The New Elizbeth Arden Eight Hour All-Over Miracle OIL + An Impulse Buy My Grandmother Would Be Proud of

I love, love, love the Elizabeth Arden Eight Hour Cream. I professed that love in a post I put up a couple of years ago and have been through several tubes of the stuff since. I was about to restock mine at Boots when I got sucked into trying out the shiny and *new* Eight Hour All-Over Miracle OIL, instead.The oil (priced at £29.00 for 100mL) is the newest addition to the vast Eight Hour line and is a multi-purpose dry oil that you can use on your face, hair, and all over your body. As it is a dry oil, it is meant to sink in much faster than its heavier sister, the Eight Hour Cream. It smells nothing like the cream (this is slightly floral, the cream slightly medicinal — the original scent at least) and it pretty much behaves nothing like the cream. I thought I would be able to replace the cream with this, but that just isn’t the case.

I only found exactly one use for this multi-purpose oil in my life: as a hair oil. I can’t use it on my face because the scent irritates my skin and as a hand cream, it doesn’t last long. In fact, my hands felt a lot drier when I was using the oil.  Weird. Anyway, it’s saving grace is that it’s a damn good hair oil. I still need a new Eight Hour Cream though!

Right, on to more positive things!I also got sucked into buying a new foundation that day. There was some promo that knocked £7 off any Elizabeth Arden base, so I picked out the Flawless Finish Perfectly Satin 24 Hr Foundation (£28.00), which is a medium coverage, oil-free, and low SPF base that’s great for combo-oily skin types.

This is some really good shit, guys, and I absolutely love that it comes in a hefty frosted glass bottle with a pretty cap on top, to boot. I mean £28 is not a far cry from what some drugstore bases are going for these days… or, errm, ok, maybe it’s a little bit far off but it’s still reasonable compared to most of the new stuff “younger” brands are putting out these days. I always associated Elizabeth Arden with grannies… but then that’s something that really isn’t such a bad thing anymore. If it’s good enough (and dependable and classy) for my grandmother, it certainly is good enough for me! I wear the shade Bique, which I think is a pretty good match. The coverage is truly medium — you can still see the marks on the perimeters of my face from old pimples but it does help to even out my overall skin tone. The finish is is demi-matte, which I love, and it seems to handle the release of oils from my skin over the course of the day pretty well. I lie that the SPF is low because it means I can use it at night/in flash photography situations if I want to. During the daytime I just make sure to use  sunblock underneath.

So I guess you win some and you lose some with it comes to impulse purchases. I’m glad to have a winner in this foundation and at least a nice new hair oil. Hehe. What better way to end this post than with the classic Elizabeth Arden red door!

Any stereotypically “old” products knock you out of your socks recently? :)

Xx