2012 Favourites - Part 3: Face

Here's another installment of my favourite products of 2012, this time it's the face products. I will start with the more exciting ones, ie. pretty highlighters. To me one of the most used highlighters of 2012 was Guerlain Cruel Gardenia. It is just so pretty both in the compact and on my skin. Just lovely.You can read my initial review by clicking on the link above.

See what other products I loved in 2012 after the jump!

Ginvera Green Tea Day and Night Creams

A little while ago I was sent these face creams to try out by Janiro, the UK distributor of Ginvera products. They are part of Ginvera's extensive green tea skincare range that also includes the Whitening Marvel Gel and the Nude Cover BB Cream, both of which I have already reviewed on here.

First impressions: the outer packaging is awful. In this day and age when we're all about trying to do things for the environment I don't understand why some cosmetics brands are still using plastic for the outer packaging. I don't mean the container, I mean the box it comes in. You end up throwing it out, so why can't it just be made of cardboard? The jars are actually glass which is much more environment friendly.

See more pictures and read my complete review after the jump! 

Ginvera Green Tea Whitening Marvel Gel Review

Zero blackheads in 1 step! At least that's what Ginvera claims this gel does. I have lots of blackheads and I have tried a lot of scrubs and other ways of reducing their number, sadly to no avail. So when I had the opportunity to try out Ginvera's Marvel Gel I jumped right in.

Did it work? Sadly, no. And to be honest I don't even see how it would. What you have here is basically a smooth green gel that you have to massage onto your face that then gathers into little clumps (which is apparently the dead skin it removes), then you wash it off and you're supposed to be left with clearer skin. I don't know how it works, what it is that clumps up, whether it is the gel or it really is dead skin, although to be honest I'd be quite alarmed to find all that skin coming off my face every day. I used this religiously for about 10 days and I'm pretty sure I still have the same amount of blackheads I did before.

The gel also claims to rub away deep layers of dead skin cells (again, how deep can that layer be???), contract pores for refined skin (not for me it didn't), lighten black spots, freckles and scars (nope), remove oil seeds (I don't even know what that means), regulate sebum secretion to prevent pimples (my skin is not oily right now at all, so it's hard to judge, but I did get spots while using this anyway), brighten dull complexion (not really), change dark rough skin to smooth skin (not for me), whitens skin (I don't actually want white skin, I'm pale enough already) and enhance quick absorption of skincare products (I can't really comment on this). So as you can see a lot of claims, but not really any result for me. In fact I'll go as far as saying this did nothing to me AT ALL. So I would definitely not recommend this to anyone.

60 ml of this gel normally costs £24, although at the moment it's reduced to £18 (plus p&p) and is available from Janiro, the new UK distributor of Ginvera products.You can also request a free sample if you don't want to commit to buying the full size product by clicking here.

See more pictures after the jump!