Beauty Tips For Body Care
Like many others, this year was the year that I delved into my attempt at taking care of my skin. My interest started when I began a seasonal position at Lush in October of last year. Though I don’t use any of Lush’s skincare products now that I no longer work there (I don’t get that 50% discount anymore RIP), it definitely opened the door to me wanting to care for my skin.I’ve gone through quite a lot of products this year and I’m honestly afraid to even think about how much has been spent, but in the process, I discovered a lot about my skin. Like how it’s suddenly sensitive as hell, dehydrated, dry (though this one I always knew but didn’t do much about), Bare Minerals products break me the fuck out, I get hormonal acne, and I’m prone to CC’s in my forehead and PIH.I’m still in the process of finding what works for my skin and my wallet but, here’s this year’s roundup of products I’ve tried and my thoughts on each. This will definitely be a long one. I’ve broken it up into what my different routines have been this year. Did I look through all of my online orders on amazon and target to recall what all I bought this year? Maybe.My original routine prior to my delve into skincare:Loreal Go 360 Clean Ideal Clean Deep Facial Cleanser For Sensitive Skin - My first official cleanser that wasn’t bar soap. I honestly was probably better off sticking to bar soap. This stripped my face so bad and I thought nothing of it. It always left my skin so tight and “squeaky clean.” The pH level is probably high as hell too but I just popped it on a shelf in my hallway and move on.Stridex Red Box - I’ve been using these for like…. 7 years and didn’t know they were on and poppin’. My mom tossed my brother and I our own jars to help with our acne. They really helped and my skin had no beef with it. I was even using them daily with no problem (you know outside of my skin being dry as hell already and not moisturizing properly but no biggie /s). I currently use these under my arms after a shower since every deodorant I’ve ever used except for one has caused these painful knots under my armpits and doing this helps manage things.Either a stick of cocoa butter or some shea butter to moisturize - Honestly if I ever want to go bare bones I might just go back to this. I had no complaints or issues with just moisturizing with either of these, I just didn't do it enough. I use to just smear a stick of cocoa butter over my face before leaving out during the winter and that was perfect. Hmm…..Now, I didn’t know anything about any skincare subreddits so I didn’t know the products I bought initially were popular. I just knew they were cheap, basic and supposed to be good for dry skin.Cerave Hydrating Cleanser - My first gentle cleanser. My skin and wallet loved it so much for like the first month. Then all hell broke loose and it felt like acid was being smeared around my face every time I used it. I started getting clogged pores and I kept trying to make it work but eventually stopped using it completely. I gave it to my brother to use as a hydrating cleanser since he’s going through puberty and needed something gentle and hydrating on his dry skin while it went through its own hormonal hell changes. He likes it but made a point to tell me what the color and texture looks like when I first passed it off to him.Thayer’s Alcohol-Free Witch Hazel with Rose and Aloe - I don’t remember why exactly I stopped using this. Maybe I got bored with it. I have no complaints about it and I’m pretty sure it helped with my CC’s and hormonal acne but I passed it off to a friend with oily skin and they loved it more than me.iUnik Vitamin Hyaluronic Acid Vitalizing Toner - I think this is the other product that my skin had a sensitivity to the niacinamide in. It was a really hydrating toner, viscous asf and made my skin really “plump,” but it randomly started stinging my skin and even after cutting out Cerave for months, it still stung my skin so sis got trashed.Cerave Daily Moisturizing Lotion - My first real moisturizer. Though looking back it wasn’t moisturizing enough on its own, I loved using this until my skin became sensitized and this burned too. A recent discussion I had with someone about how the niacinamide in Cerave products burns some peoples skin made me go back and test this out on patches of skin on my face. It no longer burns so I think maybe they were right and the reason it felt like all of Cerave products (even the ones without niacinamide) were burning my face was because I used them after the cleanser that did. Niacinamide may have been the culprit in the cleanser and another product I’ll get into below but it doesn’t seem to burn me in other products so who knows.Biore Rich Watery UV Essence - I stumbled across this during one of many “Sunscreens for dark skin”/”Sunscreens that won’t show a white cast on darker skin” google searches. It was my first real sunscreen and honestly, I felt like a boss ass bitch when I used it. I could just smear this on and go about my day and not have to feel like I had 20 pounds of sticky goopy sunscreen on my face. Unfortunately, the alcohol in it dried my already dry skin out so I had to put this pretty little blue bottle on the shelf to use on my body until it emptied. The fragrance in it is kind of strong but lemon/orange fragrance doesn’t seem to bother my face (or should I say my nose because if I’m being completely honest, it’s the only thing on my face sensitive to fragrance). Odds are, it’s probably still on the shelf gathering dust since I replaced it with another sunscreen I use on my body.CeraVe Facial Moisturizing Lotion AM SPF 30 - I really hated this sunscreen. It pilled so damn badly no matter what I did and I just don’t understand what went wrong when making this product. The whitecast was really minimal and I could honestly ignore it if it weren’t for the constant white flakes it left all over my skin.When I realized my skin was nope-ing the hell out of Cerave, I decided I was going to focus on products geared toward sensitive skin and healing (as you can probably tell by all of the centella asiatica based products)Etude House Soon Jung pH 5.5 Relief Toner - A welcome change to all the havoc my skin had been through. Though it wasn’t super hydrating or moisturizing, I didn’t buy it for that purpose. I wanted something to help soothe all the irritation and this definitely did that. When I wanted moisture, I’d drop some squalane oil into it and was good to go. After my skin healed up, I decanted it into a mist bottle until I used it up. I might repurchase it if my skin ever goes through hell again.Etude House Soon Jung 10 Free Moist Emulsion - I bought this to use as an additional hydrating step since I was traveling to a more drier state for a few weeks and was concerned about my skin drying out more than it already was. It was really lightweight but a bit moisturizing. I initially bought it in a travel size and then a full sized bottle, the latter of which was gifted to a friend when I phased it out of my routine.Reddy Cerassol Cica Cream & Reddy Cerassol Cica Ampoule - I grouped these two together as my feelings about both are remotely the same. My nose could not get past the damn bergamot smell for me to actually enjoy how hydrating and moisturizing these products were. I used them for all of one week and just resorted to constantly smearing on the EH SJ emulsion throughout the day.Neogen Dermalogy Real Cica Pad - I’m finally near the bottom of the jar of these and I got them in July. I only use them on lazy days, low-spoon days or during travel since I’ve been steering away from using cotton pads. I have no complaints about these. They’re refreshing to use, I love the smell and they’re moderately hydrating. If my skin were more normal, I could prob use them alone as a toner step but alas I have a desert face and I need layers. If Neogen made these into a toner, I’d totally just but the toner (as if I need any more damn toners).Etude House Soon Jung 2x Barrier Intensive Cream - Honestly the best moisturizer I’ve ever used. I really wish EH would just make this in a bigger tube. So far I’ve loved the entire damn line and I’ve talked about it so much I feel I deserve to be sponsored or something. It’s so moisturizing and soothing and my skin adores it. I could smear this on and go the whole day without worry. Flakes who? I don’t know her.The Ordinary Salicylic Acid 2% Serum - Like the Cerave products, Thayers toner, and Biore sunscreen, I didn’t know so many damn people were into this brand. I came across it on some youtube video and saw the price point and as a broke college student, I silently prayed I could just buy a couple of their products and never have to look elsewhere. Yet here we are, four months after I bought this and this is still the only TO product I’ve tried. 2019 might be different since I have some ideas on what I want to add (oh boy). Anyways, I started using this upon realizing that the Stridex pads I had dug out of the closet and started using were definitely from 2006…. Yikes. My skin was fine and all but I wasn’t comfortable continuing to use them after knowing they were old as hell. This serum basically does the same damn thing. I just use it as a spot treatment and it helps manage what acne pops up, clear up my CC’s and de-clog my nose.Palmer’s Cocoa Butter Cream Cleanser - I got this from Marshall’s and it burned my face and smelled like alcohol and I stopped using it immediately. I should check to see if there’s any niacinamide in it. I cross checked the ingredients with the Cerave cleanser and don’t recall anything sticking out that wasn’t already in my other products.Acure Argan Oil - Too greasy. Didn’t really sink in. Great in my hair though.Sioris Cleansing Me Softly Milk Cleanser - The goddamn bergamot smell. Returned immediately. Didn’t pass go. Didn’t collect $200 dollars and for damn sure didn’t put it on my face.And now we’re onto the products that I’ve tried in the last four months. We’ll start with what didn’t work.Dr. Jart Ceramidin Liquid (Old Formulation) - I heard a lot of good stuff about this product for dry and dehydrated skin that I’ve been side-eyeing the hell out of seeing alcohol so high up on the list, so I found a one ounce travel size to try and upon opening it up and taking a whiff, I knew it was a no from me dog. I knew there was bergamot oils or extracts in it and I still played myself but wanting to try it. It felt nice on my hand but I couldn’t bring myself to even patch test it. I really want to try the new formulation of the cream but I’m afraid of how “herbal” the scent is. The super “fun” part is that I ended up with six 1 oz bottles I didn’t want even though when I bought it, the listing only said there was one. Thankfully they found good homes except for the one I opened which is now on a shelf until I figure out what to do with it.Banila Co Miss Flower and Mr. Honey Cream - So I bought sample sizes of this fancy ass vaseline and I was, to say the least, underwhelmed and overwhelmed at the same time. Underwhelmed because of how little it actually does both as a moisturizer and as an occlusive (I tried using it as a both in different testing periods), but overwhelmed by how strong the honey fragrance is. It actually gave me a headache and now I have five more sample jars sitting with the rest of my skincare mocking me because I made the dumb decision to buy six since it was cheaper than just buying one (“what if I like it and have to wait another month to get a new one?”). You were foolish and now you look goofy sis.Klairs Rich Moist Face Soap - Surprisingly, the essential oil at the bottom of the ingredients list didn’t irritate my nose but the soap stung my face. Now I use it as a regular body soap and I love it. It smells amazing and that’s all I need in a body soap. So technically this worked but not for its intended purpose.CeraVe Ultra-Light Moisturizing Lotion - I bought this while waiting on the Black Girl Sunscreen (mentioned below) to come in the mail and passed it off to my brother. It is lightweight and doesn’t leave a cast. I just didn’t like the smell or how small the bottle was (1.7 ounces).And finally, the products that are in my current collection that I rotate throughStratia Soft Touch 10% Mandelic Acid Serum - My first AHA. I bought a decant of it in order to test the waters with chemical exfoliation and although it worked well and didn’t irritate my skin, it’s currently winter so I’ve stopped the use of actives. I’ll probably stick to this as my only form of AHA and not go further as I don’t want to mess around and mess my skin up. I don’t even need an AHA at this point but this is nice for acne and PIH so I may just use it as a spot treatment rather than all over until the weather gets back to being humid and warm come spring.Stratia Liquid Gold - I can understand the hype behind this. Oddly enough, I really love the smell of this even though it just smells… lotion-y. I currently use it as a booster for my moisturizers rather than layering it alone because this puppy was $24 and I’m gonna make it s t r e t c h. I’d like to say that this was some magical cure for my dry skin but nah she’s still dry. This has just helped curve the dryness for longer. I probably won’t repurchase it since in a perfect world my budget for a skincare product would be like $20 and I don’t feel I necessarily need it. I’m also really glad I bought it after the repackaging because I definitely dropped this and cracked the airless pump bottle slightly. If it were the glass bottle this would have shattered like my hopes and dreams.Matsuyama Hadauru Moisturizing Infusion Balancing Toner - I keep trying to phase this out of my routine for no real reason except that I want to try new things sometimes but realistically, this is one of my favorite products of what I’ve purchased this year. It’s a nice ceramide toner that leaves my skin visibly moisturized and hydrated. As long as I remember to continuously apply several layers when I do my routine, it really contributes to my skin maintaining hydration and moisture throughout the day. It really helped combat the flakes brought on by the winter weather and odds are, in the end, I’ll keep this as my sole toner.Matsuyama Hadauru Moisturizing Cream - I didn’t want to buy the supposed Holika Holika Good Cera cream since it has essential oils at the bottom and I’ve learned my lesson (for now) to save myself a headache. This is a nice cream, it isn’t necessarily rich but it has a lightweight pudding texture to it. I prefer to use this during humid hot weather when my skin doesn’t need as much moisture as it does now in the winter. It still doesn’t replace the EH SJ cream but it could still sit at the table with us.Black Girl Sunscreen SPF 30 - This is a nice, moisturizing sunscreen. My only true complaint is that it’s too thick for me to want to wear every day on top of the other products in my routine, but I could also skip everything except a toner and just use this since it’s both moisturizing and occlusive at the same time. Right now it’s a body sunscreen but when I move up north, it might make it back into my regular routine when the winter rolls around and my skin is faced with below freezing temperatures and snow. It also has a sunscreen-y smell that I could live without but it’s sunscreen so I can’t be mad at it for smelling as I expected it to.Glossier Milky Jelly Cleanser - So this is the first cleanser I’ve used this year that I’ve gotten to love and adore. I have literally nothing to complain about when it comes to this product (except for Glossier’s “bougie” ass price). I love it so much that I almost - ALMOST - fell for Glossier’s BS. I love the rose scent and it leaves my skin so hydrated, a beautiful change from everything it’s gone through when it comes to cleansers this year. As long as it stays in stock, I won’t be buying another cleanser. This one is it.Rosehip seed oil - I took the label off my bottle because, well it looked ugly, so I don’t know the brand of this but I got it from Marshall’s. There’s also sweet-almond oil in this but regardless, I love this oil. I use to just put a few dainty drops on my skin but that wasn’t doing anything and I wasn’t making a dent in the bottle. Now I take enough to smear all over and massage in before moisturizing and it’s the best. I don’t think it’s done anything for my acne scars of this annoying spot of hyperpigmentation near my mouth, but it’s helped with the dryness without making me greasy so I love it a lot.I’m From Honey Cream - I got this during Wishtrend’s Black Friday sale just so I could get free shipping. It’s a pretty rich cream and so far it feels pretty damn moisturizing. I haven’t been using it long enough to be confident in my feelings about it, but I think it’s nice. I plan on decanting it into an airless pump because today I dropped my Matsuyama Hadauru cream that I’d put in a jar and saw my life flash before my eyes and don’t want to go through that again.Klairs Soft Airy UV Essence SPF 50 PA ++++ - I haven’t used this much since I’ve been working night shifts and staying home so I haven’t been getting more than 10 minutes of sun exposure but on days that I have used this, it makes my skin feel really soft and adds a little moisturizer. I love the fact that the bottle is almost 3 ounces because I’m sick of all these tiny ass sunscreens. It’s definitely cosmetically elegant so it doesn’t feel like I’m slathering a heavy cream on my face and it has a slight citrusy smell but I can’t exactly tell. Regardless I like it and I’ll continue to use it.Hanskin Hyaluron Skin Essence - I really didn’t need to buy this but that pretty much sums up a lot of my purchases this year. This is a nice hydrating toner. Although watery, it still feels and looks viscous compared to my other toner. I use this on really busy days the most since I can put like two layers and be set. I don’t think it’s anything suuuuuper special, especially not to pay $40 for, but I only paid $20 and for 300ml I can make room in my routine for it. Currently, when I have the time to do a full routine, I like to layer my other toner four times and this one three times before using my rosehip seed oil. I never thought about using two toners in a routine and if I didn’t buy this one in the first place I probably would never have done it but I like this method a lot and it definitely helps with my dehydration a lot.After a year, my skin has gone from dry and dehydrated regularly to more normal with some dryness and dehydration in certain areas depending upon the day, the weather, and any changes I make to my skin. I think I’ve sketched out what my standard routine will be and I have an idea of what I plan to add to it in the future. I definitely plan to enforce a damn no-buy on myself in the coming year but all of my purchases have been so spaced out that realistically it’s had no real effect on me financially. I’m just dramatic and regretful. Anyways, here’s my current routine:AM:Cold water rinse + gentle exfoliation with washclothEither the Hanskin toner, the Matsuyama toner or bothRosehip seed oilEtude House Soon Jung CreamKlairs Soft Airy UV Essence when neededPMGlossier Milky Jelly CleanserTonerRosehip seed oilEither the EH SJ cream or the I’m From Honey cream mixed with AquaphorI’m currently awaiting the Missha Near Skin Total Ceramide Cream to come in the mail and if meets my standards, I’ll probably stick to just that and the EH cream.The only products I plan on adding to my routine in 2019 are The Ordinary’s Granactive Retinoid 2% in Emulsion (but only after I get this moisturizing down), The Ordinary's Amino Acid + b5 and a Vitamin C serum. I’m thinking the Melano CC just to spot treat my hyperpigmentation. Either way, I’ll probably be adding them six months apart from one another and not allowing myself to buy anything else it isn’t just me repurchasing parts of my routine lol.Anyways this took me three hours and I was supposed to be asleep four hours ago, so I hope y’all enjoyed my 3AM skincare ramblings.[Sidenote: Damn this is a lot of AB. I didn't even realize it.]
Girls Blog 2015
Submitted by afro__ditee
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