I love exfoliating (so soft afterward!) and moisturizing (my last step usually), but the whole routine, sometimes I enjoy it but most of the time it is just part of the “this needs to be done” family.
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Most of the time, I really do but there are a few times a year (not many but a few) when I’m so tired I’ll do a quickie “clean” with either a warm face cloth or some micellaire water, slap on a simple moisturizer all over (including eye area) and hit the hay.
Christine, I’ll be keen to hear if you like the Youth to the People cleanser. I really like it and find it effective and gentle at the same time. What threw me at first was just how “low lathering” it is but even so, it sure seem to do a good job.
Yes, I like it. Itās a nice self care moment. I find the snail mucin and lotion I apply very calming for my skin, so that is the best part.
I have been curious to try some snail mucin products but have been unable to get past the whole snail snot thing!! I really just need to push past it and give it a go. Maybe they should develop a name for it that doesn’t have “mucin” in it. The snail part doesn’t bother me it is the mucin. I think it stems from being a nurse and the idea of mucin being anything beneficial just doesn’t sound right. Do you have any product you recommend? I have very dry skin so I am not sure if mucin would be beneficial or not. Glad that you like your routine. It makes it so much easier to stick with it.
I use COSRX brand stuff, it’s inexpensive and has no scent. They have two types, the Advanced Snail 96 Mucin Power Essence is runnier but doesn’t have any silicones in it. The Advanced Snail 92 All in one Cream has silicone in it and feels stiffer, more like a lotion. It’s not very hydrating by itself so I still use moisturizer after. I have dehydrated skin and snail really helped me when I damaged my moisture barrier from too much exfoliation. I think it helps calm the rosacea redness on my cheeks as well. If you want to try it, Ulta, Riley Rose, and Amazon (under the seller COSRX) are authorized resellers.
Thank you for your recommendations. I am seriously going to give it a look. My skin is crying for help right now because of my own stupidity so I am open to trying anything that might help!
Yes to the Cosrx snail 92 essence. The 92 means 92% of that ingredient, in Cosrx-speak. I love Cosrx due to short ingredients lists. C is so transparent and up straightforward. Another classic snail formula is the Mizon snail gel cream. Classic intro KB 101. (Amazon.) Neither is expensive. Soo Ae makes a nice snail sheet mask. After sun exposure (been intolerant the past few years,) it was Purito Centella essence followed by the cosrx. Calmed right down. Snail is very soothing. Cameron is right about not highly moisturizing, but enough for me (oily/dehydrated/allergic/inflammatory.)
Thanks, kjh.
I have had dry skin for pretty much my entire life and have only recently noticed a little bit of oil near my nose and on my chin. I have been using a new for me, night sleeping mask by Fresh and I don’t know if it is too much hydration for me or what. I have never had an issue with too hydrated or too moisturized. It is a novel concept after living with my very dry skin for 65 years. Also, my skin is a bit freaked out right now due to my falling off the skin care wagon. I have been spraying it daily with the Dr. Jart Cicapair Calming Mist and that makes it feel good but still not feeling great. I will definitely check these out. In fact, I am on-line right now doing some investigating.
Most certainly not. I find it boring. Unlike makeup, the result isn’t instantaneous, so I see it as a chore.
Sort of. I usually enjoy going through my face routine, unless I’m exhausted, then I grouse a bunch about how I wish the makeup would magically *poof* off my face, then I’ll ask my SO (jokingly) a couple times if he’d wash my face, then I drag myself to the bathroom and finally cleanse (and I’m always happy I did).
My body is where it all breaks down. I have a routine in theory, but I don’t think I’ve ever completed it. I find it so much harder to care about the skin on my body … I don’t know why. The one thing I promised myself I would start doing religiously is dry-brushing; I experimented with it years ago and had very good results. On top of dry-brushing I came up with a few more steps that are designed to help recover and maintain my skin’s natural barrier (steps that have worked wonders on my face), but there’s just SO MUCH MORE SKIN on my body. Ugh. I think I just figured out why I don’t want to carry out the full skincare routine on my body — I’m lazy!!!
Through my cancer treatment and for several years afterwards I did dry brushing religiously. I really liked how it made my skin feel and of course exfoliating off all of the yuck I was exposed to as a nurse was a good thing. I honestly can’t remember why I stopped it but likely just got busy and found it to be the easiest thing to let go of, at the time. I hadn’t thought about it in awhile but now that I am retired there isn’t an excuse for not going ahead again. Thanks for the reminder, Alecto.
It is the part that I enjoy the most as I know that every effort you put into it, makes the best return on investment in the long run. With good skincare you can prevent, restore, repair and heal. The effort you put into it starts with reading the labels, researching the ingredients, eliminating the unnecessary ones and the potential irritants. Fragrance and alcohol, just to start with these two, have no place in a truly good skincare product (collagen will not thank you).
With makeup, when you make a mistake, you see the effect right away and you can correct it. With bad ingredients, the damage to the skin is gradual. Also, pay attention to the active ingredients. If you find them in the second half of the ingredient list, after the fillers, they are considerably less effective. I often see brands describing a certain cream as containing filtrate of something, HA, peptides etc. but when you look at the ingredients, they are at the bottom, after the fillers, parabens etc.
I enjoy every step of my skincare routine, especially in the evening, when I really take the time. Also, the gentle massage around the eye area, or of the entire face for that matter, done every morning and evening, pays off after years of doing it. These are small steps, but if done repeatedly, the effects will be there.
Brava! Well said. Totally agree. Many people don’t know that in the US, ingredients have to be in order of amount contained in the formula, and other countries (like Korea) do not have to list in order of %. The research is the ‘funnest’ part. It made it almost bearable, when I had to change from anti-acne/anti-aging to anti-inflammatory. Thank God for KB and Paula. I spend far more mental energy on s/c than m/u. I have to.
I never used to read the labels until I started having issues with rosacea flare ups and extreme oiliness. Like you said, fragrance and drying alcohols are bad for the face. My face is less oily now that I’ve stopped trying to strip off all the oil. I try to read everything very carefully now, but it always seems like I miss something.
I absolutely loathe it, especially at night… Granted, I do love the way my skin feels immediately after, as well as the long run effects, but the actual process feels more like a “chore”. With the application of actual makeup, I see it as an option, but good skincare habits are a necessity, so even when I’m exhausted, or just don’t feel like doing it, I still have to do it. I have to say, though, it’s the actual cleansing I really hate, but applying serums & moisturizers (and sunscreen!) isn’t that bad, as I can just sit at my desk and apply them.
Not really because my skincare has mostly been basic stuff as of late. Although, I still have a big bottle of biologique recherche P50 and Sunday Riley Juno, but I havenāt been reaching for them.
Slathering thick amounts of sunceeen during the day has really gotten me more into using muji oil cleanser and Neutrogena salicylic acid cleanser as my double cleanse, I should really look into using a mild cleanser on top of the muji for my nighttime routine.
The most I enjoy about my morning skincare routine is when I apply my sunscreen, it makes me feel very āresponsibleā. Haha. Then for my nighttime routine, I love it when Iām able to reapply my moisturizer:
Again, thanks for the postings you create Christine! It really helps me stay on top of my beauty and skin care.
My nighttime routine is far more enjoyable than my daytime one is, that’s for sure! Probably just because I’m not in any real rush at bedtime, whereas getting ready to go somewhere is just throwing my skincare on just to get to the makeup part and then go. Besides, what’s so fun or enjoyable about putting on some eye cream and sunscreen moisturizer anyway? I do enjoy exfoliating and masks, though. It’s the aftereffect that feels so wonderful and refreshing!
Sometimes I think that there is a little eaves dropper sitting on my shoulder and that gremlin whispers in Christine’s ear and says lets ask Deborah about her skin care routine when she has just admitted to Nancy T. on IG that she has dropped the ball with her skin care recently, LOL!!
Normally, I wouldn’t say I enjoy it but I don’t find it terrible to do either. I think of it as just something that has to be done. I like taking my makeup off at night but not necessarily the remainder of the routine. I think it has been probably 10 years since I have gone to bed without removing my makeup and doing my skin care routine, and that was just for one night, until about 10 days ago. I honestly don’t know why I flopped into bed and didn’t even think about taking my makeup off. I got up in the morning and my eye lashes were stuck together like glue making it hard to even get my eyes open. My initial response was oh my gosh Deborah you slept in your makeup!! Then I did it like 3 nights in a row and finally stopped not washing the makeup off and would do that but didn’t put anything on afterwards for about another 3 or 4 nights. The funny, although not so funny thing, is that after those 8 or 9 days, my skin looked horrible. It was almost like all of the years of using good skin care and having a routine that I stuck to religiously, were for nothing. I mean we all know that if you stop doing a routine it is bad but usually you don’t see the effect so dramatically. In a way it has really scared me because in the past when I have used products that I really like and for whatever reason stop using them, when I go back they are never as effective as they were before. Time will tell if my skin recuperates but I am not loving what I see in the mirror every morning, now. Maybe for some reason my skin just decided it was time to fall apart and there is no correlation to my lapse in skin care but I will never know for sure.
Maybe I should quickly mention what I noticed happening. I have pretty good skin overall. It is pretty dry but since I was in my 20’s I haven’t had acne. I have the usual signs of excessive sun exposure for 50 years but given the extent of my exposure it wasn’t as bad as it could be and likely will be as I continue to age. My often mentioned hyper-pigmentation being the worst of it. Well, almost immediately the 11’s between my eyes became deep grooves rather than slightly visible. I mean really deep. My marionette lines look like the Grand Canyon. I have 3 new sites of hyper-pigmentation and my lip lines that have not been really helped by anything but were stable, have increased further up my upper lip to almost meet my smile lines and nose! I have had some acne break outs. Not a lot but some and they are clustered in patches where I normally would apply contour and bronzer. My already dry under eyes are parched like the Sahara. Time will tell it any of it improves now that I am back on the wagon.
Itās definitely a chore for me, like brushing my teeth.
I think so? Sometimes I feel it’s time-consuming and stressful especially when I get breakouts. Plus, I always feel good after a facial massage: keeps the headaches away.
I enjoy every second and minute of my skincare routine. I like to feel my skin and think which combo will benefit it most that day. I love to combine boosters, take off the make-up (I just love using a cleansing balm and dissolving my face off), massage products into my skin, feeling products textures, etc.
I hate it, and find it extremely boring. Necessary, but boring.
I do not enjoy it, but the results when I get up and feel my skin looks pretty darned good is the thing that keeps me motivated. I find the process annoying, particularly when Iām tired… I tend to push the whole process off and then get annoyed when it wakes me up too much and messes with my ability to get to sleep. Sleeping is not something I do well.
I used to enjoy it but not so much these days. I am starting to wonder whether these products do any good or whether I am just wasting time. There is science behind retinoids and niacinamide and I think Vitamin C, but from what I understand, peptides work in the lab but there is no proof they work on an actual face. But I have been putting stuff on my face since I was 11 years old and I donāt know if I can stop now.
It’s necessary and although I don’t look forward to it, once I’m doing it I do enjoy it. My skin looks good for my age and it’s because I take care of it, so I don’t dare stop!
Yes I do enjoy it because I can feel the Argon oil really moisturising my skin after an evening shower and I know the rest of my products are preserving my mature age skin.
No.
My skin care routine is minimalist (my skin does better the less I do to it) and boring.
But I love how my skin feels after my skincare routine!
And if I skip my skincare routine my skin is noticeably duller, drier, and tired looking.
I love it! It makes me feel like Iām doing something good for myself that will have long-term benefits. I love how smooth my skin feels afterwards. I actually like it better than my makeup routine.
I like some steps more than others. Washing my face with cleanser always feels good and massaging moisturizer onto my face is kind of relaxing in a way.
Having a simple routine with only a handful of products also helps to keep me motivated to use them every night.
No, it’s just a boring thing you have to do, like brushing teeth.