Fave 5 Estée Lauder products

The first premium brand that I ever tried was Estée Lauder, and ever since it's been one of my most loved and trusted brands that I keep going back to time and time again. The brand is almost 70 years old and for me Estée Lauder embodies high quality products, tasteful designs, and approachability. One of the things that I love is that it's a strong brand cross the board and you'll find excellent skin care as well as gorgeous perfumes and great makeup, and today we'll look at my favorite 5 products at the moment.

One of my most loved moisturisers ever is the Hydrationist Maximum Moisture Creme (£35). The technology behind it focuses entirely on optimising how moisture is absorbed by the skin for an instant moisture boost, how it strengthens the skin's moisture barrier and how it retains moisture throughout the day, which all helps to make your skin look plump and healthy. It's available in two different types - one for normal/combination skin and one for dry skin. I always get the one for dry skin which has a lovely velvety and almost gel like texture, despite being a cream that boosts the skin with moisture all day long. The cream is absorbed into the skin with the lightest touch and you'll instantly feel energised and refreshed and in the evening when it's time to remove the face of the day, the skin feels exactly as soft, supple and hydrated as if you'd just applied your moisturiser. The moisturising qualities are so impressive and the cream works just as well in winter as in summer time, and an added bonus to the enjoyable experience of using it is the beautiful soft scent - an absolute gem!

Another pick from the great Estée Lauder skin care range is the Resilience Lift Firming/Sculpting Eye Creme (£44). Since my skin tends to get dehydrated I always look for rich and intensely nourishing formulas for the delicate eye area, and this is wonderful to use. It contains ingredients that helps to boost production of natural collagen and elastin that are essential for making the skin look firm and plump and it also has luminizing optics that blur out the appearance of darkness and lines around the eyes. Even though it's a very creamy formula it easily sinks into the skin and it feels very light weight and refreshing, and the skin looks so smooth and radiant as if you've slept for 10 hrs. It is a fairly expensive cream, but the first one I tried lasted four months after using it twice a day, so you get an excellent amount of wear out of it. I've mentioned before that I love products that feel as if they are actually doing something and this eye cream doesn't only feel as if it's doing something it IS doing something and I will definitely keep repurchasing it.

Estée Lauder often releases the most incredible collectible little powder compacts in all kinds of designs and shapes, adorned with amazing jewels and one of the most recent editions was the Zodiac. The compacts are quite small and fairly heavy, in gold color with different crystal designs depending on the star sign. Even though I don't actually use much powder I instantly fell in love with the collection and just had to have the Scorpio Zodiac Powder Compact (£38.50). It comes with a tiny applicator and the Lucidity Translucent Pressed Powder that is included is refillable so when it runs out, you just need to get a pan for the compact (£15). It's a completely indulgent trinket that I definitely didn't need, however because it's so small and dainty it's perfect to carry with you in a small hand bag, and I do feel a bit like a glamorous film star taking out this beautiful compact, powdering my nose and fixing the lipstick.

Speaking of glamorous, that's exactly the word I would use to describe the Pure Color Vivid Shine Lipstick (£20) in Hot Lava. The Vivid Shine formula is creamy, hydrating on the lips, long lasting and has clusters of different shaped prism pearls in it to create a luminous effect that also heightens the color. It's also has pearls in silver and gold to neutralize your natural liptone, which means that all of the more than 20 different gorgeous colors should look lovely with any skin tone. This particular shade is Hot Lava, a beautiful warm, sophisticated deep red in stylish and sleek packaging for a very elegant and groomed look. I love this vintage shade because of the satin finish, its crystal effect and versatility. We should all have a classic go-to red in our lipstick wardrobe, and if you haven't found yours yet, you should definitely try this or one of the other red shades from this lovely lipstick range. 

When it comes to nail polish, for me personally there are very few premium brands that beat the great options from the high street, but Estée Lauder is one of them and the Pure Color Nail Lacquer (£14) formula is one of the best that you can get. First of all the nail polishes look luxurious and amazing in the heavy crystal bottles - it's a real treat to buy one, and secondly the formula is intensely pigmented with a super shiny finish. The brush is nice and wide which makes application very easy and together with the pigmentation you quickly get a wonderful opaque and even finish. The nail polish dries very quickly, so if like me you prefer to apply two coats, you can still get your mani done in under five mins since you really don't need a top coat. One of the things about Estée Lauder polishes that I value the most is that unlike a lot of other premium brands, the polishes long lasting (on me about five days) and they will not chip or smudge easily, and I've never been disappointed in the wear with any of the polishes I have.

There's a lovely range of colors and effects to choose from, and we have two different shades from my collection. The first one is Dilettante, which is a gorgeous ice cream colored, crisp light blue with a hint of mint to it, just perfect for the Spring & Summer pastel trend, and the other one - Blue Blood is an intense, shimmering deep royal blue with such high shine it's almost mirror like. I love these polishes and am excited to pick up some new shades from the S&S collection, and I've already got my eye on an intense orchid shade - Insolent Plum.

From left to right (two coats, but no top coat):

Dilettante

Blue Blood

I have quite a few other Estée Lauder products that I use regularly, and even though I haven't mentioned them here today I also highly recommend that you try one of the great repair serums, or one of the gorgeous gelée powder eye shadows, they're all a nice introduction to this classic brand that stays contemporary by constantly reinventing itself.