My Skincare Routine October 25, 2008

In case anyone is curious, my skincare routine as of now is

day:

Usually just splash face with water then sunblock and moisturizer. I use Aveeno sunblock for the face. *TIP* apply your sunblock or moisturizer while your face is still damp because it helps with absorption and seals moisture into your skin!

night:

- remove eye makeup with cold cream, like Pond’s cold cream
- oil cleansing method 1-2 times a week
- Olay moisture balancing cleanser
- Nivea soft moisturizing creme
- Ly-na pearl cream
- exfoliate with aspirin mask 1-2 times a week
- sulfur mask [Like Queen Helene Mint Julep or Mario Badescu Drying Mask] when my skin needs extra help! Like when I’m PMSing haha

I used to do the oil cleansing method everyday, but it gave me a bunch of whiteheads, it was probably just too rich for everyday use. I cut back and my skin is responding well to that. I also tried using a witch hazel toner in my routine, but I never saw any improvement while using it and I’m trying to simplify my routine so it’s not so long and complicated. That’s what I’m doing for now… my skin has it’s ups and downs so I’m always tweaking it.

Oh yeah and I used to get really bad cystic acne like constantly before when I was using the University Medical 3 step acne kit. It was mostly a benzoyl peroxide based product. BP used to work for me when I used BP in middle school and part of high school, but maybe my skin became immune to it cuz it was completely ineffective this time around. What helped my skin out was incorporating products with some oil in it like the oil cleansing method and basically products that won’t dry my skin out. This is just what I do, I can’t say it will work for everyone, but sometimes when you’re at your wit’s end you’ll try anything right? haha

And here’s a FOTD with the Mario Badescu drying mask…gorgeous, this should totally be my new foundation!

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Aspirin Mask October 8, 2008

For the few people who still look at my page, thank you! I know I update every blue moon now…but maybe at Christmas someone will buy me a brand new camera that doesn’t eat up batteries like it’s nothing and it’ll be easier to blog!

This is for those of you who haven’t discovered this cool, natural [er, sorda at least] method of exfoliation! The aspirin mask!

First, get some aspirin, an uncoated one if you can or a generic brand because those are easier to dissolve. The one I have is the Target brand. It says “coated” on the label, but the coating is minimal. Three pills are enough for the whole face, you can use more if you wish. In some sort of container [I use my handy dandy candle holder] wet the tablets with water. Use VERY LITTLE water, just get the tablets wet and then add 3 more drops because if there is too much water then it won’t be thick like a mask.

It’ll dissolve and you can mush it up with your finger

Add a few drops of honey. This binds the aspirin, helps it stay on your face, and it is moisturizing!

After mixing. One of the aspirin was stubborn and took a while to dissolve, that’s why you still see it there.

Apply this mixture to your face, leave on for 10 minutes and then rinse off. You can rub the mask in a circular motion to exfoliate because of the grainy texture. Supposedly the chemical properties of the aspirin is similar to salicylic acid and can help to fade acne scars. I haven’t really seen evidence of this myself, I just use the mask to exfoliate. I try to do it at least once a week and I’ll do the mask first before my normal cleansing routine.