For a good chunk of my early adult years I battled with MAJOR skin problems. Whether it was being overly oily to overly dry, bad breakouts, dark spots, or uneven skin tone — it was a daily struggle.
I was a petrie dish of skin care products – from Proactive to expensive cleansers, department store creams, and drug store solutions. I tried them all. For a while I thought, “if it tingles and burns then it must be working!” WRONG.
This was pre-youtube tutorial times, so I experimented with all sorts of makeup. I’ll spare you the 20-year challenge photos because they were BAD. I also had zero knowledge on ingredients and what was good or bad for my skin. It was a vicious cycle of breakout, cover up, clog up.
Finally post college, once I started #adulting and got insured, I went to see a dermatologist. They put me on a Rx topical lotion for morning and night and then I filled in the blanks. I found a cleanser and moisturizer that worked for me. It took some time to clear up the craziness of my skin. For sure a good chunk of it had to be genetic and hormonal, but once I got on a routine, I slowly saw positive changes in my skin.
Now skin care is a huge part of my routine. Morning and night, I can do it with my eyes closed. And I mean that in the most literal sense – queue surveillance video reel of me coming home after a night out in Vegas and am still able to remove all my makeup and do all 500 steps of my routine! My crowing achievement, hahahaha.
My skin care routine:
- Remove makeup with Magic Makeup Remover Cloth. Just add water and it’s machine washable. In the past I’ve also used Bioderma Sensibio H2O Micellar Water. Both are gentle makeup removing solutions that will not strip your skin of the natural oils and good bacterias.
- Cleanse with Glossier Milk Jelly Cleanser
- Follow by Rx topical creams – my derm proscribed me Aczone (morning) and Epiduo (night)
- Next I follow with an eye cream. My go-to is Drunk Elephant – C-Tango Multivitamin Eye Cream or Mario Badescu Glycolic Eye Cream.
- I follow with the Glossier Rosewater spray and a moisturizer. My moisturizers change by the season and one for morning or night. Some of my faves right now are Glossier Priming Moisturizer (morning or night) with SPF Shield, Kate Somerville – ExfoliKate Glow Moisturizer (morning or night), and TruSkin Vitamin C Moisturizer (morning).
- OTHER: I take hair and skin vitamins every morning. I’ve tried a few different ones over the years but my fave has been OLLY Vibrant Skin and Beauty Multi-vitamin.
Go-to Skin Care Masks:
- Summer Fridays Jetlag and Overtime Mask for a dewy look post mask! Love these and the Jetlag mask is my must have for travel days. Instructions say to rinse off but I actually leave on like a moisturizer.
- Drunk Elephant – pricy but you get what you pay for. Linked up below are some of their products. I use the TLC Sukari Babyfacial (literally makes my face feel like a baby’s butt) and TLC Framboos Glycolic Night Serum.
- Laneige Water Sleeping Mask has that baby butt feeling too. It’s a leave on and rinse in the morning mask.
- Glow Recipe – Do you eat it or put it on your face? The Watermelon Sleeping Mask I have gotten 2 travel sample sizes of and love it so much that I may buy the full size and the Avocado Mask I got for Christmas and have used it twice and LOVE. Both can be used as an apply and rinse or a leave on overnight.
- The duck lip selifes will never get old if you use the Laneige Lip Sleeping Mask. Not only reserved for night time, I use it all day long.
The time I take for makeup care, skin care, hair care has become my daily ritual of self-love and self-care. To me, a face mask 2-3 times a week not only is therapeutic, but it also is my “meditation” time. I may not really be meditating but I take those 15-20 minutes to just chill out, scroll, make a list, or honestly stare into space and just empty my brain and focus on feeling that mask tighten up and do it’s magic. Seriously, try it.
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