Have you ever met someone and stared so hard and wondered what they did to have such an amazing skin? Ever met someone that you struggled to tell their age? Majority of the time it's down to a healthy lifestyle and great genetics but the way you treat your skin also plays an important role. I've always loved trying different products but never really had a skincare routine. Over the past few years I have tried so many products, some I've loved, some I'll never buy again. During this time I have somehow managed to create myself a skincare routine. So this post is to share with you the skincare products that I've been using every morning for over a year. Now some of these products are new additions but majority of them I've been using for a year, maybe even longer.
So without further ado, here's a look at my morning skincare routine that you can incorporate or use as a guide to create yours. I'm going to divide the products into two categories - 'Cleanse & Tone' and 'Hydration & Moisture'. This is what you need to think about when creating your own skincare routine.
Cleanse & Tone
The most important thing when it comes to a healthy looking skin is having a clean skin. You need to have a clean skin before even thinking about dumping any products on it and I feel products work a lot better regardless of how expensive they are, when being applied over a thoroughly cleaned skin. I use The Bodyshop Deep Cleansing Gel Wash from their Seaweed Collection as my face wash and I use this both day and night. It is oil and soap free so it's great for people with oily skin. It has a gel consistency which I personally prefer over foam. It is fragranced but the
scent isn't over powering. I can't really place the scent but if you don't like
seaweed, don't worry about it because it doesn't smell anything like that. It has all
the benefits of seaweed without having to smell like one.
ⓢⓤⓑⓢⓒⓡⓘⓑⓔ
For an extra deep cleanse, I use Vanity Perfect's Spin For Perfect Skin electronic face brush both morning and night. The good thing about this brush is that it comes with 4 interchangeable heads. Two for your face, one for your body and one for your feet. For the two face brushes, one has soft bristles for everyday use and the other comes with a much tougher bristles for exfoliating. It's tough enough to give you the right amount of pressure and exfoliating that you need, but it's not too harsh on the skin. Now if you do not own an electronic face brush that's absolutely fine, you can still use your hands. It's just the same as brushing your teeth with a manual tooth brush versus using an electronic tooth brush. The most important thing is that you're cleaning your face. I prefer the electronic brushes because I feel they give me the extra cleanse that my skin needs. Other machines you can try are Foreo Luna, Clarisonic Mia, No7 Beautiful Skin Cleansing Brush.
After I'm done washing my face, I use the Garnier Micellar Cleansing Water to remove any extra impurities that I feel I didn't get to from using the face wash. This is just me being anal. You can totally skip this bit. This is by far my favourite Micellar Water. I have tried Bioderma but I personally didn't like it as much. Don't really get what all the hype is about. It's a good product don't get me wrong, I just hate it when products are way too over hyped, when they really don't do anything extraordinary. Using a cotton pad and my favourite toner from Bodyshop, I use The Seaweed Clarifying Toner all over my face and neck. When you wash your face, the pH balance of your skin gets disturbed and you also tend to loose a lot of moisture. To restore that moisture and your pH levels, it's very important to use a toner immediately after you cleanse your skin. That's not all toners do. Due to the glycolic and alpha hydroxy acids that are contained in toners, it helps prevent in grown hairs. Toners are very essential to people with oily and acne prone skin. It helps remove excess oils and tightens your pores. Gives the appearance of smaller pores and prevents the penetration of impurities.
Hydration & Moisture
Okay so now that our skin is freshly cleansed and a little bit hydrated we are going to add more moisture and hydration to make our skin look and feel healthy, young and glowing. For hydration and moisture, I use a combination of oils, serums and moisturiser. Over the past few years there has been a stigma about using less products if you have oily skin and I for one bought into that stigma. I mean think about it, why would you pack your skin with more moisture when you are already a natural grease ball?! Wrong! The fact that you use more oils on your skin doesn't necessarily mean your skin will produce more oil. In fact your skin produces less! Your skin produces more oils when you deprive it so by constantly hydrating your skin you reduce the amount of oil your skin naturally produces.
One of the first places that I tend to hydrate the most is the skin around my eyes. It is the most sensitive and the most fragile part of my face and because it's more prone to dryness, not hydrating this area tends to create lines and wrinkles. The skin around our eyes are one of the first places to show signs of ageing so keeping it moisturised helps to address all these issues and prolongs ageing. One thing that I emphasis though is that you really don't need a separate cream for your eyes. If you have a good moisturiser that's not harsh and doesn't create any irritation, you can use it as your eye cream. There is no special ingredients for just the skin around your eyes so keep that in mind when shopping around for skincare products. I however do use an eye cream because the skin around my eyes is different from the skin on the rest of my face. I have oily skin but the skin around my eyes tends to be on the dry side so I cannot use my moisturiser as my eye cream. I use The Bodyshop Drops of Youth Eye Cream both day and night. I love that it comes in a pump with a roller on top, so you pump the product out and then you roll the product underneath your eyes in a figure 8 motion a few times. I also put it on my lids and towards by brow bone. I then go in with my index and middle finger and gently tap the product into my skin.
When it comes to serums, I use two types. One I use daily and the second I use on 'special occasions'. The serum I use daily is The Bodyshop Brightening Serum. This is an oil based serum, it's very lightweight and I love the fact that it comes in a pump so you can regulate how much you use. I then go over it with the Caudalie VinoPerfect Serum. I only use the Caudalie Vinoperfect serum on the days that I wear makeup or on the days that I feel my skin needs that extra hydration. This serum is pretty expensive for my budget (£50 a bottle) hence the reason why I use it this way. If I had the extra cash, I would honestly, definitely replace the Brightening serum with the Caudalie Vinoperfect serum. I love it that much and it's one of the products I've been consistently using for over 3 years. It's very light weight but a little goes a long way. It feels like silk and it literally melts into your skin. Serums are great because the molecules are a lot smaller than that of moisturisers, so it penetrates deeper into your skin to deposit all the key nutrients in your serum that your skin needs. Most serums contain Vitamin C (for brightening), Glycolic Acid (as an exfoliant) or Hyaluronic Acid (to reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles).
For extra moisture, I use The Bodyshop Oils of Life Intensively Revitalising Gel Cream. This is one of the BEST moisturisers I have ever used. For someone with extreme oily skin it's been very hard for me to find a moisturiser that leaves my skin looking and feeling moisturised without looking greasy. I've gone through tubes and tubes of different moisturisers that claim to be for oily skin but have always disappointed me. This one restored my faith in skincare products. It is a bit on the pricey side but when it comes to skincare products I really don't mind spending the extra cash because I value skincare over makeup any day. I love makeup and I live for makeup, I mean this is what my entire blog is all about but nothing looks beautiful than your own skin. I'm bare faced more times than I wear makeup and I love it. Plus I only have just the one face so I try to take care of it as much as I can. I've recommended this moisturiser to a lot of my friends and family and everyone that's tried it has loved it. It comes in a gel and cream form. The gel for oily skin and the cream for dry skin. As mentioned in my 7 Top Tips To Having Your Makeup last All Day & Looking Flawless post, I apply double or twice my usual amount, on days that I wear makeup. I learnt this trick from the makeup guru Wayne Goss. Basically the more moisturised your skin is, the better your makeup application is.
During winter or when the weather gets a lot dryer, I do try to carry a face mist around with me just to keep my skin refreshed through out the day. I throw a 50ml size Avéne Thermal Spring Water bottle in my bag when I'm on the go and I also have a 300ml version on my dresser to use at home (don't judge me, it was on sale :p). You can use this during the summer as well when you are fatigued or need a little bit of a cool down. It's also great to use after a gym session or over your makeup to freshen up your look.
TLC
So that's pretty much all the products I use on my skin every morning. I won't lie to you sometimes I don't bother with all that mess. I just slap on some moisturiser and walk out the door and that's okay! Sometimes your skin needs a breather from all the products anyway. Just try and take care of your skin as much as you can. Once or twice a week I do like to treat my self and give my skin a little bit of TLC. I use a combination of face masks, face sheets and exfoliators. I love face sheets the most. I fell in love with them from watching Korean dramas back when I was in sixth form and back then they were so hard to get because they were mostly korean brands. I love them because they're filled with extreme moisture and nutrients that's great for repairing and replenishing your skin. The following products I try to use at least once or twice a week:
Body Shop Blue Corn 3-in-1 Deep Purifying Scrub Mask (cleanses, removes dead skin cells, excess oils and impurities)
Etude House Collagen Eye Patch
Etude House I Need You Mask
TonyMoly I'm Real Mask
Sephora Honey Face Mask
Sephora Ginseng Eye Mask
I hope that you enjoyed this post and that you learnt something from it. Let me know if you're going to pick any of these products up or if you already use any of these. I would love to hear your thoughts on them. Plus if you have any recommendations, let me know. Comment down below, you know I love trying new products. If you aren't already a subscriber, don't forget to SUBSCRIBE before you leave and check out my social media sites. Come say hi and show me some love - I'm on twitter, instagram and snapchat (sylvia_laurita).
REMEMBER - The key to a great skin is to CLEANSE & HYDRATE. Hydrate your skin using moisturisers, serums, emulsions, oils, masks etc. If an apple a day keeps the doctor away then hydrating daily keeps the wrinkles away ;)
I love you for stopping by.
No comments
Post a Comment