

You know those moments of self-reflection where you realise that you should have listened to advice from your mum because she’d been there, done that? Things like “Don’t over-pluck your eyebrows!”, “Don’t overheat your hair” and “Start using a night cream every night… even if it’s just a cheapie…”
Well the latter is advice that I wish I had taken. Now that I am on the runway to the big 4-0 all my years of “fun” pre-kids (another moment of hindsight; I should have just been building my sleep bank for these current years of exhaustion) is starting to show.
I’m turning up at Mamamia beauty expert Leigh Campbell’s desk every few days asking “what should I do about this?” and pointing to a new line on my face. “Hydration,” she says…. “hydration, hydration, hydration”.
But here’s the thing, like everyone I know, I live a busy life and as much as I would love to have regular facials and a seven-step skin care routine I simply don’t have time.
So when I heard of The Ordinary ‘Buffet’, one of those new skincare sensations that people seem to be raving on about, I decided to give it a go.

It's called 'Buffet' because it does all the things. It’s like an 'all you can eat' for your face that cuts down the need for lots of different specialist products.
Despite it being from a brand called The Ordinary, the list of ingredients is anything but ordinary – in fact just skip reading them and know this. It’s a multi-purpose peptide skin serum containing a complex formula of:
- anti-ageing and repairing peptides to help smooth fine lines
- a probiotic to rejuvenate and tackle age spots
- amino acids to strengthen it
- several molecular weights of hyaluronic acid to deeply hydrate my skin (which appears to be getting progressively papery….)
The important thing to note about these ingredients is the concentration which indicates the quality of the treatment your skin will be getting. So for less than $25 you get a 30ml bottle with 25 percent concentrate of active ingredients.