Half-Assed: Morning skincare routine

I watch some beauty gurus on YouTube and marvel at their routines; they've got them for day and night.  Spring and summer.  Fall and winter. Traveling on a plane or just staying home and doing nothing.  Sure their skin looks beautiful, but c'mon, there's got to be people like me out there who can't stick to that level of commitment?  I laugh when they have the "Quick" routine.  A half hour isn't quick.

As I already mentioned here, I'm not one to take the time out of my day for personal pampering. Maybe there's an underlying psychological reason for it; I don't know.  But it annoys me when I need to leave a face mask on for 15 minutes.  Probably because I have to remove my glasses and can't see. Haha.

I believe that the most important thing you can do is find the right product.  Sure it'd be nice to be like those other women and have all the serums and night creams and hydrating what's-it-called, by so and so boutique.  Maybe one day I'll get to that level, but for right now I'm fine with my method.

I have combinations skin.  Either I'm super oily or super dry, so finding a product that can help me with my breakouts and general troll-ness was a real issue.  I happened to be watching Marie's Bitsandclips channel one day, and she had mentioned in a video that she used Body Shop products. She said that they really cleared up her face and she was very happy in general with the products.

I've had to put up with acne since fifth grade.  I tried everything.  Proactiv, store-brand acne medications, dermatologist recommendations. I had an actual face cleansing regiment that was freaking ridiculous!  But no matter what I did, my skin was sh*t.  So, I figured I'd try out what Marie did.  I'm not sure if what I have is the exact product she uses. (I think it is.)

Can I tell you, what a difference!  I still have some spots and will break out on occasion. Hormones and stress and all that crap contribute to it, but my face has gotten so clear that I don't need to wear foundation!  I'll have to put on some concealer but that's it.  I'm so happy that I finally found something that actually works! 

Face Wash ($12.83 Amazon)

When I first started using this product, I wasn't too keen on the smell.  It's more perfumey than I thought it would be, considering it's seaweed, but it doesn't bother me anymore.  I find that since I'm prone to blackheads, I do have to use a face scrub to help with those. This is the only downside. (Though, I should mention that I would use a blackhead facial scrub daily prior to this. So it must even be helping those a little bit.) My skin does feel refreshed and clean after washing with this cleanser, and it looks brighter too.

Toner ($15 Amazon)

The toner has a cooling effect that I like.  Before I got the whole The Body Shop Seaweed ranger, I was only using the cleanser and moisturizer. I was using witch hazel as my toner because I had a huge bottle of it.  Once that was finished,  I got the brand's toner to try out and am quite happy with it.

Moisturizer ($14.58 Amazon)

I was disappointed with the moisturizer at first.  I had started using this regime during my skin's dry time.  It's a lightweight moisturizer and I didn't feel like it really moisturized my skin.  But it did.  A few days after I started using it, I noticed that my skin was looking happy. I also found that my face isn't suffering from the dry time much.  Though, winter is coming *GoT theme music plays in my head everytime that phrase is uttered.* ^_^, so we'll see how I do.   I like the fact that it's lightweight now because the other moisturizer I was using felt heavy and weighed my skin down too much.  This moisturizer also doesn't leave my face feeling greasy as the day goes on, which is a HUGE bonus!

Night Treatment (Got this as part of the trial kit. $24.72 Amazon)

 I'm going to be honest here, I don't use the night serum all that much. Mostly because I forget about it.  It's very light on the skin. It doesn't feel like you've got anything on and your skin can breathe. Which I appreciate, and my skin appreciates. (When I use it!) But I'm not really sure that is necessary for a night treatment. I feel like at night you would want something more hydrating and heavier. But again, I don't use it all that much to review it properly.




I should note also that the other reason why I switched to the body shop is because they're a cruelty-free company.  One of my life's goals is to not have any makeup products that have been tested on animals, nor support companies that do.  I'm not a vegan or vegetarian yet, but I'm working towards this goal.  I'm not going to lie, veganism intimidates me. I may never get to that level.  I wrote a post about this a while ago. Cruelty Free.
 

This routine is what I do on the daily for work and takes me all of ten minutes. Which is perfect because I hate waking up in the morning!  Not that I hate waking up, obviously being alive is awesome. I'm not a morning person is what I'm saying.

Anyway, this is how I keep beautiful and wanted to share. ^___^