I have two hopes for this post: to keep it short and keep it informative. I know the first is one of my downfalls because I love to talk. Other than March being the longest month ever for a very large and obvious reason that's still going on now (a pandemic, in case you're a bear and have been living away in a cave). Both of my routines this past month stayed pretty consistent on the products I've been using routinely. As promised, I'll keep it short and sweet on my AM and PM routines!
AM- With my day routine, I try to mattify my skin as part of my skin prep before makeup. I haven't been wearing makeup all that much since going into quarantine but lately I've been back in front of my makeup table. In the morning I try to use a more gentle or simpler cleanser like the
Kylie Skin Foaming one. I like this one because it's soap free and leaves my skin soft and clean. I follow behind with a serum, sometimes using two in certain areas of my face. On my nose and cheeks, I pat in the
Caudalie Vinopure one to mattify and then I'll reach for the
Youth to the People Superfood Serum everywhere else for my daily dose of Vitamin C. I like the Caudalie because it mattifies without drying me out and a little goes a long way with the pump. The Youth to the People serum is super gentle and has a bunch of other antioxidants with it.
The only eye cream I remember using in the AM, and I'm still using it now, is
Farmacy Cheer Up. It's meant to brighten and hydrate the under eye, which I'm sure it does for some people. Eye creams don't normally blow me away because I don't have really any under eye concerns. My only compliant about this one is the consistency. It's a souffle-jelly like texture that I'm not crazy about. For my moisturizer, I opened the
Kate Somerville Oil-Free one after finishing the Air Whip Cream from Youth to the People. I've found that I enjoy the pump on this one for the right amount every time, how it moisturizes perfectly, but I'm not a fan of the ingredients. I wish I could speak to Kate Somerville more but from what I continue to notice in her ingredients is starting to turn me off.
PM- I usually focus on posting about my night routine online 'cos I feel like it's more fun but my skin prep before makeup is just as important! However, there's more going on in my night routine. I take off my makeup with the
Drunk Elephant Slaai cleansing balm. This is my second one, which doesn't mean it's that important to me, I'm just lucky enough to have another one. I'm really just dying to reorder Glossier Milky Jelly. For my second cleanse, I'm trying to finish my
Glow Recipe Blueberry Bounce Gentle Cleanser. I still love this cleanser to remove any leftover makeup and lightly exfoliate thanks to the glycolic acid. When I don't opt for the Glow Recipe, I grab
Ceramic Slip from Sunday Riley. This one has grown on me because I loved the original but I've found that this second formulation really clears out pore clogging debris and leaves me feeling cleaner than before.
A side note, I love to rotate cleansers as you can see. I will always, always recommend having two or three on hand if you have the budget. But there's really so many cleansers out there of varying prices that this isn't as hard as it sounds (just NO Cerave or Cetaphil- NO!!!).
If I do a face mask, peel, or sheet mask, it's after cleansing. I'd do it now because my skin is at it's cleanest and ready to absorb and take in whatever I'm slapping on top for a certain time period. Another note, when I do sheet masks, I usually leave them on until they're dry. Which is usually 30-40 minutes.
After any masking or treatment steps, I turn towards my night serums. Here is where the retinols or acids come in. The main serum I'm trying to finish is
Tarte's Youth or Dare. A hybrid Vitamin C + Glycolic Acid that's on the more gentle side. I've been able to tell that this serum is more low dose for my skin, but for a beginner, I think it's a great choice. It's ingredients are fab too. If I'm not using Youth or Dare, I slather the
Dr. Dennis Gross Alpha Beta Pore Refining Serum all over my pores because this promises the world. In the usual Dr. Dennis Gross fashion, there's a delicious blend of acids along with some kind of Mushroom extract and other superfoods to intensely clarify while calming my skin.
I've been bouncing back and forth between the
Glow Recipe Avocado Retinol Eye Sleeping Mask and the
Youth to the People Superfood Eye cream because they're both ultra rich in hydration and antioxidants. Youth to the People's is so underrated on hydration because it's thicker than one would expect but it's also a great price for an eye cream. I've been using the Glow Recipe one more because of a milia bump by my right eye that popped up in the last few weeks. This sleeping mask promises to help remove milia but I've yet to see this one disappear. Regardless, this is still a great eye cream for nighttime to prevent the first signs of aging.
My
nighttime moisturizer of choice is now from Dr. Dennis Gross's new Stress Repair line. I love, love this moisturizer and the whole line. Dr. Dennis Gross really worked on perfecting the ingredients in this because you can't ask for more with all the superfoods packed in this moisturizer (and serum and eye cream too!). This moisturizer looks like it would be ultra rich but it's actually quite silky and light when I massage it into my skin. It's helped perfect the surface of my skin and keep it balanced during this um, very stressful time of being confined to my home around the clock. Occasionally I mix in a few drops of
The Ordinary Marula Oil or
Go-To Skincare Face Hero (which has now left the Sephora website which is just devastating). I'm still trying to finish these oils after having them open for over a year!! (Relax, they're both fine. No weird smells or anything to put me off them- yet).
Okay, I tried my best here but it still ended up being quite long! But with a multi-step routine, what can you expect? I always encourage people to expand and build their routines to what they know they can do. With this many steps, I'm still able to get everything applied and absorbed quicker than you'd think. I have high hopes to finish a few of these products this month so I can open up my next ones! I won't promise an April Routine to be posted but I have good intentions (again)!
**Check out my video on
IGTV now!
Post a Comment