If anyone was curious about my skin-care regime, I thought I would post it. I'm not sure if I look dramatically young for my age (25), but I have had coworkers who are around 18 tell me they thought I was their age and I have had people say I look young for my age, so I figured I would share what I do and see if it helps anyone else.
Here's a recent high-def photo of my face if you were curious, taken with my absolutely terrible cellphone camera (my nice camera got lost :( ). Yes I have kind of a mustache, sometimes I bleach it and sometimes I just wear it WELL, like in the photo. What can I say, I'm hairy I guess? Deal with it. I am wearing the Urban Decay electric palette on my eyes, and a Maybelline Matte Lipstick on my lips in the shade, Lust For Blush, with Urban Decay Perversion mascara. So, I don't know, I think I look my age, but my skin looks well-cared for, and that's mainly what I'm trying to demonstrate so you can feel a bit more comfortable with my advice. It's not to SHOW OFF. Or whatever. AGH! LOL. Anyway. It's not like I'd post a picture of myself that looks terrible on my own blog, although let me just say I take PLENTY of terrible pictures, like pretty much everyone else in the world.
So, to get going.
1) Daily Moisturizing. First of all, every day I moisturize. Every single day. Usually only once a day, at night time after I've washed my face, but I try to do it in the morning as well before I put on my makeup. I try to always moisturize AFTER washing my face unless I'm out and about doing touch-ups and it's the middle of the day, because if you moisturize before washing your face, it can be irritating and clog pores, especially if you still have makeup on or if you are oily. My holy grail skin-care product is the Burt's Bees Intense Hydration NIGHT (omg!! I wrote day. It's MOST DEFINITELY THE NIGHT VERSION. Sorry folks.) Moisturizer. It is just...my staple, my everything. It doesn't break me out, it doesn't enlarge my pores, and my skin feels so relieved and happy when I use it. I have been using it for a little over two years now. I also use it on my under-eyes if I don't have an eye cream and I'll often layer a thin layer of it under my eye cream. I concentrate it in all of the dryest areas on my face, which are as goes: my forehead, my under-eyes, and my smile lines. Everywhere else is pretty normal/combination, but I do put a thin layer of this on my cheeks and jawline about once every other day (I don't time it, just kind of ball-park it as needed...no crazy routine...I just look at and see how my skin feels and go from there) because they can be dryer as well. I also make sure to moisturize my neck. I prefer to use the Burts Bees for this as it works best, but often out of frugalness I will use creams that have made my face break out on my neck, which I don't like doing and I believe to be less effective because the skin is still SOMEWHAT intolerant to the product, but I feel is saving me some money.
(When I was younger, between the ages of 16-22, I used Clean and Clear moisturizers...mainly the one called morning glow, which had SPF in it, each morning, all over my face, a little more haph-hazardly than I do now-a-days, but with the same concept as I mentioned before, concentrating it in dryer areas. My forehead and chin were always breaking out at this time period, so I would moisturize them very sparingly, whether this helped or hurt. I almost never put moisturizer on at night-time during this time period, but when I did I used the same product. I was highly acne prone and sensitive to whatever few products I tried, and would usually just wash my face with regular tap-water. I am sensitive to ingredients, so I would often just rinse my face with the water, not wash off the small amount of makeup I had on, and wear hardly any makeup other than a bit of concealer on my under-eyes, lipstick/gloss, mascara and an inordinate amount of eyeliner as was my tradition especially between 18-22.) I would often re-use the makeup I put on the day before and just touch it up, because I was so worried about different ingredients from products disturbing my skin, as it was so sensitive at the time!!
2.) Portable Skin Care. I always bring a long a little moisturizing stick in my coat pocket or purse (I use ELF's Hydrating Stick. It's a clear formula and in a black tube that you can take apart when you are finished with it and use to store little things like tweezers, smaller lipsticks, and q-tips) when I'm out and about, especially during winter time, and I will dab my finger into it and put it on the dry areas of my face (under-eyes, smile-lines, and forehead). I find it also refreshes my makeup and helps with any creasing in places like the under-eye where makeup tends to cake up. I usually use this when I am ACTUALLY out and about, and if I'm home a lot I won't moisturize at all during the day and forget to use this at all, so I'm usually a lot better cared for when I'm busy, ironically, but I don't like worrying about this constantly. If it's nearby and I'm thinking about it, I use it. Naturally if I'm at home I'm not carrying around a purse or coat with it in it, so it's not nearby and I'm not going to be reaching for it all the time and losing it, as I am sure to do. I also have an ELF Hydrating Mist that I like to spray on to refresh that I really enjoy and I do think it benefits my skin-health as well, and I'm more likely to spray this on at home as the air can get dry especially in winter time, and since the bottle is slightly bigger and brighter I'm less likely to lose it (can you tell I'm good at losing things yet...I have to organize my routine around this tendency of mine).
3.) Eye Cream. Over the years I've used some really sub-par eye creams that I absolutely don't recommend and usually I've just used my typical everyday face cream on my under-eyes. I now currently have a Murad Eye Cream that I originally got as a sample but enjoyed so much I decided to buy the large (very expensive) version that I spent using the points program at my work, so I got it for free. Upon first few usages I noticed my fine lines decreased. I'm noticing this less now that I've been using it for a few months, however I still feel it is a great eye cream. I do like to double layer it with my Burts Bees often because I feel that gives me the best mix of hydration/benefits, as for some reason I personally feel this eyecream is not as heavy as I'd like it to be and seems to absorb really quickly into my skin, so to give it some longevity I love to layer it up especially at nighttime before bed, because in sleep I feel that's when my skin becomes dryest.
4.) Sunscreen. I started using sunscreen on my face most mornings (not every...maybe like 5 days a week, depending on how I feel) by age 23. At around age 20-21, I don't know if you guys noticed, but I had some sort of gap year where I hardly used ANY skin products at all except I wore natural sunscreens on my face every day. That year, I really, really worked on my diet alone and did some sort of cleanse. Nowadays, I strongly prefer a balanced whole foods diet with my fair share of yummy junk, and a balanced skin-care routine to top it. I like to put on a Neutrogena (I don't know why but I just feel this brand has always worked the best and improved the health of my skin and even my pores the best) sunscreen each morning before makeup. I LOVE Neutrogena sunscreen!!!!! It is wonderful and I don't know what I'd do without it and I hate to be advertising for such a mass brand, but I just love how it evens out and brightens my skin and it seems to help with fine lines and even my pores, but longer than a regular primer does. I originally started with the Neutrogena Age Shield Face SPF 110--but found it stung my eyes more than the one I currently use, which is the Neutrogena Dry Touch SPF 55 (it's not even marketed toward faces but I swear I like it far better, and the difference between SPF 55 and 110 is actually less than .001 %...). I have used other sunscreens inbetween all of this time but these are the two that bar-none, I just like the best. You can't wear them well in water though!!!!!!!! I've tried many times in all kinds of makeup, trying to find a good combination of products and applications and hoping to succeed--but simply hasn't worked. I'm still looking for a good water-proof sunscreen that I can wear under makeup (and just in general for that matter...so far I've just worn these Neutrogenas and other things and got my eyes stung and beared it--awful and I really need to just buckle down and find one!)!!! I can definitely wear a water-proof makeup look that kicks ass, but it's always been at the sacrifice of sunscreen and I'd MUCH rather have on a good sunscreen than fabulous makeup when I'm out swimming because my face will burn, especially my nose. I wear face sunscreens all year, winter or summer...body sunscreen usually only in summer, which I know I need to improve upon but I'm not as motivated to in Winter because I'm inside so much more!
Another thing I'd like to buy is an SPF powder for sun-protection over my makeup when I'm out and about in the summer-time, and an SPF spray for winter! :) I think those could be really helpful little essentials for easy over-makeup sun-protection!
5.) How I Use Makeup. For years, I didn't even use foundations because I believed they broke my skin out, aged it, and enlarged my pores, and I still believe this to be the case to this day, however I wear foundation more now, as I feel it looks nicer. I've tried MANY types of foundations and they all pretty much do the same harms to my skin, some more than others but with little variation. I use it sparingly, starting in the center of the face (nose and undereyes, where the redness, blackheads, and darkness is) and working outward, using the most concentrated amount of foundation in the center of the face and least amount toward the outward part, where I need the least and seem to get irritated by it the most as well for some reason. The center of my face doesn't seem to react much to foundation so I'm fine putting it there as I feel it helps more than hurts.
6.) Hygiene. I am not 22 anymore (like 25 is so much older, but whatever) and I do like to wear foundation more now because I am less irritated and less sensitive to it than I was in the past, and I think it looks nicer (it also would have looked nicer in the past but I couldn't risk all the irritation I got). This means I HAVE to wash it off, it is definitely the MOST irritating product to my skin, be it a powder or a liquid foundation. I try to wash my makeup off every day but honestly, I don't always make it because I'm borderline narcoleptic at night-time and sometimes if I just lay down I'm asleep before I'm even realize it and before I even have time to drag myself to the bathroom. However if that happens I make sure to wash it first thing in the morning (unless I'm feeling lazy and I end up washing it at 2pm on a weekend day!). I like to wash it off with Burt's Bees Radiance cleanser...I've found this'll take off even waterproof mascaras very well, in my experience and with the ones I've used. It just is a very quick way to take off all my makeup with as little scrubbing as possible. I try very hard not to touch my skin and move it around much. Lately as I am working at a job that requires me to wear makeup during every shift, I have been using Micellar Waters, particularly the one by Marcelle, which is a Canadian brand. It's nice to have because if I'm super tired after an evening shift and I'm lying down and can't bring myself to move, I'll just keep it near my bed and pour some on a cotton pad and it removes my makeup rather quickly and leaves my skin feeling smooth. I strongly prefer to rinse and wash my face after using this product, in spite of the fact that it seems to leave no residue on the skin, I feel the look and health of my skin seems to be better if I wash my face after using this product--but it's better to have this product and use it than not wash my face at all, which is the worst situation of all.
7.) Random Products That I Also Enjoy Benefits From:
All of the ones below are products I tried for the first time in the last year or so.
I use a hyaluronic acid and vitamin C product by Palmetto Derma that I absolutely love. It seems to even out my skin very well, tighten it, and plump it up, but it's drying so I only use it a couple times a week at most. I got it in my Boxy Charm subscription before I canceled it a while ago, and it's the product I'm most gleefully happy about and will continue to buy in some format (at least for that acid and the vitamin C) for the rest of my life.
I use Witch Hazel often, at least a few times a week, sometimes twice a day that I buy for super cheap from the grocery store in the health department. It's by Dickinson. It cleans up my skin really nicely and is a nice intermediate sub between the Marcelle cleansing water, but I don't like to use it ALL the time because it has alcohol in it, which is bad for my dryness in my skin.
I have other random products, samples I get in beauty bags and with makeup orders, that I'll throw on my neck or undereyes or whatever. Sometimes I feel they help more than they hurt so I just try to stick them on my neck or hands as I'm irritated by a lot and usually what happens is my pores enlarge and get clogged and then they're permanently enlarged after that (looks like a scar usually!) so I am VERY careful about this.
I have a few random mask products--one by Mario Bedescu and a couple very basic powder clays. I use all of these very sparingly.
The next product I want to try to buy is a hydrating mask since I have dry skin...I learned about them from a Lisa Eldridge youtube video and I think they sound divine for my skin-type. I'd like to try the one by Dermalogica.
My philosophy is that once I find a product that works for me, I STICK THE HELL WITH IT because my skin is irritated by so much that it's really not worth it to try new things and mess it up more.
So guys as you can see here, the main points I have are:
I have many times sacrificed beauty for my skin-health. I've also had to do it for my eye-health as well...One year (age 22) I had an awful eye infection for some reason beyond explanation, and I stopped wearing makeup for the entire year, wearing it only on special occasions. I think you can see here that ultimately, I do what I want to do whilst still maintaining happiness and sanity and sometimes I get lazy and I'm fine with that.
Reading it all, it seems very complicated but it's actually very simple...I have a simple daily routine and I do whichever parts of it that I feel like, when I feel like it, trying to do at least 3 of the 7 things in it each day. I seldom do all 6 every day, but some weeks it happens.
So that's it... I try to keep it easy and under 20 minutes a day, even doing all 7 steps it should never take more than 30 minutes otherwise I feel like I'm wasting my life away! I also try to keep the products all at as low of a cost as I can because I don't also want to spend all my money on skin-care...so a lot of these are drug-store brand and drug-store priced, most importantly the three products I use the most which are the moisturizer, cleanser, and sunscreen.
Take care and hope this helped. Long-winded and seems so complicated, and if I did all of these steps every day (I tried to in the past and I was miserable) IT WOULD BE. But I try to keep a balance and my main thing is to keep hygienic, keep moisturized, and keep sunscreened, and not worry as much about the rest...just add it in where I can!!
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