From Retinol to Sunscreen: 1 Year of Dr Sam’s Skincare!

1 year. 1 crazy/turbulent/life-affirming/downright-dramatic-but-ultimately-fulfilling year. Starting my own skincare brand has been a goal for so long that I forget how many twists and turns the...

What Not To Use When Starting Actives

Active skincare causes anxiety - the popular belief is no pain, no gain. And this is backed up by a survey of our ultra-informed Facebook group - out of over 350 respondents, 40% were worried abo...

Starting A Retinoid - The Golden Zone!

Welcome to Cycle 3 (which I consider week 12 and beyond ) - this is the delightful period of comfort and escalation. If you’ve been able to follow the programme so far, you’ll be entering the go...

Why I Developed A Serum For People Confused By Serums

Meet Flawless Nightly Serum! If you’re reading this blog, you probably already know that Active ingredients (+ sunscreen!) are the key to solving the 2 biggest concerns in skincare today – prematu...

Starting a Retinoid - The 2nd Skin Cycle

Congratulations on completing your Tough Love phase. You’ve had faith that the good stuff lies over the hill... and you’re near the top! Typically, if you’ve gotten through your Tolerance phase, a...

Retinoid Struggles - The Early Days

So you’ve got your retinoid. You’ve got your technique down. Now what? So I think the key questions are very simple. Decide how much. And decide how often. Then assemble your support products and...

My 10 Top Tips for Retinoid Beginners!

Retinoid Struggle - It’s clear this is ‘a thing’. Nearly 200 of you in our Facebook group reacted to our post about retinoids and their naughty challenges. So I thought that this week I’d do a ve...

Retinoids? Retinol? A Derm’s Guide to Retinoid Mastery!

Retinoids are a category of skincare ingredients derived from vitamin A. Words like ‘powerhouse’ and ‘superstar’ abound because they influence so many darn aspects of skin function. They are the ...

When to Splurge on Investment Bodycare

At our most recent Skincare Club event, our topic was Summer Body Skincare Prep - the question that came up the most? Finding the right body moisturiser for you - no one wants to be hanging aroun...

My Top Tips to Avoid Unwanted Breakouts This Easter

Easter is almost upon us - can you hear the siren call of chocolate eggs? Now admittedly, I don’t have much of a sweet tooth - however if there was a holiday associated with the humble fry, I’d be...

6 Beauty Hacks I Taught My Mother

So last year I talked about the big influences my mother had on me. This year I thought it might be fun to reverse that. Mama Bunting is so fantastic – a loyal follower on IG and YT, she watches ...

5 Steps to ‘Marie Kondo’ Your Beauty Shelf

I’m a huge fan of the Marie Kondo approach to streamlining clutter around the home. So much so that when I saw an article in the Sunday Times Style on this approach for beauty, I thought it was ge...