Spa day: at home!

We’re getting into the drier months now, and it’s time to focus on your skin not sucking into itself and shriveling up. Er, I mean.. it’s time to moisturize the heck out of your skin to keep having that summer glow! Right?

I’m one of the lucky ones who’ve never had major issues with their skin. I do find that my skin is a little sensitive (and reacts to certain eye creams: Warning, the following post shows a photo of me with an allergic reaction/puffy eyes) and it gets a little red, sometimes tight when I wash it with certain face washes.

I’ve been sticking to my skin care regime pretty faithfully. But for my facial wash, I now use Philosophy’s Purity cleanser, it’s gentle and I’ve never had any issues with it in the past 6 months of using it twice a day.

On a not so regular basis, I like to pamper my skin and do mud-masks and have a spa day in the comfort of my own home. I think that exfoliating your skin on a regular basis (at least once a week) is a pretty important step in anyone’s skin care routine. I’ve had this Philosophy’s micro exfoliating treatment laying around my apartment for a good 6+ months before I got the courage to use it. I won a huge beauty basket on Twitter, and this was inside. It looked intimating.

Reading the instructions scared me a little. The first step was applying the yellow jello-like goo. It was like a scrub, and I applied it all over my face (as you can see below). Then it was time for the second step – the activator. It caused a noticeable warming effect onto my skin. I was a little worried to be honest, but it didn’t burn. Just felt really warm. I left it on for the amount of time I was supposed to and washed it off with water and a wash cloth.

I can’t say I noticed a difference in my skins appearance, texture or smoothness. Perhaps one jar’s worth of this product isn’t enough to make an educated answer on how well it works for the skin. Perhaps it’s something one needs to use regularly to notice a difference.

Will I ever purchase this item myself? Probably not. It was neat while I tried it, but it didn’t wow me with results.

I am not affiliated with Philosophy, as I said I won this gift set at a Twitter party.

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Marcelle Mother Load

Last week I mentioned that I was a huge fan of makeup removers. Duh. Since I wear makeup almost on a daily basis, I’m going to have to love a certain makeup remover. I have two front runners at the moment. One being Philosophy, and I recently purchased the largest possible bottle you could ever purchase at Sephora, it was the Purity Cleanser, which is so gentle and mild on my sensitive skin.

The other, being a long time favorite ever since I was first introduced by it from my Pharmacist neighbor back home in Newfoundland. That product is the hypo allergenic brand named Marcelle. Much more easily accessible than Philosophy as you can get Marcelle products at Shopper’s Drug Mart.

Boom. Look at that mother load.

Whenever I find something I like, I tend to buy a ton of it when it goes on sale. Thus, the overload of Marcelle products sitting at home in my apartment half full, some unopened and some empties just so I know what to re-purchase.

I’ve been in touch with a fantastic representative at Marcelle and mentioned to her that I’ve become a Marcelle-hoarder and snapped some photos of my old bottles I had laying around saying which ones I’m a fan of, and which one I’m not. I dislike the gel as I don’t feel like it cleanses my skin well. But I purchased that one by mistake as it said it was for oily skin types.

Apparently I have had some of these products laying around a little too long.  Two years too long. I told my rep what bottle I was using and she couldn’t think of which bottle I was referring too. Apparently the one I was using was a bottle from two years previously and it has since been redesigned. Whoopsies, a little embarrassing. I was wondering if cleansers could go rancid, but she reassured me that they wouldn’t have gone bad. Unless the texture/smell changed.

Um. I’m not sure what the bottle of cleanser was supposed to smell like, so after I took the photos I threw the product out. It was almost done anyway. Thankfully my rep took pity on me and sent over my favorite bottle (the pink one shown) along with a Renforcils eye makeup remover that actually removes waterproof mascara. To be honest, I’ve never tried water proof mascara. Though I should, since I laugh so hard every day that my mascara runs (seriously, it’s terrible). Perhaps I should eventually scope some out and buy the water proof kind.

So, basically the cleansers I was given to try out, work just as well as the other Marcelle products I’ve been using on a regular basis. So no complaints over here. I would suggest to wait for a sale to pick up some Marcelle products as they are a little higher end at about $10-$18 a bottle in the Beauty department at Shopper’s Drug Mart.

Have you ever used Marcelle products before? If not, what are some of your go-to makeup removers or facial cleansers?

This was not a sponsored blog post. Two out of the seven Marcelle products shown, were sent to me for free.

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Skincare routine

My skin has had a rough go of it for the past number of weeks and I’m careful now what I use on my face. In January I had a product that made my eyes swell up and my skin dry out so much it looked wrinkly and cracked. While I am more prone to a dryer skin in the winter and then dry-normal in the summer. I almost always feel the need to moisturize, especially my scaly man hands. I’ve been trying to figure out which products are fit for me, and which products I’m weeding out of my facial cleansing routine. Thus the title of this post my skincare routine at the moment.

Shown in order, here are the products I use on my face on a daily basis.

When I get up in the morning I wash my face with a sample sized Philosophy Purity cleanser. Since it’s almost out, next up to the podium will be the the Bioderma Solution. Purity is truly a great cleanser for my skin type, and I am definitely going to be purchasing the large bottle. I also use this in the evening when I want to remove my makeup. It doesn’t irritate my eyes and of course I use it twice in the evenings. Once to get all the makeup off, and another to actually cleanse the skin.

On days where I feel like I need to scrub my face a little more I break out my Sibu Balancing Facial Cleanser. The exfoliating beads aren’t as harsh as some exfoliators I’ve used in the past, so you can really use this one on a daily basis. I’ve used it for a week straight when I first got it, and I didn’t have any negative reaction to it. I reviewed the Sibu daytime facial cream a few months ago, and while it does have a similar smell, it’s not as strong as the moisturizing lotion. In fact, I like the cleansers scent much more. It has more of an orange scent to it which I find appealing. I recommend you exfoliate your face and body on a weekly basis to get all the dry, dead skin cells off your body. You’re left with a very subtle smooth skin. Plus, when you moisturize you feel so smooth all over. I’m a huge fan of exfoliating.

After cleansing my face I always apply my eye cream as my under eyes get cakey and dry looking if I don’t. Right now I’m obsessed with the Bobbi Brown Extra Eye Repair Cream. I also have the hydrating eye cream by Bobbi, which is more of a lighter weight which is perfect for day time. The extra eye repair is a nice thick consistency and is amazing to keep that area moisturized, especially at night.

Next on goes the facial moisturizer. Currently I’m using a light weight facial moisturizer by Bioderma Hydrabio Light Cream and while it’s great for my sensitive dry skin. I don’t feel like it’s worth the money to go out and buy again. I didn’t pay the $48 for this at Shoppers Drug Mart, I actually won it on a Twitter beauty basket giveaway from a Twitter party (follow me!)

This next step is only if my skin is feeling incredibly out of whack or super dry and tight after cleansing my skin. I’d only use these serums or oils at night and apply around the eyes or places I feel dry. Which are usually my chin, cheeks and eye area.

Left to right: Origins A Perfect World which smells terrific since it has White Tea in it. Though it’s a little heavy silicon feel to it. But sometimes my skin needs and likes it. Kiehl’s Midnight Recovery is probably my favorite by far. I’ve gone through 3 sample sizes and have yet to fork over the money for the full sized. SkinCeuticals Hydrating B5 Gel is pretty good. I’m using this one right now, it’s thicker (still liquid unlike Origins) consistency than Kiehl’s. The last one is pure Vitamin E oil, which was the only product that truly healed my dry cracked sore skin from when it was inflamed and dry. It was very messy, sticky, and oily on my face. A little goes a long way with this.

Note: Only use one of these products at a time! lol Don’t change them up either from evening to evening. Finished one sample and then headed to the other. All of these serums are amazing but incredibly expensive.

On my “night table” which is actually a set of dresser drawers, I keep a variation of lip balms and hand creams. The one’s I gravitate more towards is the impeccable Avene Cold Cream lip balm, and the Philosophy Somebody hand cream. All moisturizes, and cleansed for a good nights sleep.

That concludes my daily skin care routine! In February my skin has been pretty much back to normal. I think the simplicity of everything helped a lot. Meaning not wearing tons of makeup, cleansing my face with good quality products. I know there was a ton of product shown, but the only ones I use on a day-to-day basis are the one’s in the first photo.

Hope this was helpful, and if you have any questions of comments leave them below!

I was not compensated for this post, but the Sibu facial cleanser was provided by Sibu.

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