Blogmas Day 10: My Winter Skincare Routine, Face

Welcome to Blogmas day 10! On the tenth day of Blogmas, mother nature gave to me, incredibly cold weather to break up the heat wave that we’ve had for the last week. Does the cold weather affect your skin? Cozy on up, enter your email to the right to follow along, hit the subscribe button to Vlogmas, and let’s chat about my winter skin routine.

First things first, I love beauty vloggers. I love watching people prep, prime, and makeup their faces, like a lot. I find it oddly relaxing, but there’s one hangup for me: Every beauty guru I’m obsessed with watching has oily skin (a problem to some, oftentimes a thing that I wish for). Things I hear over and over again while watching:

1. Use this to stay matte all day
2. Use this to dry out an oily t-zone
3. Use this blotting paper to get rid of any shininess

And my favorite…

4.   This is a great, super light moisturizer

Ugh. So, while I look to these people for makeup and skin advice, honestly I can’t take much of it. My skin is desert dry year round, and this is amplified tenfold when winter weather makes it’s  lengthy yearly appearance. My face is naturally matte, my t-zone is the driest region of my face, I would actually like to have some shine occasionally, and holy cow, a light moisturizer  is a huge waste of my time and money.

For all you dry skinned peeps out there, (girls, guys, whatever) this post has you in mind! Heck, it may even be a good read for anyone with oily skin, as oil is often the skin’s overreaction to dehydration! *Disclaimer: Not all cruelty free :(. I’m sorry guys, I’m kind of a snake person and when I find effective vegan dupes for some of this crap, I will switch. Please leave suggestions if you have them!

AM

Every morning in the shower, I wash my face with Cetaphil Daily Facial Cleanser. An oily skin alternative to this would be the Cetaphil Oil Control Foam Wash.

Immediately after getting out of the shower, I use Alba Acne-dote Astringent. This is cruelty free, and while the whole name would suggest it’s drying, this toner is actually very mild and essential for some light exfoliation, pre-moisturizer.

Next up is Cetaphil’s Daily Hydrating Lotion with Hyaluronic Acid. Also don’t be fooled here, as hyaluronic acid is great for moisturizing skin. I apply this all over my face. If you don’t struggle with dry skin and are interested in this skincare regimen, I would say your moisturizing process stops here…

If you’re like me, you’ll let that set on your face for a few minutes before applying copious amounts of Cetaphil’s Daily Facial Moisturizer with SPF 15, paying specific attention to the driest parts of your face. I cannot lie, this stuff is thick, goopy, heavy, and borderline sticky, but I can’t seem to get by without it.

While waiting for the second moisturizer to set, I’ll go for some under eye cream. I like First Aid Beauty’s 5 in 1 Eye Cream Age Delay! It has a great texture, is cooling, and doesn’t leave the under eye sticky or shiny. I’m open to hearing your favorites though, because this tiny tube is definitely not drug store priced.

Finally, my last step before makeup, is primer. I take this opportunity to moisturize my face one last time, and my favorite weapon of choice, especially in the winter months, is First Aid Beauty’s Coconut Skin Smoothie Priming Moisturizer. It has the qualities of a bb cream, a moisturizer, and a primer. If your skin tends to be more oily, Benefit’s Porefessional is a favorite of mine on the incredibly rare occasion that I’ve achieved some natural dewiness.

That seems like a lot, but when I’m diligent and mindful of my morning routine, it does pay off. These steps take in total maybe ten minutes, and it seems worth it to be combatting dry skin and prepping my face for better makeup application.

PM

My nighttime regimen is much less involved, but does actually take more time. Go figure.

Pretty much the second I get home, I remove my makeup with a Yes to Cucumbers cleansing cloth. These do a well enough job and are pretty much the only wipes I’ve ever used on my face that don’t cause intense burning and scaliness.

Right before bed, I religiously use the entire 3-step Proactiv+ kit. I do kind of swear by this product, and if you have troublesome and oily skin, I suggest you use the kit the recommended twice daily, but I just can’t. I also recommend that you let each product sit on your face for an entire alphabet song before rinsing/moving to the next step.That tip was brought to you by my major girl crush and Proactiv enthusiast, Julianne Hough. Wow, novel, sorry.

I follow this up with one of three moisturizers, (yes, on top of the Proactiv lotion) depending on how tight and dry my skin feels. I’ll use one of the Cetaphils mentioned above, or go really light (and super gentle and great smelling) with Proactiv Green Tea Moisturizer. This is also what I keep in my purse for dry skin touch ups throughout the day.

Lips

I don’t want to leave out the one part of literally everyone’s face, oily or dry, that is chapped this time of year.

Lush makes incredible, edible (for real) sugar lip scrubs that are life changing. I’ve not tried a single flavor I didn’t like and this can change your lips from flaky to smooth and exfoliated in 30 seconds flat.

Lastly, I’ll slather my lips in Palmer’s Cocoa Butter stick or C.O. Bigelow’s Rose Salve and call it a long day.

All in all,  my skin-care life is involved, especially this time of year, but I hope some of you find this even remotely helpful. I stand by all these products and they’re also cleared by my dermatologist to use on my troublesome skin. What are some of your holy grail skincare products?

xoxo flaky the snowman (see what I did there?)

Did you miss yesterday’s post?