My Skincare Routine [2017/2018]

My current skincare routine... A phrase I never thought I would be typing out nor proficient enough to talk about on my blog ever if I can be completely honest. I guess I feel I should finally make this post because I feel like I have a good system for myself that has greatly improved my cystic acne prone skin. One that I would genuinely enjoy sharing!

A photo of my skin, without makeup except for brows~ pretty much straight out of bed;;

About my skin:

Combo/ sensitive
Just short of being 30 years of age

Prone to cystic acne and excema patches

My current concerns and target issues are hyperpigmentation, acne scars, and wrinkle prevention.

I’m going to go though this in a similar way that I do my skin routine so make life easier.

I wash my face using Erno Lazlo’s Sensitive Cleansing bar that I lather to a bouncy foam with a Tsururi cleansing brush [which you may be able to find online with a quick search?]. My mum provided me with Erno Lazlo during puberty, looking back my skin around that time wasn’t horrible, but I just didn’t like the process at the time... As an adult I decided to try one of their expanded lines and absolutely loved the sensitive cleansing bar and the way my skin felt clean but not irritated or overly dried out.

During the evening, before cleansing, I use a cleansing oil to remove my makeup. I had a few bad experiences with cleansing oils but I was deterined to find one that worked for me and though a LOT of trials and errors I found Mutenka Cleansing Oil and it didn't leave me soaked in oil after washing off or resulting in my skin breaking out.

2-3 times a week I exfoliate my skin. I realized that I didn’t need some harsh super grainy exfoliation, even though it feels more satisfying in my opinion, but a nice gentle one was more suited for my delicate skin and worked just as well, maybe even better for me! My current favorite for the past few months is the Caolion Blackhead Steam Pore Pack, but I am still looking around for another to try when I finish the container.

After cleansing, the next step is toner~ which does a many jobs like further cleansing the skin, balancing out the skin’s pH levels, and also prepping the skin to fully absorb the nutrients from the following skin care steps to come. The one I absolutely adore is Be the Skin’s Puryifying White Waterful Toner. I like that it is good for evening out the skin tone and brightening up the skin, basically everything that will help out my hyperpigmentation and my acne scars. I also like to soak a cotton ad and apply the toner to any cystic acne spots when I feel them start forming... I’m honestly not sure if it truly helps that, but I like to think that it does;;

After toner I like to apply my ampoule, which is in the same family as a serum but just more concentrated in nutrients. I like to switch between Tosowoong Propolis Sparkle Ampoule and Mizon Snail Repair Intensive Ampoule. The Propolis Ampoule is good for brightening the skin and tightening pores. It also has nutrients in it that helps reduce inflammation in the skin. I find that it is really helpful on days where I might have popped a zit, and it greatly lessens the healing time and future scarring. The Snail Repair Ampoule is speciaized to deal with and lessen the appearance of acne scars and most importantly is the one item in my skin care that I will give full credit for keeping my skin looking younger and staying youthful. Snail products have always worked well on my skin to give me visibly refreshed and tighter, brighter skin and over the years I learned to rely on having at least one in my rotation to keep me looking young.

Following up the ampoule, I use the Dr. Dream Dream Age Rejuvenating Serum which targets the anti-aging market by lightening hyperpigmentation spots, smoothing the skin texture and plumping the skin to reduce wrinkling. It also claims to stimulate the skin to help the skin rejuvenate itself. I haven’t seen any immediate results but I’m assuming it may have a decent effect in the long run but it hasn’t given me any negative results so I dont mind having it in my skin routine. 

The final part of my main routine is moisturizer. I absolutely adore Tatcha’s skin creams so I use The Silk Cream during the day and their Luminous Dewy Skin Night Concentrate during the evening. I never expected to get into this brand purely because of the price point, but I was able to meet with a advisor of the brand and had a great conversation with them over our love of Korean multi-step skin routines and they gave me a few sample of their products and included the two moisturizers that I ended up loving and purchasing. Begrudgingly they did warn me I might end up loving how well they fit into my regimen, and they were right!  The Silk Cream is great for anti-aging and skin firming and has an immediate firming and brightening effect on my skin and doesn’t leave any sticky greasy residue on my skin that I’m super picky about when it comes to moisturizers. It also makes my skin extremely soft! I remember the first week of using the product I kept having people feel how soft my skin was, it was an immediate purchase after finishing my samples. The Night Concentrate is just as amazing as the Silk Cream but just more concentrated and dries faster with even less residual moisture, which is apparently possible, which is great for my silk pillowcase and my white bedding. 

During the day I always apply a Sun Cream  before my makeup to protect my skin from sun damage. Right now I’m using Kicho Ultra Moisturizing Sun Creamwhich is SPF 50+ PA+++ I like it decently, it doesn’’t leave any white/blue tint to my skin and doesn’t have any oily or sticky film after application, so it sits nicely under my makeup. 

About half a year ago I started noticing under eye circles and slightly thinner skin under my eyes so I started trying different eye creams. The ones I ended up liking were, surprise surprise, from Tatcha. Straight up the Luminous Deep Hydration Firming Eye Serum is slightly mediocre but I use it purely because I have it on hand still and it feels nice and cooling [only because the applicator is ceramic and stays wonderfully cold on the skin] when I apply it in the morning but I never really saw much of a difference from using it. My holy grail item in my whole routine is the Tatcha Ageless Revitalizing Eye Cream which gave me almost immediate results in reducing the deepness and darkness of my under eye circles by the following morning. It also seemed to plump up the skin a bit and make my eye bags less severe and it’s also definitely improved even more over the course of the last few months using it! 

My second/ run up? holy grail item I have on my vanity is the Erno Lazlo White Marble Bright Face Powder Mask, that is just AMAZING and really does as intended and immediately brightens up the area that it’s applied to and greatly reduces dark spots and lightens scarred skin. Also, after multiple uses it even made many of my acne scars fully disappear! The one drawback  is the price point for the amount of product given BUT my highly recommended way of using the mask is storing the liquid and the powder separately in resealable containers and mixing small batches of equal ratios in a small bowl and applying the mask only on areas of scarring or hyperpigmentation. Not only will it just lighten those areas but it stretches the number of uses in a package and makes the cost justifiable!

A lovely treat to my skin whenever it needs a refresh, for a bit of moisture or even a bit of aromatherapy is to mist rose water onto my face. It gives me a bit of a perk up and it feels nice on my face and is even better chilled in the fridge during summer as a pleasant cool down. My favorite rose water mist that my friends know I adore and tend to gift me is Jurlique Rosewater Balancing Mist Intense. 

A big part of my skin routine is drinking a LOT of water, I try to have 2 liters a day which has gotten a lot easier since I’ve been using my BKR 1L water bottle. After many steel, plastic and whatever other type of water bottles I figured out that only glass bottles don’t give water a weird aftertaste. Not to sound like a priss but one of my weird quirks/talents/curses is being able to taste and name different brands or types of water in a blind taste test, so I’m super sensitive to subtle nuances in my water. It’s definitely not a necessary accessory but it’s pretty and as a habit I always carry it with me thought the day wherever I go.. Oh, and it’s survived multiple drops from me because it seems I’m a bit of a klutz. 

Before I end this blog post I want to share a difference of my skin from 4 years ago and now. The main difference is now I’m taking care of my skin consistently and daily and trying to life healthier, drinking more water, being kind to my body from eating clean, quitting smoking socially, quitting alcohol, cutting out dairy as much as possible and trying not to pick at my skin as much which is still a struggle but long nails help a lot to keep my hands off my face! I never thought there was such a drastic difference until I decided to look at my older blog posts and saw the state my skin was in back then, so I’m definitely impressed by my progress!

It’s never too late to start being kind to one’s skin, changing bad habits and trying to improve! It can take years but even small steps and mindfulness can make a difference!

I hope this was helpful to someone, and if anyone has recommendations on a good exfoliator, I’m definitely in the market To experiment and try some new brands!

<3CarisseIris