Beauty Q & A with John Gustafson

Our make-up, skincare and beauty guru solves all your beauty dilemmas

Hi John

I wondered if you could give me advice that it seems no one else can?  I am a lady over 50, (wont say anymore) but I still have oily and spot prone skin - yes really!  And although you're supposed to protect your skin from the elements and ageing - if I use anything rich - zit zit! I use a light moisturizer and a medicated cleansing lotion daily but still spots appear. Can you advise me?  All the beauty advice seems to contradict my circumstances. I like to use eye make up but it disappears after a few hours.  I have actually worse problems than when I was a teen. Help!

Regards

Helen

 

Helen,

Ahhh...the joys of hormones! Believe it or not - this is a much more common problem that you might think. Late onset acne is becoming more the norm than the exception. Mind you, knowing that doesn't make them go away. Until fairly recently, Lauder had a special range of products called Clear Difference that dealt with this specifically and I still can't figure out why they stopped them. Getting a balance between anti-aging and not using things that are too active IS a predicament but there ARE a few that I would happily tell you to check out. One is Dr. Sebagh's Acne Cream. The cream gets used twice daily as your moisturiser but then you have a vial of anti-blemish powder that you mix with it to treat the skin at night. Anti-aging? Not hugely, but at least this usually helps keep the problem under control. I really get on well with the gel/cream textured products by Natura Bisse. There is one called Essential Shock Gel Cream that deals with loss of firmness and another called Diamond Gel Cream that deals with all ten issues of the anti-aging issue (firming, elasticity, clarity, moisture, smoothness, etc.). The latter is a luxury product but it wins loads of anti-aging awards every year. The lightweight texture makes them ideal for blemish prone skins that are still "active". I guess most companies assume that if we are concerned with aging we must be getting dry too.

Chantecaille has done their amazing Biodynamic product in a lotion as well. Firming, regenerating, and moisturising without the heavy clogging weight. You can also try a product I seem to have been mentioning a great deal lately by a company called Bakel. These products have excluded any ingredients that are not necessary to the formula - leaving only about 2-3 ingredients still there! There is a collagen firming product, a Hyaluronic acid product, and even one that only uses an ingredient called Lactobionic Acid, which is what they put organs into prior to transplant! They are really quite interesting products and should give you exactly what you are looking for. As for the disappearing eye-makeup problem: have a gander at the Laura Mercier Eye Basics. These are flesh-toned bases that smooth out the lid colour and help to set your makeup. You could also try the longwearing creamy shadows from companies like Bobbi Brown, Lauder, and Clinique. These are much easier to apply than you would think and they really DO stay put. You can try using a paler shade from any of these as a shadow base too. That should keep you busy for a while! Try to snag a few samples before you splash out on any of the more expensive moisturiser to minimise potential problems, but I feel very confident that you will have good luck with any of these solutions Helen.

Good luck,

John

 

Dear John,

At the moment I am having lots of fun experimenting with liquid eyeliner and I absolutely love the results. The only problem is that as soon as I step outside my eyes have this terrible habit of watering.  This ruins my eyeliner, so what I really need is a liquid eyeliner, which is resistant to liquids.  Is this even possible?  And if so, where should I turn?

Many thanks,

Caroline

 

Caroline,

I have had a think and a play with a few things in my kit and have decided that you have been sent to test me! Cheers for that. LOL. After trying 8-9 different liquid liners and pens, I had the best result with the simplest solution. I used Benefit's SheLaq over the top of all of them as a sealant. SheLaq is a little bottle of clear liquid (with an assortment of travel brushes) that you can apply over the top of liners, mascaras, brows, etc. to make any of them waterproof. Simply allow whatever item you are "waterproofing" to dry completely, coat it with SheLaq, and voila! If you give this a go first, you can avoid getting rid of all of the products you have already that you have been disappointed with. The other result I got was to use the Bobbi Brown Gel Liners. With a little practice you can get a beautifully stylized line with these and they have tremendous holding power too. Sorted!

Regards,

John

 

Hi John,

I hope you're well. I need your advice about a moisturiser please! I am 29, and up until about a year ago, I had lovely clear skin. Since then, my skin has become cystic acne-prone and a bit oily - not excessively, but my skin does get very shiny throughout the day. I am currently using the Neutrogena Spot Stress Control range, which is working well, but I'd much prefer to use a moisturiser with SPF in it. Can you recommend something that isn't too heavy and won't cause me to break out? I'm conscious of the first signs of aging, but products aimed for that seem to be too heavy for my skin to cope with.

Thanks in advance,

Claire

 

Claire,

Now I am the first one to tell everyone that they need a daily sunscreen, but in your case, I would give this a second thought. Until you get your skin balanced, using a moisturiser with a sunscreen may prove to be one chemical too many for your skin. My honest advice would be to get yourself a moisturiser that can control the breakout and add a separate product over it to protect from UV damage. But I am not going to leave you high and dry. A couple of excellent moisturising products for cystic breakout are Dr. Sebagh's Acne Cream, Karin Herzog's Vita-A-Kombi, and Natura Bisse Oxygen Cream. The first gives you a vial of medicated powder to add to the cream at night as a treatment, and the latter use stabilized oxygen which is one of the best known anti-bacterial ingredients. With all of these, you can use them twice a day as your normal moisturiser. For protection, Becca's new SPF30 Mineral Primer is oil-free, chemical-free, waterproof protection. Other firm favourites of mine are the Clarins Ultra SPF40, and Shu Uemura's SPF25 and SPF50. All 4 of them are light, greaseless, and don't make you look like a geisha! At 29, I would think that protection and oxygenation - as well as clear skin - would be an excellent "first sign" product.

All the best,

John

 

 

 

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