Those that know me, know that I’m big into my skincare. I believe that what we put on our skin is just as important as what we put inside us and due to how our skin functions these two things are actually one in the same. Our skin is our largest organ and it’s the barrier that protects us from chemicals, pollutants, everything – you name it! Although it does a great job of functioning on its own, with a growing number of modern-day stressors aggravating our skin we really do need our skincare routine to be as effective as possible which in my mind, means bringing in the big gun beauty tools to give it a helping hand.

Without getting sidetracked and going into too much detail, our immune system (and therefore our health) largely depends on a well functioning lymphatic system. Our lymphatic system is what allows the movement of nutrients and waste materials throughout the body, it’s also the first line of defence against bacteria thanks to being full of those handy infection-fighting white blood cells. In short, we all need to be looking after our lymphatic system, which is why I swear by regular full body massages whether or not I’ve been physically active – it’s a health thing.

As well as those full body massages, I have also been experimenting with facial lymphatic massage for a while now, just using my hands or a little gua sha jade stone. Given all of the above (and the aesthetic benefits!) adding it into my skincare routine seemed like a no-brainer!

3 BEAUTY TOOLS THAT WILL SHAKE UP YOUR SKINCARE ROUTINE

I’ve recently moved things up a notch and have been trialling the Philips VisaPure Advanced which is a 3-in-1 facial device with three attachments; a brush for cleansing, one for an eye massage and one for a full facial massage  (my favourite feature!). Every morning after I get out of the shower and finish loading my face with the usual serums and creams, I’ll spend 3 minutes (it rotates for 90 seconds in each direction) massaging in upwards motions towards the lymph nodes. You can do a quick google search to get a more precise idea of where these nodes are located but in rough terms, they’re at the top of our jawbone, just underneath the ears, on the chin and just under the jawline.

It makes a huge difference to that early morning / post flight puffiness – I can’t believe it’s taken me until my thirties to start implementing facial massage. Facepalm.

I’ll be honest (you guys know that I always am), I don’t use the cleansing brush attachment anywhere near as much as the massage attachment but only because I don’t feel like it’s always necessary for my skin, due to the lifestyle that I currently lead.

I don’t wear a lot of makeup (if any) and I no longer live in a city where pollution is an issue, I also tend to use acids to exfoliate rather than scrubs or brushes. However, if any of the above sounds like you, then the cleansing brush will work a treat! Not only is it 10 x more effective than cleansing with your hands alone, it will slough away the top layer of dead skin cells (gross but fact), so that your skincare products will be better absorbed giving you way more bang for your beauty buck. When I really feel like my skin needs a good clean, it’s my go-to.

Also, all my girls (and guys!) that are forever rushing around London from meeting to meeting to workout to after-work-drinks… The small but mighty VisaPure Mini would be an awesome addition to your gym bag – just saying!

There’s an anti-pollution brush attachment for both the Philips VisaPure Advanced and VisaPure Mini that has a charcoal sponge which acts as a magnet helping to draw out toxins and pollution particles, removing 55 times more pollution particles compared to using your hands alone. Hello Londoners, this one’s for you!

The other beauty product I’ve been trying is the Philips Lumea Prestige, an at home IPL (intense pulsed light) hair removal system. I was a bit wary of using this at first having never tried anything like it before but after years and years of shaving, with a few periods of waxing in between (I don’t know about you but I just can’t handle the re-growth period), I’m a convert.

I’m not going to go too much into the nitty-gritty details of how it works but in layman’s terms, it applies gentle pulses of light reducing the re-growth of hair and it’s been shown to reduce hair re-growth by up to 92% in as little as three treatments. It has a SmartSkin sensor that finds the best setting for you and there’s a handy little app that tracks all your treatments, so it practically does all the work for you!

I’m only a couple of treatments in so I’ll report back after I’ve used it a few more times, Philips recommend repeating the treatment every 7 to 8 weeks. When you think about how often you shave, only for it to grow back the very next day, I’m game for anything that eliminates the process of having to shave every day.

In the interest of safety, I have to mention that it advises anyone with white, super light blonde, red hair or black skin should not use it due to the high contrast required between the hair pigment and the skin pigment.

Has anyone tried any of these at-home beauty tools before, if so, what do you think? Who’s going to add facial cleansing and massage into their daily routine?

Disclaimer – This post was written in collaboration with Philips Beauty but as always all thoughts and opinions are very much my own! When the team reached out to invite me to trial a few of their superhero beauty tools, of course, I said yes! I’ll forever be a guinea pig for you guys, all in the name of skincare #gains.