REVIEW: Neutrogena Norwegian Formula, deep moisture comfort balm

The Neutrogena website says that this is suitable for the body and face. I used this product for the first time several years ago and really loved how comfortable it felt on my skin, then I went off to try some other products but I have always come back to this one. Most moisturisers for me just feel like it sits on the top of my skin giving a greasy feeling and generally just uncomfortable. It goes to say, most moisturisers break me out but not this one =). Don't be fooled by the products name, even though it calls itself a balm; the consistency is really light, however it moisturises really well for me. I regularly get peels done to help with skin tone and this moisturises like no other and doesn't cause a reaction. In the past an esthetician gave me a heavy duty balm to moisturise and protect my skin from the environment after such a procedure, but that product felt like it was suffocating my skin, whenever I looked in the mirror I was so shiny everywhere, it was really like I had a thick mask of Vaseline all over my face and I broke out badly. Instead with this Neutrogena's Norwegian formula my skin felt soothed, and hydrated without feeling like I'm preventing my skin from breathing. However I did notice that after I got the procedure done, my skin would suck up this moisturiser and I would have to apply maybe every hour or so, but then again a peel I would say is an extreme condition where your skin is very very dry (their website targets this product at those with dry skin). Under normal circumstances, my skin is more combination, between my eyes and forehead region being more oily. I found that this helped control my oily areas while hydrating my more dry areas.

So far I haven't noticed this clogging my pores, the downside to this product is that it comes off easily with water, so if you happen to get caught in the rain with no umbrella. And I mean HEAVY rain not just those sprinkles of water from time to time but rather like water is dripping off your face - this product will probably just slide off your face ( this will happen to your body as well, it just happens I tend to apply this moisturiser to my face and neck).

This product doesn't have any SPF in it or any other functions to it other than it is just a moisturiser, so it doesn't do any particularly "special", if you have hyperpigmentation problems like me it won't speed up their recovery but then again I don't think any moisturiser makes that big of a difference for that problem, for that you need exfoliation. For me it is perfect for my sensitive skin, it is thick enough to moisturise me during the cold dry winters (and during my peels) but just light enough for everyday use without breaking me out.  If you have sensitive skin like me, you may be put off the fact that it has a scent, trust me  I know the feeling, whenever I notice a product having a scent or I see it in its ingredients I tend to run in the opposite direction. My skin tends to react instantly to products it doesn't like, and so far this has never given me a problem.  I bought it from my local pharmacy for around £5 so I think it is a really good price for what it offers.
Here's the link to the product if you want to take a look. http://www.neutrogenauk.co.uk/produits/body/norwegian-formula-deep-moisture-comfort-balm

Here are the products ingredients list from the Neutrogena website.
Aqua, Cyclopentasiloxane, Glycerin, Cetyl Alcohol, Dimethicone, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, PEG-100 Stearate, Glyceryl Stearate, Butyrospermum Parkii, Sodium Acrylate/Sodium Acryloyldimethyl Taurate Copolymer, Isohexadecane, Stearyl Alcohol, Myristyl Alcohol, Polysorbate 80, Acrylates/C10-30 Alkyl Acrylate Crosspolymer, Sodium Hydroxide, Phenoxyethanol, Methylparaben, Propylparaben, Parfum.


Note that it contains parabens. I use to be a complete avoid parabens freak in all my skincare and cosmetics. I am still like that a little, however almost everything has parabens including the food we eat and parabens are used as preservatives so personally I belive that just as long as the product is not old the parabens should not be too harmful to the body. Besides, just because scientists have carried out studies that suggests parabens are harmful or toxic to your body, it doesn not mean that it is true, however it is fair enough if you just want to avoid them as much as possible to stay on the safe side. As a science student I can definitely tell you that some papers published are complete nonsense and the person writing it is basically twisting their evidence to the point where its lies, my professors have shown me and my classmates MANY papers where this is to be true. So, don't always believe everything just because some study from a group of scientists said so =P

Intro about my skin and battle with acne

I have combination, acne-prone and VERY sensitive skin, so its very difficult for me to find a skincare regime that doesn't break me out :/ or foundations, concealers, blushers, you name it .  Because of that I am very cautious when trying new products, HOWEVER I love trying new things and more often than not it ends badly for my skin.

My Battle Begins...

I started breaking out around 12 years old ( I'm 20 now) and it was just the normal spots, it started just a few spots here and there but after a year i had loads of blackheads and whiteheads covering my forehead, I dont remember even having any patch of smooth skin there. Since they were mostly blackheads, I would just go an have extractions from time to time, and this one lady who did extractions did a really intense session and got out almost all my blackheads on my forehead. It was smooth to the touch but it did not look pretty, it was red for days and I did develop some whiteheads (maybe also pustules) as well, however after a month or so it went back to skin colour (apart from a couple hyperpigmented spots) but my forehead was so smooth. However I still conitnued to break out, so....
when I was 14 years old I took some supplements from a vitamin shop that was suppose to help with acne and breakouts, I don't remember what was in this but it cleared by face up completely, and I mean COMPLETELY. I have never felt so confident about my skin, I kept looking in the mirrors expecting to see spots and marks on my face but there was nothing. ( I really wish I remember what this supplement was).

However, my acne came back with a vengence when I was 15 and it came back cystic. At the time I really had no idea such a hateful spot existed, and I had no idea I had cystic acne, and it took my years to clear it up, and to this day I get the occasional cystic spot (but I now know how to deal with them). Now back to when I was 15, yes the break out I had was terrible, like I said I knew nothing about cystic acne and neither did my mother, we just thought it was a really bad breakout. It started off as blackheads completely covering my temples (not a smooth patch of skin anywhere) and those blackheads become over the next few months, each taking its turn to come up angry and very painful. Honestly, my temples was only cysts, you could not see healthy skin anywhere. A breeze of wind caused these cysts to hurt. I also started getting cysts on my cheeks. This really hurt my self esteem as anyone who has suffered from acne. I wanted to go and see a dermatologist but I was so insecure with myself that it was so hard for me to even talk about my skin, and whenever I did get the courage to ask my mum if I could see I dermatologist she would just say no, we have no money, and if I continued to push the idea we would get into a very big argument. So I just left it. It wasn't until 2 years later that my mum actually tried to do anything about it. But by that time I had huge dents and scars on all over my temples and cheeks. It was heartbreaking to look at myself in the mirror, not only did I have scars all over my face, I had active acne and hyperpigmentation. We finally went to go see a dermatologist who put my on this antibiotic tetracycline which did nothing for me except make me sick, so I stopped taking that - in hind sight I kinda wish I pushed through that and now I might not have any breakouts, but who knows....we ended up going into herbal medicine from a chinese doctors clinic to clean my body from the inside. And I would say about 6 months later my acne was under control, not gone but under control, for the first time in years. I started to feel better about myself, more confident however the acne scars were very noticable. My biggest problems were boxscars and icepick scars on my temple and cheeks. Then later on when my acne was even more under control we went to a clinic to get laser resurfacing done to help with the appearance of my scars. Now about 1.5 years later,  I am feeling a lot better about the way I look, my scars improved I would say 45% from the laser and. So they are definitly not gone, I might do some more in the future but it is very expensive.

My skin now
 - apart from the acne scars I sustained when I was younger. My main problem now is hyperpigmentation, I tend to break out around "that time of the month" and whenever I get a spot it ALWAYS leaves a red mar :(, its annoying but loads of girls go through this so it is acceptable lol. In terms of acne, I tend to get milia and blackheads really easily, and for some reason these are the ones that turn into whiteheads or pustules . How my skin looks now to how it looked when I was 15 is completely different. There are things I am working on with my skin but I am no longer OBSSESSED with it, I am still self conscious about my skin but no where near like I use to be, I can go out in public without constantly thinking about how my skin looks.( I still havent been able to exit my house without some sort of coverage on my hyperpigmentation yet, but hopefully some day soon!). I am slowly working on to improve my skin and thats okay with me because I CAN see an improvement in my hyperpigmentation and the scars I got so I am remaining positive =)

SO... thats my skin and my battle with acne, there are loads of you out there who have struggled like me as I have read LOADS of posts online and they always make me feel a little better and its nice to hear other peoples experiences