Did you know that the 12th of December is National Nail Polish day? Ja, I didn’t either , but hey, if it involves Essie sending me a bunch of cute colours, then I’m celebrating. The shades are all from last year’s spring collection (California Road Trip) but I know that they’re still in store because I saw the one I like best, B’Aha Moment, in Dis-Chem the other day.

A slightly creamy, bright pomegranate two-coater, it reminds me a lot of my ultimate fave Essie colour, Exotic Liras. (For the record, I basically live in Exotic Liras when I’m rich and Smudge’s Haute Couture, when I’m less rich. The latter is a decent enough dupe but Essie would murder it in a longevity death match.)

Anyway, in honour of all things mani-licious, Essie’s running a competition in which you can win 40 of their nail polishes to the value of R5 000 and entering is easy. All you have to is post a pic of your ‘Essie nail look’ using the hashtag #essienailpolishday and tag a bestie. The competition closes on 18 December and Ts & Cs apply but I don’t know what they are or where to find them (it’s Essie’s comp, not mine) but if you have any questions you can chat to them via their Facebook page.

Moving on, let’s chat about soap. The facial kind! A while back a few beauties where chatting on twitter about how they wish the world made less face wash and more bar options I was surprised by how many people where like ‘hells to the yaaaaaas!’. So brands take note – there’s a potentially large, underserved market of people thirsty for cleansing bars.

If you’re a bar biets yourself and happen to have combination skin, you’ll be glad to know about Avene Cleanance cleansing bar face and body (R99,95, Dis-Chem). Created for oily, blemish-prone skin, it’s SLS-free and contains Avene’s themal spa water, pore-exfoliating salicylic and monolaurin to inhibit oil production.

I’ve used it for about five days now, on both my face and body, and it’s worked a treat. It takes off most of my make-up (I still need to use a facial wipe or cleansing oil to whisk away the last trace of mascara, but that’s how I roll anyway when using most gel cleansers) and it leaves my skin feeling clean, but not dry or tight. I haven’t noticed a decrease in oil production (I still reach for my blotting papers as often as ever) but wasn’t holding my breath. I was more concerned about it possibly being too drying and it’s not. It’s great!

It’s important to note, however, that it is a scented formula and contains quite a bit of fragrance. I didn’t find this irritating at all but if you’ve got very sensitive, reactive skin or an impaired barrier function I’d opt for a non-fragranced product.

Lastly, let’s chat about Bioderma Atoderm Ultra Repair dry & damaged hand and nail cream (R119,95, Clicks).

If you visit Bioderma’s site you’ll see they talk about how it’s got a ‘rich and creamy texture’ forms a nourishing ‘glove’ around your hand. Having read that, I thought it was going to be a real oil monster, but it’s just the opposite. In fact, it’s one of the lightest, fastest absorbing hand creams I’ve used and I think a lot of that has to with the fact that, aside from hydrating ingredients like gylcerin, Shea butter and palmitic acid, it also contains a whack of aluminum starch. This helps to rapidly speed up absorption and creates a matte, ‘dry finish’, so you get your moisture, but aren’t left wanting to wipe your hands on your pants before attempting to unlock your phone with a finger tip.

Also – random fact – I recently crashed at a hotel after a particularly festive night out (I don’t drink and drive) and woke up looking like a nasty, middle-aged, zombie prune. I didn’t have any moisturiser on me, so I slapped it on my face and, being dehydrated yet oily-skinned, it actually worked a treat. So ja. Use it. Don’t use it.

In all, I reckon Ultra Repair is a nice wallet-friendly ‘summer’ pick for anyone wanting dry-touch hydration, not just those with very dry skin. In fact, if you’re super, duper dry, I’d probably go for something with more ceramides and urea in it. In this case, you’re probably going to be left feeling a little ‘filmy’, but hey, those are the breaks.

Love, love

Leigh