending on that store card in my twenties, but sun safety would be a close second/third. Oh, and I’d ALSO tell myself that sunshine headbands will be big in the late 2010s, so fairy lights at the ready, girl.)

Looking after my skin where the sun was concerned was only something I really only took seriously in my mid to late thirties. Till then I had NEVER worn a moisturiser with SPF. I’m also ashamed to say I used sunbeds for a while in the late 90s. I’m pretty sure sun safety – and especially the need to use a day moisturiser with SPF – just wasn’t as widely talked about.

Disclosure: This post is a paid partnership with Estée Lauder (click here for my full disclosure). All content is original and opinions are my own and 100% honest – I only work with brands and promote products that I believe in.

I think the advent of the internet and social media has done a lot to spread the message: and thank goodness! I hope that younger women today are far more educated about looking after their skin than we were.

It’s not just the fact that the sun is very ageing on your skin, but 1 in 36 UK males and 1 in 47 UK females will be diagnosed with melanoma skin cancer in their lifetime. [Cancer Research UK] That’s FRIGHTENING.

It’s also preventable in 86% of cases. That’s also frightening.

I think that as a nation we are mostly aware that we need to wear sunscreen in the summer. I don’t think we’re AS aware, however, that the sun can damage skin all year round, and on cloudy days. It’s one of those facts that people tend to poo-poo, because how can the sun get through cloud? How can it damage your skin when it’s not even hot? The “heat” of the sun has nothing to do with how harmful it will be from one day to the next. Clouds are hardly sturdy enough to block out the damaging rays – if light can get through them, then damaging rays are getting through them as well… it’s a perfect sphere of hot plasma with a surface temperature of about five and a half thousand degrees Celcius!

So as it’s May (and the beginning of summer), I thought I’d talk about day moisturisers that have SPF in them – and how important it is to protect your skin from the harmful rays of the sun. I think most of us would like smoother skin with fewer lines, and while the ageing process can’t be halted altogether (I’m all for CELEBRATING ageing, laughter lines and all!), there’s a lot we can do to protect our skin.

I’ve collaborated with Estée Lauder skincare to bring you a review of three moisturisers that they thought would suit my skincare needs (VERY happy to try these)!

Healthier-looking skin that’s also protected from melanoma skin cancer is the goal here. It may be 93 million miles away, but a moisturiser with SPF will go a long way to prevent that pesky ball of fire from damaging our skin.

What I want from a moisturiser

I am VERY fussy about the day moisturiser I use. It needs to do several things for me:

• It MUST have SPF. Unless I’m staying in the house all day (which I rarely do as I have a dog, and hopefully a LIFE), I need to protect my skin from the sun. ALL year round.
• The consistency must be right: not too oily and not too mattifying. I need the Goldilocks of moisturisers, basically – anything too oily makes my skin look like it’s competing in the National Oil Slick Championships.
• It needs to work well under makeup. I want a smooth base for my foundation and it needs to contribute to staying power – the last thing I want is makeup that’s unknowingly slid off part way through the day.
• Nice packaging is not necessary, but it’s a nice bonus. You know, for the ‘gram (and my bathroom shelf).

Now if you want to skip this part (i.e. my review of the following three moisturisers) you can – instead you can go to esteelauder.co.uk to take a quiz to find your perfect moisturiser match, because not all moisturisers suit all skin.

But hey, that wouldn’t be as exciting as reading RIGHT to the end of this post, would it? Maybe I should have mentioned the quiz at the end rather than straight away… DAMMIT, I messed up.

But someone who HASN’T messed up is the person in charge of Estee Lauder’s moisturiser range (see what I did there? What a seamless segue). And rather than reviewing just one moisturiser, I’ve reviewed three different ones. Not all worked for me (in fact in the spirit of full disclosure, one didn’t work for me AT ALL). Hold onto your peptides, here are the three and my review of them…

Three Estée Lauder moisturisers put to the test

Estée Lauder have a wide range of moisturisers to suit all skin types (these three are just the tip of the iceberg)! Some will rehydrate the skin, some are designed to slow down the ageing process, some are mattifying, and so on. The three I tested were:

Revitalizing Supreme+ Global Anti-Aging Cell Power Creme SPF15

Resilience Multi-Effect Tri-Peptide Face and Neck Creme SPF15

DayWear Anti-Oxidant 72H-Hydration Sorbet Creme SPF15

and a daytime eye cream:

DayWear Eye Cooling Anti-Oxidant Moisture GelCreme

(I must also mention that I no longer use the term “anti-ageing”, so when I’ve mentioned it then that’s purely the name of the product. I’m all about pro-ageing, or even better: optimum-ageing!)

I will admit these moisturisers are somewhat pricier than what I would normally go for. But the whole point of testing them is to see if there’s one that works so well for me that I’d consider buying it myself in the future. The moisturisers start at £49.00 for 30ml (these pots are 50ml which range from £45.00 to £70.00) and the eye cream is £29.50 for 15ml. But seeing as I spend about £120 a month at the hairdressers, only for it to grow out and force me to go back again, in comparison they’re nowhere NEAR as expensive as my hair.

So let’s see if they ARE worth the price tag…

Revitalizing Supreme+ Global Anti-Aging Cell Power Creme SPF15

The Revitalizing Supreme + was actually the first one I tried, and I liked it a lot. It has the same sort of consistency as what I’ve usually gone for in a day moisturiser: neither too thick nor too runny. It’ll ALMOST fall off your finger if you have a big blob of it on there, if that makes sense.

It’s good under makeup when applying it, but I found that as the day went on my face did get a bit oily. However I do have a very oily t-zone, so no surprise there; I’m thinking this would work better for me on a makeup-free day.

An ingredient that interested me in this cream was Moringa Extract from the Moringa Plant, often referred to as the “miracle tree”. When I read that I thought, Now THAT interests me, tell me more…! Moringa contains calcium, potassium, Vitamin C, amino acids and Omega 3, so it’s a powerful optimum-ageing ingredient. It’s been used for thousands of years in South Asia. I always like a mixture of science and herbal extracts in my skincare products, and I’ve read that Moringa’s health benefits is rising in popularity.

I used this moisturiser for about five days in a row (mostly over days I didn’t need to wear makeup) and my skin consistently felt smooth throughout the day. This was a great start.

Resilience Multi-Effect Tri-Peptide Face and Neck Creme SPF15

The Resilience Multi-Effect Tri-Peptide moisturiser I was given to test is designed for normal/combination skin (which I have), but I found it to be very much thicker than the other two. There is also a version for dry skin, so that’ll be even thicker than this one.

It was a gorgeous cream – it also smelt lovely (to be fair they all did) – but the consistency was far too thick for my skin. Maybe it was the combination of other skincare products that I use as well, but I personally think this would be more suited to dry skin, and the dry skin cream would be suited to very dry skin. A great perk is its “IR-Defense Technology” (IR = infrared), so not only does it protect against UVA and UVB, but IR radiation exposure too.

However it’s not all bad news (for me I mean): I’ll be using this cream on my neck and décolletage. That’s a part that many women forget I think on a day-to-day basis. I read a quote from a skincare expert somewhere who said that where skincare is concerned, your face stops at your boobs, not your chin. Maybe they put it a LITTLE more delicately than that, but that’s the way I remember it…!

DayWear Anti-Oxidant 72H-Hydration Sorbet Creme SPF15

I’ll get straight to the point: the DayWear Anti-Oxidant was my favourite, and the one I’ve been continuing to use on a daily basis. It’s the lightest of the three and has a more “watery” consistency. However, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t moisturise… IT DOES. It just does it without heaviness or greasiness – it feels like it’s made from mostly cucumber, and has that light, fresh smell. My skin felt very “elastic” after applying it, if that makes sense?

As mentioned before, my t-zone tends to get very shiny as the day goes on, so a lighter cream is exactly what I’m looking for. I wouldn’t say it’s mattifying, just “unheavy” (for want of a better word than “light”). For me, this is the perfect base for makeup – my base didn’t slide off it either upon application or during the day.

I was actually quite excited by this Sorbet Creme: tops marks, Estée Lauder, we have a clear winner.

DayWear Eye Cooling Anti-Oxidant Moisture GelCreme

You know that cooling sensation you get from cucumber slices on your eye (they say try used teabags too but I’ve never bought into that one)? That’s what the DayWear Eye Cooling cream feels like. I always put eye cream on BEFORE moisturiser so it doesn’t have to “fight” through your moisturiser in order to work its magic on your eyes (a great tip but one I can’t take credit for, I read it somewhere).

And yes, more cucumber references…!

I’d not thought of using an eye cream in the daytime before, but I’m happy to say I’m a convert. The last thing I want is greasy eyes when makeup application is happening, and this fits the bill. It’s soothing and cooling rather than thick and creamy. It sinks right in. There’s no SPF in this eye cream, but that’s what your moisturiser is for. Once it’s sunk in you then apply your face moisturiser over the top.

It might seem a bit of a luxury, but I think it’s perfect for waking your eyes up and reducing any puffiness from the night before. Or you can go and fish a couple of cold teabags out the bin. I know what I’d prefer.

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Estée Lauder moisturisers: my conclusion

So in conclusion, I found a moisturiser that’s perfect for non-slidey daytime wear under makeup, a daytime moisturiser for makeup-free days when I can add a little more creaminess to my face, and a moisturiser that was too rich for my face but one I can use on my neck and décolletage. PLUS an eye cream I can wear in the daytime too that doesn’t cause my makeup to slide.

Would I buy anything myself again with my own money? I will definitely be buying the DayWear Anti-Oxidant 72H-Hydration Sorbet Creme in future – when I find a moisturiser that suits me THAT much I’m happy to pay a little extra for it. I can’t put a price on the value of preventing skin damage and – more importantly – my skin’s health; the statistics about skin cancer are really worrying. The fact that it can be so light and yet still have SPF makes it my Goldilocks of day moisturisers.

Yes, it’s pricey, but the 50ml is large and will last a long time I reckon. Let’s say it lasted six months and you used it every day… that’s less than 39p a day. My hair costs me £4.00 a day. Quite a comparison when you look at it that way!

I’d need to be feeling extra flush to buy the Revitalizing Supreme+ Global Anti-Aging Cell Power Creme as well (though I’d only be using one or the other – it’s not as if I’m using both and it would cost me more)! But I’ll definitely keep it in mind.

WHAT ARE YOUR REQUIREMENTS FOR A DAY MOISTURISER? HAVE YOU EVER USED ESTEE LAUDER MOISTURISERS – IF SO WHICH ONE(S)? HOW MUCH WOULD YOU PAY FOR THE PERFECT MOISTURISER? TELL ME IN THE COMMENTS…

P.S. These moisturisers not quite right for your skin type? Have a look at the full range of Estée Lauder moisturisers – there are many more that may suit your skin more than these!