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2020 Skin Care Favorites

2020 skincare favorites

FTC NOTES: Some products mentioned in this post were originally received in PR (which will be noted with a **).

First, a little bit about my skin! My skin is currently normal-to-oily with a tendency to be dehydrated, and not particularly prone to breaking out except when I have to wear a mask for more than a quick errand thanks to Miss Rona. My main skin concerns are redness/hyperpigmentation, hydration, and anti-aging. I am just about to turn 34 and I do have a few fine lines. These are the skincare products currently keeping my skin bright, clear, and happy.

Cleanser: Friends, I have found a true holy grail cleanser in the First Aid Beauty Pure Skin Cleanser ($21, FAB/Ulta/Sephora). This cleanser helped calm my skin down within just a few uses. It’s so very gentle. What I also appreciate about this cleanser for first-timers is they sell several sizes at varying price points, so you don’t have to dive into a huge tube you aren’t sure you will like.

Exfoliating: For my more regular exfoliating, I go for the Tarte Knockout Tingling Treatment ($39, Tarte/Ulta/Sephora). This product packs a punch at 10% acid complex with both salicylic and lactic acids. It also contains sulfur, niacinamide, and glycerin which help with stuff like fine lines, pores, and evening skin tone/redness. I use this up to 3x/week and it really helps keep my skin clear.

Another exfoliator I love and have purchased many times is Dr. Brandt PoreDermabrasion** ($58, Dr.Brandt/Sephora). I originally got this in PR, but have bought 3 more tubes since then. This is an extremely fine-grit scrub that also contains salicylic acid for that double-whammy of both physical and chemical exfoliation. 1-2x per week (on days when I’m not using the Tarte toner) I mix a glob of this into my First Aid Beauty Cleanser to cushion the scrub (not required, but the Dr. Brandt team recommends this method for sensitive skin). I use it on my whole face, neck, and decolletage.

Moisturizing: I have two favorite moisturizers and they could not be more different. First, I love the CeraVe PM Facial Moisturizing Lotion ($varies, Target/Ulta/Amazon) – another very gentle product, and like the entire CeraVe line is, packed with ceramides that help calm the skin and build up its natural moisture barrier. It’s great for healing if you accidentally over-exfoliate, or have raw dry skin after a cold. If you have dry skin they also have a heavier formula.

On the complete opposite end of the spectrum, we have the Tatcha Water Cream ($68, Tatcha/Sephora). Where the CeraVe moisturizer is rather boring and utilitarian, Tatcha Water Cream is an experience. This product is pure luxury right down to the little golden spatula it comes with that slides conveniently into a slot on the lid. Tatcha Water Cream has numerous essential oils and plant extracts, so if you are sensitive to such things you’ll definitely want to avoid it, but this cream does wonders for my skin when it is dehydrated. It has a lot of hefty claims: balanced skin, more radiant/luminous skin, improved clarity & less obvious pores. I don’t know if it does all of that, but I definitely notice balanced, radiant skin.

Eye Cream: Another product I’ve been using for years is the It Cosmetics Bye Bye Under Eye Brightening Eye Cream** ($48, It Cosmetics/Sephora). Despite the name, the brightening aspect is not why I love this eye cream. I love the texture, how hydrating it is, and how it lessens puffiness. I don’t have a tremendous problem with dark under-eye circles, so I can’t really say how well it handles those. All I know is when I don’t use this and try using a different eye cream, I miss this. It also wears beautifully under concealer, so I never have to worry about a bad makeup day. My fine lines haven’t gotten any worse since I started using this either, which is a bonus. I got my first jar of this in PR, but I have repurchased it twice since.

Here are a few extras that aren’t necessarily in my everyday routine, but that I use frequently and recommend.

COSRX Acne Patches ($6, Ulta/other prices elsewhere) are little hydrocolloid patches that help draw out all of the yucky junk in a zit. Just slap one on overnight after your usual acne treatment and that sucker is usually much smaller and more manageable in the morning.

The Creme Shop Sooper Soothe Sheet Mask ($4, The Creme Shop) are my quick fix for dehydrated or mildly irritated skin (not intensely irritated or reactive situations). This mask contains rice water, green tea, and snail goop (which is actually good for your skin, who knew). It’s a lovely soothing, moisturizing treat. And to think I originally tried this to hit free shipping at some point…

Ole Henriksen Truth Serum ($50, Ole Henriksen/Sephora) is my current go-to Vitamin C serum. I’m on my third bottle of this bad boy as well. It’s very gentle, and also contains aloe, collagen, and various plant and fruit extracts claiming hydration, anti-aging, and brightening. The effects of topical collagen are still kind of debatable, but I like this serum for its hydrating and brightening effects.

Fourth Ray Beauty Rainfall 2% Hyaluronic Acid Serum ($16, Colourpop/Ulta) is one of only 2 products I’ve tried and liked from the Fourth Ray line (the other one I’m still kind of testing out so it’s not a favorite yet). It is nice for extra hydration when needed, and smells like cucumbers (which I love). I’ve repurchased this once as well.

I feel kind of bad about loving the Glow Recipe Watermelon Glow Ultra-Fine Mist ($28, Glow Recipe/Sephora) as much as I do. I talked so much sh*t when this was launched about how no face mist was worth $28, even if the mister is one of the best. Well, I eat my words. This mist is fantastic. I’ve purchased it not once, but twice now and I REGRET NOTHING. It’s hydrating and definitely adds a noticeable luminosity to the skin. And the mister is great.

Remember when Shiseido Facial Cottons were the must-have product for like all of YouTube? Yeah. I got sucked into paying $12 for cotton too. It’s okay. They’re great! But $12 for cotton is insane no matter how nice they are. Enter: Daiso Fresh Cotton ($1.50, Daiso). They are every bit as soft and lovely as the Shiseido Facial Cottons, but you get more and for a fraction of the price. It’s a no-brainer. If you live near a Daiso, scoop some of these up. If you do not live near a Daiso, Ulta Ultra Soft Square Cotton Pads are also a great dupe for Shiseido. Not as much of a price break, but Ulta brand stuff goes on BOGO sale a lot.

So that’s it…those are what products are keeping my skin looking as best as it can lately. What are you loving for your skin?

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Updated Morning Skincare Routine – February 2017

I like to change up my skincare routine pretty often to suit my skin’s needs. I’ve found my skin changes every so often, especially because here in SoCal we’ve had some really varied weather lately. We’ll have days where it’s sunny and low 70s and then the next day be cold and pouring rain. What the hell? I adapt. Here is what has been working for me lately. You’ll see a lot of “or this”, because I don’t use the same things every day.

WAKEY WAKEY…LET’S DO THIS!

I start my morning cleansing with either Murad Essential-C Cleanser* or Foaming Pumpkin Cleanser* by Alana Mitchell. Both cleansers smell amazing (Murad smells like citrus, and the pumpkin cleanser smells like a pumpkin spice latte even though it has no added fragrance, which is incredible), which really helps me wake up. Both cleansers are formulated to brighten and even out the complexion, though they have very different ingredients. They’re both gentle and pleasant to use. In the mornings I often use my Foreo Luna* cleansing device. I have the version for normal to sensitive skin, which provides very gentle sonic cleansing. To be quite honest, I have been slacking on the Luna lately. But that’s just pure laziness. ;)

Depending on if I’ve done my cleansing in the shower that morning (I sometimes shower at night vs. in the morning), I may opt for an extra step. When I shower, my skin gets really sensitive to the heat and sometimes ends up looking red and blotchy. If this is the case, I give myself a good dousing with Mario Badescu’s Aloe Rosewater facial spray*. It calms my skin right down and smells so elegant. The facial spray has a chance to soak in and do its magic while I brush my teeth and towel off, etc. so by the time I’m ready to do the rest of my skincare I’m looking much less blotchy. Pro Tip: That facial spray is also FANTASTIC if you have a sunburn on an area that is otherwise prohibitive to treat, like your scalp.

Next up, toner. I have raved previously about the Pixi Glow Tonic, which is an extremely gentle (but potent at 5%) glycolic toner jam packed full of other delicious ingredients like aloe and ginseng. Since I’m very fair, I love anything that is formulated for evening out my skin tone. I feel like every little mark or blemish is that much more noticeable when you’re casper white like me.

After my acid toning step comes serum. I jumped on the Drunk Elephant bandwagon and splurged on their C-Firma vitamin C serum, and you know what? I am not in love with it. I know vitamin C serums aren’t supposed to smell good, but guys it smells baaaaaad. Like really bad. I’m doing my best to work through it, but it’s the type of product that you only need to use every few days. On the days I’m not using the C-Firma, I’ve been really enjoying the It Cosmetics Bye Bye Lines serum*. I turned 30 last August and gosh darnit those smile lines actually starting to bug me, so it’s time to do something about them. I’ve been using the It Cosmetics serum for about a month as a preventative measure. So far, so good. It’s very hydrating and seems to plump the area up at least.

Sometime around this time is when I put on my eye cream. I have a few that I love, but lately I’ve been really liking the It Cosmetics Bye Bye Under Eye* eye cream. This claims to smooth, brighten, and depuff. It definitely hydrates and depuffs my eye area. I have been using it about a month and have barely made a dent in it because a little goes a long way. As far as brightening goes, I don’t have a ton of darkness around my eyes so I haven’t noticed a big difference or anything at this point. But I do know the cream doesn’t break me out or anything, and it seems good so far.

At this point it’s time to get my moisturizer on so I can start the fun part (makeup!!!!). I’ve been working from a deluxe sample of Ole Henriksen Sheer Transformation Perfecting Moisturizer lately, and really liking it. It’s a pretty expensive product, so I am glad to have a sample to try. So far I like it a lot. It sinks in quickly and I’ve noticed slightly less redness. Other moisturizers I’ve used in the morning and enjoyed recently are the Caudalie Vinosource Moisturizing Sorbet, Proactiv Green Tea Moisturizer*, and Garnier SkinActive Moisture Rescue Refreshing Gel-Cream (for Dry Skin).

Once the moisturizer sinks in it’s time to paint my face and gooooo! :)

Note: Products marked with * were sent for promotional consideration. I was under no obligation to mention these products, but I happen to quite like them! 
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My New Skincare Routine featuring Mario Badescu

mbskincare

Last weekend I visited my favorite event of all– The Makeup Show LA! I adore The Makeup Show, and was really excited that for the first time ever Mario Badescu would be there! I got a chance to meet with them and get a whole new skin care routine picked out based on my skin type and its needs. I’ve only been using the products for a little less than a week, so this isn’t a review, but more of a first impressions and info about the products I’m trying out.

To understand why the products were picked, here’s some info about my skin type. I have dry skin with some sensitivity. I have redness around my nose and mouth, and only the occasional breakout. I also work in a heavily air-conditioned environment, which is sometimes really tough on dry skin! We just moved in to our building too, so it’s also a little dusty. Gotta love it. With that in mind, here’s what they recommended.

Cleansing

The cleanser I’ve been using is their Keratoplast Cream Soap. My first question was “wtf is keratoplast?”. Keratoplast is an ingredient found in plants that helps with redness. It’s a very gentle, creamy cleanser with a pleasant scent. There’s no added fragrance, but the cleanser still smells pretty nice. Since it’s very gentle it can only remove very light makeup. To remove my makeup, I have been using the Cleansing Milk with Carnation & Rice Oil. The cleansing milk is one of those cleansers you can tissue off, which I love because a.) water shortage! hi! and b.) less work to do if I don’t have to rinse. It does leave some “residue” but I use the soap cleanser after so it’s not a big deal.

Toner

There’s all kinds of debate about the necessity of toners, but I’ve really been enjoying Mario Badescu Aloe Vera Toner. It’s literally just water, aloe juice gel, and a preservative. It feels amazing, as you would expect since aloe is so soothing.

Moisturizer

Both the day and night moisturizers I use are actually categorized as night creams, but hell if that’s what works, I don’t care. At night before bed I use the Protein Night Cream. It’s a very thick, rich cream that acts almost like a sleep mask. It also contains collagen (hooray!) and Vitamin A. It’s labeled “intense” and it is. Love it. During the day, I’m using Peptide Renewal Cream. It’s lightweight for a night cream (so probably a good night cream if you have combo skin) chock full of hyaluronic acid, peptides, nori and willow bark extracts. It does play nicely under my makeup, but I have to let it sink in first for a few minutes or my makeup feels slightly tacky.

Eye Care

During the day I either skip eye cream or use a lightweight one, but at night I have been trying out Mario Badescu Hyaluronic Eye Cream. It’s rich without being greasy and the skin around my eyes feels soft and hydrated. What more do you really need in an eye cream?

So far this routine is working for me in that it feels great, and I’ve noticed no negative effects. After such a short time, it’s hard to really say how it’s actually improved my skin, but these are just my first impressions. ;) I do notice an especially dry area between my brows is much less so after only a few days using these moisturizers, though! That’s a very good sign. :)

Have you tried any Mario Badescu products? In addition to these products I’m using now, I’ve used their Enzyme Cleansing Gel many times (I’ve used about half a bottle and will probably still use it from time to time even with this new routine). I’ve also tried samples of various others. The Ceramide Herbal Eye Cream in particular is nice. I was also given their Rose Hips Nourishing Oil for when I need a little extra boost. I haven’t needed any extra moisture on my face lately, but I’m thinking of trying it out on my cuticles because they are looking pretty haggard lately.

What I like about the line in general is the lack of “fuss”. The products are all in plain packaging, which keeps them affordable. I’d rather know my money is going toward quality ingredients than fancy packaging. There also isn’t a whole bunch of totally unnecessary fragrance– something that drives me crazy in skin care of all things because it’s generally so irritating to the skin.

I’ll keep you all updated on how things go with this new routine!

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My New Favorite Skincare Gadget

lunaface

Let me introduce you to my skin’s new BFF – the Luna by Foreo. Like any good geek, I appreciate a gadget. I have tried a bunch. I own a Clarisonic, I at one point had a Neutrogena Wave… you get where I’m going. So when I heard from Foreo asking me if I wanted to try the Luna, I said SURE! It sounded really cool.

 

And you know what? It IS really cool. The Luna emits what are called T-Sonic™ pulsations, which is short for transdermal sonic pulsations. It feels like a very gentle vibration. Where other skincare devices have brush heads, the Luna has silicone “touch points” (which I refer to as “nubbins”, lol). They look like this:

nubbins

Now, I have the Normal/Sensitive Skin Luna. There is also an Ultra Sensitive and a Combination Skin version that have different configurations of nubbins:

LINEUP_IMAGECombo, Normal/Sensitive, Ultra Sensitive

If you’re thinking this whole idea of silicone nubbins looks kinda familiar, it’s sort of like you took one of these:

P262041_hero^^ Generic Cheapo Silicone Cleansing Pad ^^

And gave it magical powers. And I say magical powers because I love my Luna. Now, I’d be ignoring a great big pink elephant in the room if I didn’t somewhat compare it to my Clarisonic, because I know that’s what you all want to know. It has some major advantages. First and foremost, it’s way easier to CLEAN.

palm

As you can see, the Luna is all one compact, palm-sized piece. There’s no brush attachments, which means there’s no “parts” for water to seep in under and get gross. Take the head off your Clarisonic and really look down into the brush itself. It’s a pain in the ass to clean! The Luna can be fully submerged and washes clean very easily.

The second major advantage also has to do with the lack of brush attachments. No replacement costs. Clarisonic brush heads run you about $25 a pop.

But this isn’t just an alternative to a Clarisonic brush and I don’t want you to think of it that way. The Luna is its own thing. In addition to providing a very thorough, gentle clean, it also serves another purpose…

massageythingy

This is the Luna’s anti-aging side. In just 2 minutes or so, placing the Luna with the ridged side on certain points of the face (it comes with a little guide), this gadget gives you a tension-releasing massage to your face, stimulating your skin and helping to reduce wrinkles. It promises skin to look fuller and more youthful. Now, I’m not quite 27 so I don’t really worry about my skin looking youthful, but I do know it does something. I had a horrible headache, and could feel the tension in my forehead and temples. I used this little guy on those areas and I did notice improvement, so it DOES work for relieving tension. I don’t know enough about the science of wrinkles to really say whether or not it can do the other things it claims, and I don’t have much in the way of wrinkles to test that on. The benefits of facial massage are well-documented though, and that’s essentially what this does.

What I have noticed since I started using the Luna (and I’ve been using mine for a few weeks now – I really wanted to test it out!) is remarkably softer skin almost immediately. I also notice better absorption of my other skin care products, resulting in overall more balanced skin because it’s absorbing my moisturizer and toner etc. better than before.

As you all know I just went to Vegas, which involved staying up really late, wearing full face of makeup every day, being around lots of pollutants, eating slightly less than stellar health food (*lol*) and of course, lots of adult beverages. I’ve been really stressed lately aside from the blogging world, too. On top of all that, it was TOTM, which could have been the recipe for utter skin disaster. Even without all the other stuff going on, TOTM usually means at least one gnarly chin zit, right?

Nope! Nary a zit in sight. I even received heaps of compliments for my skin while I was in Vegas. (THANK YOU btw!!!) And absolutely no irritation whatsoever. Even when I use the delicate brush head on a Clarisonic, my skin is at least pink afterwards. I don’t have any irritation at ALL after using the Luna.

yayskin

This bare-faced picture was taken actually after a full day of running around doing errands etc. I washed my face this morning but haven’t washed it again tonight. My skin’s not perfect – but I am pretty darn happy with it, freckles and all. I have noticed improvement in the scarring on my chin, too, which is always awesome.

Now for the one downside to the Luna – cost. These high tech skin gadgets don’t come cheap. The Luna will run you $199. For a slightly cheaper option there is the Luna Mini at $139, which does have some differences (no variable speeds, slightly shorter battery life though both last hundreds of uses before needing a recharge). The Mini comes in cooler colors (aw shucks!), but if you can afford it either one would be a great investment in your skin. I think that whatever you can afford to spend on your skin care, spend it. I have regretted spending money on a makeup item but I have never regretted dropping cash on high quality skin care products that work well for me.

Before you get all huffy about the fact that this was a press sample item, I paid for my Clarisonic and the subsequent brush heads all myself and even though I like the Luna better for my face I still have/love/use Clarisonic for my body with the body brush head – so I’m not kidding when I say I believe in investing in skin care when you can afford it. 

If you’re interested in learning more about Foreo & the Luna (and even the Luna For Men!) check out their website: www.foreo.com. If I wasn’t clear, I love this thing and I love what it does for my skin! ;)

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Real Life Skin Care Routine

skin care routine

I’ve been getting heaps of comments and questions about my skin lately. I hesitate to tell you all my routine because it’s NOT a routine really. I’ve read tons of these and watched tons of skin care routines. They usually have so many steps and so many products. Am I the only one who thinks “I ain’t got time for that!” ?? So lets talk about my skin care routine. The products I use, exactly how I actually use them.

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