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Doin’ It for Yourself: 6-Step At-Home Summer Facial

27 Jun

Like I’ve said before, I’m a kitchen beautician. I usually don’t pay professionals for services that I can do myself. Don’t get me wrong though, being pampered by a stranger is very therapeutic, but there’s a certain bliss that comes from DIY’n it. I try to do an at-home facial at least twice a month. Here’s how:

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1. Clean your face. Use your favorite cleanser and a deep cleaning brush. Olay has a motorized one for about $30 (you can often find coupons and get it on sale), but you can also use a baby hair brush. Earth Therapeutics sells a facial brush that looks like a baby hair brush for about $3.

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2. Scrub your face. I like to mix my scrub with baking soda, but in the absence of a scrub, you can just use the baking soda mixed with water. You can also make a scrub out of oil and table sugar (my favorite oil is sweet almond, of course). Massage your face with the mixture or scrub for about 30-60 seconds, you don’t want to overdo it.

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3. Apply a mask. Use a mask that’s geared towards your skin type. I LOVE the Bellaboo chocolate mask, but I’ve gotten pretty great results from the Queen Helene Mint Julep masque and the Yes To Cucumbers mask. You can also make your own mask. Find a recipe you like by doing a lil’ google search.

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4. Steam your face. Fill the sink with scalding hot water and add a few drops of essential oil. I like peppermint oil for the summer. It also has antibacterial properties (ahem, acne-prone skin). If you’re lazy, like me, you can just run hot water on a wash cloth and hold it to your face until it cools a few times. If you’re fancy, you can invest in a genuine facial steamer.

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5. Tone your face. Swipe (don’t douse) your face with an alcohol free toner. Thayer’s witch hazel toner with cucumber and aloe is perfect for the summer and doesn’t dry your face out. You can also mix apple cider vinegar with water (1 TBS vinegar to 1 cup of water) and use that as a toner. You can make your own rosewater toner, too.

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6. Moisturize your face. Use your favorite moisturizer and go to town.

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My Face: This Week

26 Jun

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The week after the wedding my skin pretty much went crazy. Usually, when I leave from my grandmother’s house I barely even have to wash my face. She has soft water and usually it works magic on my skin. I love it. I think I’ve found the culprit of this unusual behavior to be the sunscreen I was wearing. I decided I needed to start wearing sunscreen, but my face decided otherwise. So to reverse the effects, I’ve been very deliberate in dealing with my face. As far as regimens go this has been my counterattack:

Morning

  1. Wash with Bellaboo Buff Skin
  2. Aloe Vera gel
  3. Thayer’s Witch Hazel or Clinique Emergency Gel-Lotion
  4. Bellaboo Mosturise Dew

Night

  1. Wash with Bellaboo All That Clean Skin wash + Clarisonic Mia
  2. Aloe Vera gel
  3. Clinique Acne Solutions Moisturizer
  4. Sweet Almond Oil

I think I’m gonna chill on the Emergency Gel-Lotion during the day. The key to this has really seemed to be the night regimen. The aloe vera gel really helped to clear up what I like to call “allergy bumps” which are those little fine bumps that appear when my skin has a bad reaction to something. The Clinique acne moisturizer smells horrible, but for whatever reason, this 2.5% benzoyl peroxide treatment is literally shrinking these bumps overnight. As for the sweet almond oil, I don’t even know what to say about it. It doesn’t make my skin oily, it makes my skin baby effing smooth. It also absorbs easily and

 

I haven’t had any adverse reactions from using it like I’ve had with oils in the past. I can’t say that I’m surprised though, because it’s the first ingredient after water in the Bellaboo moisturizer. So hopefully after a few more days of this I can go back to my basic wash and go skin regimen.

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All New Everything

31 May

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My skin is really making me hopeful! The new skincare line that I’ve been using seems to have perfected the delicate organic/natural to synthetic ratio that’s perfect for my skin. Since using Bellaboo I’ve noticed that the texture of my skin is really improving, which is the only qualm I had about using Clinique. While Clinique made my skin blemish free, the texture was kind of bumpy. With Bellaboo, the texture is slowly getting smoother and smoother. I am still getting bumps, but they are smaller, fewer and leaving less permanent scars, if any. I honestly think that my skin is purging. Now, I’m actually a skeptic of the whole purging phenomenon, but I think that’s what’s happening because the more bumps that come and clear away, the smoother and better looking my skin gets. That said, I should be good to go in another few weeks!! I’m really hoping that this line proves to be what I’ve been looking for all this time. Fingers crossed.

My new skincare regimen:

Morning

Cleanse- Bellaboo Buff Skin Facial Exfoliator

Tone-(not every day though) Thayers Cucumber Witch Hazel

Moisturize- Bellaboo Gorgeous Skin Moisture Dew

Night

Cleanse-Bellaboo All That Clean Skin Facial Wash

Tone/Spot treat- Thayers (some nights)/Clinique Emergency Gel-lotion

Moisturize-Bellaboo Gorgeous Skin Moisture Dew