Winter Skincare at VQ Leeds

CHOICES, CHOICES, CHOICES

Last Saturday, I was invited to an event held at Victoria Quarter and the theme was winter skincare. The first stop was Space NK and the girls are always welcoming there. Also, I was eyeing up the new Hourglass Ambient Palette as I walked past the Hourglass section. We were introduced to the brand Sunday Riley, more specifically Martian Mattifying Melting Water-Gel Toner and U.F.O. Ultra-Clarifying Face Oil. I love the names of these and yep that face oil is green but it won’t leave your skin that colour! I believe these are Space NK exclusive and are aimed at oily to acne-prone skin.


And of course, being at Space NK, we couldn’t leave without talking about the latest makeup releases! We were shown:
Hourglass Ambiente Lighting Edit Surreal Light palette
Chantecaille Lion collection
By Terry Rouge Expert Click Stick lipstick
NARS Velvet Lip Glide
Kevyn Aucoin The Etherealist Skin Illuminating Foundation
Kevyn Aucoin Bloodroses collection
Laura Mercier Brow Dimension Fiber Infused Colour Gel
Laura Mercier Candleglow Concealer and Highlighter

Just look at the palette below. A blogger’s dream right?

The next stop was Liz Earle. We were taken upstairs to the consultation area where we were introduced to the brand, the history and Liz’s vision. It’s always interesting to know about all of this as I didn’t know much about Liz Earle previously. I have only heard of the famous Cleanse & Polish.

By keeping it simple, there is an easy three-step skincare routine where the majority of products is a one fits all skin types. With her Skin Repair moisturisers, they all have the exact same ingredients but the concentration of each ingredient differs to cater to the different skin types. Interesting or what?!


We had also looked at the latest launches, Superskin Treatment Oil for the body, Superskin Dry Oil for body and the Superskin Overnight Mask. The Dry Oil is heaven. Spray then rub it in and you’re done. It’s great for those lazy people like myself.

Half of this floor was filled with the Christmas gift sets. I mean, look how dreamy it is? I love a good display layout.



There’s also a mini library where you can relax and read magazines there. I haven’t come across any shops that have this. Also, they have cake Fridays! You’re welcome. Did you know they have their own treatment rooms? You can choose from a variety of facials and body massages and they only use Liz Earle products.

And the final stop was Kiehl’s. We had a skin consultation to check what our skin type was. It was a quick and easy process. We were given two sticks where there were a circle to act like “oil gauges”. We’d adhere one to our forehead and the other on our cheek for around 40 seconds. Then we would compare them to a chart. My forehead was on the oily end of the scale and my cheek was on the combination side. With a full face of makeup, I was surprised at how well this worked!


Firstly, how cute is the Christmas edition? It was released on the same day as this event. We were shown a lot of products, however, there was one product I was intrigued by the most. It was the Powerful-Strength Line-Reducing Concentrate. You can feel a warming sensation whilst the serum blends into the skin and I loved that it. When I hear Kiehl’s, I would immediately think about skincare. It was nice to look at what hair and body care products they have too.


The coolest thing was two of their products, the lip balm and the ultra face cream, were taken on an Mt. Everest expedition. This campaign was called Everest 88. There are photos in store where you can see climbers using these products and it’s amazing to see how far Kiehl’s would go to promote their products and how much they believe in it too.

This was a lovely event to start off a Saturday and my hands were very moisturised from testing the products we had tested. Product overload! It was insightful and had learnt about the brands, the cult products as well as what products the assistants swear by right now. Our skin changes in the colder months so we will need to change our skincare routine to adapt to the winter conditions. This event had opened my eyes as to what suitable products are currently out there to prepare me for it. So many choices and want to try everything doesn’t help.

Thank you, Lauren and everyone at Victoria Quarter, Space NK, Liz Earle and Kiehl’s for this event!