My skincare routine

Wow this is like my second post this month, I hate not having enough spare time. But on a happier note, the blog giveaway will be ending soon! Yaaay! Thanks again to everyone who has taken part, I feel bad for the people who have started following me when I'm not even contributing any content on my blog at the moment. But it's just been a hectic time for me. ANYWAY. So yes at the end of this month I am getting my first pay check which is so awesome. So I'll finally be picking a winner and dispatching the prices. 

Today I wanted to do a blog post about my skin care routine. I don't stick to this religiously, some days I might fall asleep with my makeup (although very rarely) and sometimes I'll just use a face wipe if I'm too tired. But since I started using a certain few products my skin has just been so much better off. About 2 years ago I started to get acne all over my face, mainly on my cheeks. And I don't mean teenage acne, I'd already grown out of that and my skin was pretty clear, then all of a sudden this new sort of acne popped up and my skin was just all bumpy looking. I had these white heads just appearing everywhere and while they weren't the usual red pimples, they were still horrible and there were so many of them. I'd spend ages trying to squeeze the stuff out (ew) and I tried so many different products, and thank god I finally found an awesome skin routine and my skin is now the best it has ever been. For the first time in my life I feel great just wearing tinted moisturizer, in fact I'm hardly wearing much foundation anymore! So onto the routine.

Morning: 

I don't really do much in the morning as I'm always in a rush.

 

 I'll usually just quickly wash my face with Dior Gentle Foaming Cleanser. I really like this cleanser because it's very mild, it doesn't even sting my eyes. But obviously dior is quite expensive and there are lots of cheap alternatives that would do the same job, it's not an amazing product or anything, it's just a regular mild face wash and it does the job, nothing more, nothing less.

 

 Next since I'm in a rush I will use a spray on toner just before moving on to makeup. Currently I'm using Dermalogica Clean Start All Over Clear toner. I LOVE the fact that this is in a spray bottle and I'd urge anyone to keep some of their favourite toner in a spray bottle. In the morning when I'm hurrying and still half asleep it's so refreshing to have a spritz of refreshing toner right in the face! Even when this product finishes I'm gonna clean out the bottle and keep using it for toners.

Evening:

3 Words: HOT CLOTH CLEANSERS. I mean these things are a godsend, my pores have shrunk to pretty much invisible by using this stuff. There are a few different brands e.g. Liz Earle, No. 7, Soap and Glory, Sanctuary, and I think even superdrug have a real bargain version out now as well. The thing that really makes this product is the muslin cloth and I have to say I think the Liz Earle cloth is the best. But as for the actual cleanser, I'm not fussed, they all work for me. I always shower in the evenings since I already have to get up for work at 6, so I usually do my cleanse in the shower. This cloth paired with a cleanser just clears out the grime from your pores and I've never had such smooth skin in my life! I just can't praise this product enough. When I don't use it, I notice such a difference. You know how you have those little bumps/heads on your nose and chin and sometimes around the mouth area? I hate them with a passion, when you put foundation on in those areas you can just see them even more, but using this exfoliating cloth is almost like erasing them. I discovered this product before it became a hit with beauty reviewers online as my housemate had been using it for years and I really wish I'd known about it sooner.

The hot cloth cleanser already leaves my skin moisturized, but if my skin is particularly dry as it gets during winter, I'll put some moisturizer on too, I'm not too particular about this, usually I'll just use what I have at the time. My mom always buys me Olay's beauty fluid so I'll usually have this lying around, I do like this moisturizer a lot because it's hydrating but completely non greasy! At first I didn't like it because it didn't feel like it was hydrating my skin due to the lack of greasiness but don't be fooled, it really is nicely hydrating so I always like to have a bottle to hand.

Finally I'll apply benzoyl peroxide on my problem areas or sometimes I'll put it on all the usual places that acne pops up to prevent any nasties. I didn't know about this stuff until I got my 2nd bout of acne in my early 20's as I mentioned earlier. And this is the only thing that zapped them into non-existence. Seriously this is my acne miracle cure. For when I get a particularly nasty spot, like those that don't have a visible head but are just under the skin and red and painful, then I'll use a hot compress on it for about 15 minutes then apply this. I don't beleive in any other acne products because it really does the job. But when I first starting using benzoyl peroxide, it was frying my skin. This was partly my fault, I was so desperate to get rid of my acne that I chose a higher strength product (now i use 2,5%) and I was slathering it on.  And after the first night of doing this, my acne was so visibly reduced so of course this made me slather it on the next night. Within a few days my skin was peeling. Ouch! So if your skin isn't used to this product then take caution. But paired with the hot cloth cleanser, it's a perfect combo because it exfoliates away any peeling but very gently. And anyway the peeling doesn't happen anymore once you've used it for a couple of weeks. I only like to apply this once a day, right before bed, but if I have something desperately needing zapping I'll put some on in the day too after I've washed my face.

That's it for my skincare routine! I don't really like to spend ages and go overboard with lots of products so I try to keep it quick and simple. I'm definitely not one of those people that was born with awesome skin but now I feel like my skin is probably nicer than most people!

But at the momen't I don't use any eye cream, have fine lines starting to creep up and my dark circles in the morning are god awful so I have yet to find my HG eyecream. If anyone has found a really awesome one for dark, dry puffy under eyes I'd love to hear about it.