My Current Skincare Regime With Vivo Per Lei

Pregnancy was pretty kind to my skin, all things considered.

I mean, don’t get me wrong: I didn’t get that fabled pregnancy “glow” everyone talks about – or, if I did, it was just the cold sweat of fear – but, at the same time, I didn’t get any of the hormonal breakouts or other pregnancy-related skin issues I’d heard people talking about, so I think I got off pretty lightly, really.

Of course, when I was pregnant, I had all the time in the world to think about these things. I had time for facemasks and scrubs, for body lotion and all kinds of other things that now, four months into parenthood, seem like complete and utter indulgences.

For the first few weeks of Max’s life, I don’t think I wore makeup more than a handful of times – and because I wasn’t putting wearing anything on my skin, I let myself believe I didn’t need to do anything else to it, either. I mean, I knew perfectly well I was fooling myself here, but when you can’t remember the last time you had a decent night’s sleep – and you know you’ll be getting up in a couple of hours, anyway – who seriously wants to waste time on a skincare routine? Not this girl: and that’s why, fast-forward a few months, and my skin was looking tired, grey, and… well, kind of crepey, if I’m honest. Honestly, the reverse-facing camera on my phone has never been so scary to me: and that thing has ALWAYS been pretty scary. Truth.

So, I wasn’t looking after my skin, is what I’m saying. Then I started looking after it again… but all of my products started to run out simultaneously. Aaaaand I kind of didn’t bother to replace them.

Enter Vivo Per Lei.

This brand is totally new to me, but when they offered to send me one of their skincare collections to try out, I figured it would be a good opportunity to start again from scratch, and get myself a whole new regime. So I cleared out the skincare section of my dressing table, got rid of all of the half-used products that’d been lurking in there for God knows how long, and prepared to start afresh. Which was pretty darn satisfying, actually, it being spring and all.

Vivo Per Lei have a few different lines to choose from, but I decided to go for The Collagen Collection, mostly because it contains both an eye serum AND an eye cream, and honestly, my under-eye area needs all the help it can get right now. Unsurprisingly, I guess, for someone not getting as much sleep as she’d like – or drinking as much water as she should – the skin around my eyes is always the first to just give up on life when I’m not treating it right, so I’d been noticing lots of lovely fine lines, and a generally dehydrated, “HELP ME” look about it. I’d even gone so far as to put out a cry for help on my Instagram Story a few weeks ago – and then I got so confused by all of the kind suggestions I got that I continued to do absolutely nothing about it: go, me!)

So! Here’s my new regime, which starts off with:

Collagen Booster Eye Serum – $32

This is the first step in my skincare routine (after cleansing, obviously), and it’s a nice, lightweight serum which feels nice and refreshing, and contains ingredients like hyaluronic acid and vitamin A – as well as soluble collagen, which I guess you’d expect, given the name – which are designed to help minimise the appearance of those fine lines and crepiness.

Over the top of that, I use:

Collagen Contour Eye Cream – $32

This is a richer formula which uses things like shea butter and vitamins A and C to moisturise and tighten the skin, as well as smoothing it out. It seems to be working, too, because the first thing I noticed when I started using these two products was that I was suddenly having to use a lot less concealer than usual. I’d been pretty much trowelling it on in a bid to try and cover the dark circles that have been in place for months now, but although these products aren’t specifically formulated for dark circles, I’ve found that my under-eye are is looking much fresher than it has been of late – don’t get me wrong, I’m not going to be able to retire the under-eye concealer any time soon, but at least I’m not having to use quite as much of it. (Which is very good news indeed, because there’s nothing quite like caked-on concealer settling into your fine lines to make you look and feel FANTASTIC, is there?)

Once I’ve applied these two, I move on to:

Collagen Rejuvenating Cream – $32

More soluble collagen, more vitamins A and C, plus a dose of caffeine and anti-ageing peptides all combine to make a creamy moisturiser which is absorbed easily into the skin, and feels like I’m giving it a bit of a treat. Which I guess I am, considering how much I’ve been neglecting it lately…

I repeat this routine every morning and night, and one of the things I really appreciate about it is the fact that it’s pretty simple, using just three products. I mean, I hate to be one of those new mums who’s all, “Lordy, no, I don’t have time for MOISTURISER! Why, I don’t even have time to BREATHE any more!” but, yeah, anything that saves me a bit of time, while still allowing me to look after my skin, is a huge plus for me right now. Not even I can persuade myself that I don’t have the few minutes it takes to apply three products after all – especially when I know that, if I don’t, I’m definitely going to regret it next time I look in the mirror and find myself face-to-face with what appears to be my own grandmother.

Once a week, meanwhile, I use – or try to use, when I remember – the…

Collagen Rejuvenating Mask – $38

Now, I’ll be honest: I’m not normally a face-mask kind of girl: not because I don’t like them, but purely because of the time issue: there just isn’t enough of it, and these days I just don’t have time for the whole relaxing bath/facemask routine – not that I ever really did, now I come to think of it. (I can’t be the only woman out there who doesn’t find a hot bath all that relaxing, can I? I just spend all my time thinking about how much more comfortable I’d be if I’d just gone to bed – and how I’m going to have to clean the bath as soon as I get out of it…)

This mask, however, takes just 10 minutes, so I’ve been doing my best to try and remember to use it at least once a week. When I do, my reward is tighter, smoother skin (You can really feel the tightening effect while it’s drying, and maybe I’m a bit odd for admitting this, but I really enjoy that sensation: it makes me feel a bit like I’m getting a face-lift, only without the pesky surgery part…), which, in turn, makes my makeup look better, too. Every time I use it, I’m like, “Oh yeah, this makes me look better: I must use it more often!” and then, every time, I forget. Still, as I said, I’m doing my best to make this routine stick, and I do see a difference in my skin when I make the time for it, so I’ll maybe have to just put a reminder in my phone or something…

As you’ve probably gathered from the dollar pricing on these products, they do ship from the US. I was really impressed by the shipping time, though: I mean, it’s not like I was sitting by the door counting down the minutes or anything, but I’m pretty sure it was only one or two days from the point I was told they were on the way, to me opening up a huge box packed full of goodies.

Speaking of boxes, I know you should never judge skincare – or anything else, really – by its packaging, but if you WERE going to do that, you’d probably rate this stuff pretty highly. It arrived in a set of lovely, high-quality boxes, which really gives it the feel of a luxury product. Actually, though, none of the products cost more than $40, so it’s all very reasonably priced. I, as I mentioned, got the Collagen Collection, because I really wanted to be able to just start a new routine from scratch, but if you only need one or two products, you can, of course buy them individually, or mix and match them with the other products on the Vivo Per Lei site. Enjoy!

You can find the Vivo Per Lei website here, and can also click to follow them on both Instagram and Facebook.

[This post is sponsored by Vivo Per Lei]