Routine Basics: Cleanser, Moisturizer, SPF

It’s hard to know where to start when you first learn about skincare — ingredients and steps and routines, oh my! 😩 Especially on social media, you can see some really elaborate routines, and you might be wondering if you need that much, and how to select what to use. But while there are loads of products on the market, you can start simple:

Cleanser
Moisturizer
Sunscreen

Then you can start addressing a skin concern. For a lot of younger folks, this is frequently acne. For older folks, typically wrinkles and anti-aging. But there are plenty of skin concerns — they’re what tend to, well, concern you, when you look in the mirror.

To start, pick one product — just one! To address this. For many folks this is some type of exfoliation, which you can use a few times a week.

Skincare can be as elaborate as you want it to be, but it doesn’t have to be and in many cases it shouldn’t be. Start with the basics, establish that new baseline, and then get wild! 🤪

Shrink Your Pores in 60 Seconds

Shrink your pores in 60 seconds with this one weird trick:

Wash your face.

No, seriously, that’s it. Most of us only wash our faces for about 20 seconds. Giving it that full 60 seconds ensures all the gunk is off your face. Dry skin types may find this to be stripping, in which case frankly you may need to change your cleanser.

I’m pretty guilty of not loving washing my face, but things were feeling oily and congested today (yay hormonal acne in my 30s) so I busted out this cleanser, which I mostly hate, and gave it a go.Full credit for the “60 second rule” goes to LA Beautyologist/Golden Rx, who is wonderful and you should follow on Twitter/YouTube/Instagram.

DHC Cleansing Oil Review

Product: DHC Deep Cleansing Oil

Category: first cleanse

Price: $13.99 USD (at my local Target)

Size: 2.3 fl oz/70 mL

Ingredients: Olea Europaea (Olive) Fruit Oil, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Sorbeth-30 Tetraoleate, Pentylene Glycol, Phenoxyethanol, Tocopherol, Stearyl Glycyrrhetinate, Rosmarinus Officinalis (Rosemary) Leaf Oil

Continue reading “DHC Cleansing Oil Review”

Peach & Lily Super Reboot Mask Review

If you want a gentler alternative to the “red bloody thing” (aka The Ordinary’s AHA/BHA peel) and are interested in k-beauty, I highly recommend Peach & Lily’s Super Reboot Mask. It’s been tucked away under my counter for about a month, but I felt some hormonal acne coming on and I’d been having some bumps on my forehead from binge-trying Sephora samples, so I decided to bust it out.

Directions are to use it once or twice a week, and the directions for use are much like the TO’s peel. Clean and completely dry your face, then apply a thin, even layer (I did all over my face and down under my chin, but not onto my neck).

Since this one is 10% AHA and .5% BHA, you can leave it on a bit longer — they said 15-20 minutes, so I did 15. It did start feeling a bit dry by then, so I’d recommend going for about that long. I didn’t experience any tingling EXCEPT for in one spot just under my jaw — not sure if it was not dry or if I had a dab of irritation there or what.

After 15 minutes I rinsed it off and didn’t really notice any changes, though I’m not sure entirely what I was expecting. This morning, however, my skin does seem clearer and feels less congested. I asked my husband if he thought my skin looked clearer and he said yes, though who knows if he ever would have noticed without prompting. For reference, the left is my face before cleansing last night, and the right is my face this morning.

This is the “travel” size, which will run you $19 for 20mL. I’m guessing I’ll get about 20 uses out of it, making it $1 USD per application. The full size is $43 for 80mL, but I’m always loathe to buy full-size products before you try them.