Skincare Regime

hey there,

If you're a long term friend you know I love two things: complaining and telling people what they should do. I mean I have more hobbies, but these possibly headline the others. One of the main areas in which I like to tell people what and what not to do is skincare (Hi Hilde). So why not open myself up and share what I do to keep my skin looking relatively okay. I am no expert, I'm just going off of what I've learned from Youtubers and other bloggers and my own experience. My skin is combination-oily with some dry patches in the winter, so it might react different to your skincare needs.



Morning

I try to cleanse my face every morning using the Glossier milky jelly cleanser. This cleanser is very gentle on the skin, doesn't have a strong scent, and is easy enough to use. You can apply it on either dry or damp skin. I usually start on dry skin, massage it all over, make my hands wet and massage again. When it's frothy I rinse it off with lukewarm water. Next I spray my face with the La Roche Posay Serozinc toner. This is supposed to help battle oiliness and blemishes, but it's also just a nice refreshing spray. After the spray has dried a little I apply my Avène eye cream under my eye in a dabbing/swiping motion: it's better to dab but I'm often too lazy to do so. I then smother my face in moisturizer. Right now I'm in switching between the Glossier priming moisturizer a nice rose scented light moisturizer, or the First Aid Beauty Ultra repair cream a moisturizer you can use on any part of your body really. It's very gentle, safe for sensitive skin and doesn't have any nasty stuff in it. I love First Aid Beauty, they've have really helped my skin.

Evening
In the evening I find maintaining a skin care routine very though, I just wanna go sleep and not spend time on anything but getting in bed. Sadly, because I love makeup and skincare I gotta do what I gotta do and so the process begins. I start off with removing my makeup. I use the Nivea eye makeup remover, it's great at removing stubborn mascara and eyeliner. I shake the bottle and apply it on two cotton rounds, lay them over my eyes and let them do the hard work. I try to keep the rubbing to a minimum. I then use the Garnier micellar water to remove the bulk of my face makeup. When the cotton rounds come up mostly white, I wash my face again. I again use the Glossier cleanser and LRP toner spray. Then I pull out the big guns: Estée Lauder Advanced Night Repair Synchronized Recovery Complex II . I'm honestly not mad about this long name because it's worth every letter (and cent). It's a very liquid gel type serum that spreads really nicely. I definitely notice a difference on days when I don't use this. After this I repeat the eye cream and moisturizer from the morning, but sometimes when I'm too lazy or tired I leave it at the serum.

Masks
I try to do a mask at least once a weak and my two go to's are the First Aid Beauty Ultra Repair Oatmeal Mask and the Lush 'Just to clarify' Jelly face mask. I haven't had the latter long enough to give an in depth review, but so far so good. It has a nice fresh papaya scent. it scrubs gently, is easy to remove, and leaves my skin feeling like a baby's butt. The FAB Oatmeal mask however is my ride or die, I love it. A little goes a long way with this one, it's super gentle and moisturizing and works really well with breakouts. I highly recommend snapping this one up if you're on the market for a new mask. Plus it comes in a squeeze bottle so minimal mess.

Some final tips:

• Don't wash your face in the shower; whilst it's super convenient the water is too hot for your skin and dries it out real bad
• Clean your face towel often or else you're gonna rub the bacteria back into your skin
• Wash your hands beforehand.
• Minimize your dairy and sugar intake
• Drink plenty of water and if you want to take vitamins (fish oil is v. good)
• Don't put toothpaste/vaseline/sudocreme/etc over your pimples, just use a targeted spot treatment or it's only gonna make it worse: trust me!!!! been there done that. 

So this is what I try to maintain on a daily. It doesn't alway happen due to exhaustion or plain laziness, but if anything I always remove my makeup to avoid those premature wrinkles and all that. One thing I am missing is a morning serum, so if you have any recommendation please leave a comment! Besides that, I feel very secure in my routine and the brands that I use, I don't really venture out because I don't want any breakouts. I hope this has helped you to some extent, or has inspired you to look into skincare.

- Y.