Washing your face at night is just as important as eating breakfast every morning.
As you start your day you do your normal makeup routine, head outside and go to school, work or where ever your life leads you. Your skin is exposed to different temperatures, environments and even different emotions throughout the day that can effect your skin. At the end of the day your skin is tired, oily or dry, and it just needs some TLC. Yea it's great that you wash off your make up and put on a moisturizer every night before bed, but your skin needs other nutrients too. These products that I use I like to call it "food for my skin." I have found that using these products I have noticed a great difference in my skin, but keep in mind that if you decide to use the same products as I, you're not guaranteed the same results because everyone has different skin types. The products are suggestions from my experience and what has worked best for me and I hope they do work for you too! Also, I am not endorsed by these brands.
As you start your day you do your normal makeup routine, head outside and go to school, work or where ever your life leads you. Your skin is exposed to different temperatures, environments and even different emotions throughout the day that can effect your skin. At the end of the day your skin is tired, oily or dry, and it just needs some TLC. Yea it's great that you wash off your make up and put on a moisturizer every night before bed, but your skin needs other nutrients too. These products that I use I like to call it "food for my skin." I have found that using these products I have noticed a great difference in my skin, but keep in mind that if you decide to use the same products as I, you're not guaranteed the same results because everyone has different skin types. The products are suggestions from my experience and what has worked best for me and I hope they do work for you too! Also, I am not endorsed by these brands.
I start off by washing my my face with M.A.C.'s cream wash. This takes off your makeup right away while working to restore your skin all at the same time. I've noticed that it evens out the skin tone, has a light fresh scent, and the best part about this wash is that it hydrates so well. I have normal to dry skin and every cleanser that I have used strips the oil off of my skin leaving it dry and itchy, but this wash hydrates perfectly. I wouldn't recommend this to people with oily skin. If you have oily skin though, try M.A.C.'s gel wash. It's a green color. It reduces redness and makes your skin less oily.
After I rinse off the wash and pat my face dry, I use a Soy Milk Rich Toner by Sana. In the past, my luck with toner's has not been great. The one's that I've tried smelled like alcohol and stripped my skin even more of it's natural oils and left my skin flaky; not fun, not attractive. I was at a Japanese super market and saw this and decided to give it a shot since it was a completely different brand from a different country and I figured just MAYBE it would work because they sell it in Asia so MAYBE it works well on Asian skin, and hey, I'm Asian. haha. The first thing I noticed was the smell; no alcohol like scent!! Just a fresh pleasant scent. I also noticed that It was hydrating and didn't dry out my skin like the other toner's and I completely noticed that my skin tone was evening out so well. The way to use this toner and any other toner is to squeeze a bit out onto a cotton ball or cotton pad, (I prefer the flat pads) and wipe it across your entire face. Let your skin soak up all the goodness till it's dry and don't rinse it off.
After my toner I use an acne serum by IQQU. I don't have as much acne problems as I've have in my adolescent years, but I still like to prevent them from coming back during certain times of the month and when I'm stressing. I like to use serums because they're more concentrated and stronger than acne washes and lotions. So I just apply this all over my face for an even coverage.
After the serum I turn to my Shiseido Benefiance Wrinkle Resist 24 Night Cream to take care of my tired skin. This cream pretty much whips out all the stops. It restores the skin putting in plenty of goodness to fight future lines and wrinkles while leaving the skin silky smooth, not to mention the scent is very calming. It also evens out your skin making it look more youthful. Some of you may say, "I'm still too young to use anti-aging products." Well ladies, it's all about prevention, prevention, PREVENTION. I use these products to prevent future lines and wrinkles and to reduce the look of them even when/if I do get them when I age. Yes this product may be a bit pricey, but it will definitely be worth it.
The last product I use is Bobbi Brown's Extra Eye Repair Cream. I put this around my eyes to reduce puffiness and dark circles in the mornings and to prevent crow's feet from forming when aging. I just started using this product, but I'm a fan of it so far. Also, about 2 to 3 times a week I will use Shiseido's Warming Gel Scrub. This scrub cleans out your pores while exfoliating the dead skin cells to reveal youthful skin. This product is great because it leaves your skin feeling soft and extremely refreshed. You don't need water when using this product, just squeeze a little into your palms and massage it on the face for about 2 minutes then just rinse it off. When using this product I substitute it in place of the M.A.C. cream wash then follow the products I just listed.
And there you have it, my nighttime skincare routine. There are links to all of the products below. If you have any questions or even suggestions, please feel free to comment!! Have a great night everyone and Happy Halloween! Stay safe!
M.A.C. Creamwash
Soy Milk Toner by Sana
IQQU Acne Serum
Shiseido Benefiance Wrinkle Resist 24 Night Cream
Bobbi Brown Extra Eye Repair Cream
Shiseido Warming Gel Scrub
Hi Kanree,
ReplyDeleteRandom, but I happen to be looking at blogs on skin and what not.. and yours happen to pop up.
This sounds very convincing! Sigh* I have very sensitive skin or I just think so. I know nothing about skin types and what works for the skin, though we all have different types of skin, how do you know if a product works for you or not; in general? Is it that you feel stingy on your face? Etc.. I'm not good at figuring what works best for me. I just thought I could hear from your experiences and what didn't work and how you knew it didn't.
I use to use drug store products which made my skin a little bit worse than usual, so I know not to use those anymore. Then, I changed my shampoo back to the one I normally used when I was younger, and my skin has been a lot better? Sorry, it just seems as if you can help because you are Hmong and your skin is very nice. *Jealous.
Thanks.
Hi Lucy!
DeleteThank you so much for your kind words and for reading the post! Yes it's really hard to find out which products work best for you when first starting out in find skin care products. The first thing that you could do is figure out what you want to repair on your skin; dryness? oiliness? acne? uneven tone? and you said you have sensitive skin too. Sensitive skin is tough because you can't really fix that issue. You just have to find the right product to balance with your skin.
What I would do next is research. There are so many sources out there like YouTube and other blogs that you can read up on. Look at reviews and find people who have a similar skin type like you and maybe even try products that they tried and said they liked. I don't know your budget either but if you can't spend a lot of money on designer products, go back to the drugstore and test out literally almost everything. And it's okay to return them. I find that Neutrogena and Garnier products are really nice and affordable. But spending more money than usual on skincare products is a great investment I would say.
You could also go to a makeup counter at the mall. If you have a Bobbi Brown counter, you should go to them because they know what they are talking about. They are def. higher price too but it doesn't hurt to get tips from trained people. Also, MAC is great too with tips.
What I did was experimented and eliminated the ones that did not work and maneuvered things around until I found the right products. I tried pretty much almost everything and I'm still in the process of looking at new products to try. The things that I mentioned in the post are just the ones that I'm using as of now. I'm sure within a couple months those things will change. How did I know that they started working? I definitely noticed a difference in the way my skin looked; brighter, not as blotchy, more even, not as dry. The stingy feeling that your talking about is the chemicals working in your skin. If you notice an irritation a couple days later such as dryness, itching, and tightness, that product is not for you. That's what happened to me. Also, drinks lots of water. This hydrates the skin and helps keep it's elasticity.
You really just have to narrow products down to suit you best. So what issues do you have with your skin other than sensitivity? I really hope this helps. Believe me, I'm not a skincare expert, I just learn from experience and research. Let me know if you have any other questions!!
Thanks for replying back! B)
DeleteFunny because I'm not a big fan of reading whatsoever, but this, I totally read!
I just reread what I wrote.. and WOW, I mentioned shampoo. Ha. Only because the former shampoo I was using on my hair caused me to break out a little, then I decided to switch back to one I use to use and that sort of solved the problem.. Irrelevant a little.
Anyways, since I had tried the drug store products, my skin has sort of changed. It's not as oily, but enough to wear when I wash my face with just water, I can feel that oil touch. Sounds a little gross, but it's not much like I said. Now, I have not been using any products and just see how that goes, it's been a lot better, but I still feel as if there's something out there for me; ya'know? After washing my face with water, I just apply the Hazel Witch product on my face. I can't tell if it works, I mean I can, but not dramatically. Idk.
Would you recommend anti-aging products to be used at a young age?
Thanks for the advice and words. I will definitely hunt around.
Oh, and what does toning do?
DeleteSorry for the late response. It's been a crazy week for me. I've had people tell me that when they used a certain shampoo it made them break out so don't worry, you don't sound silly. haha. Also keep in mind that it's always good to have your natural oils on your skin. You don't want to strip all the oil off.
DeleteThe products that your using now I wish I could tell you if they were working or not, but you know your skin best so if you think it's working then keep using it until you def. see a difference. Like I said, keep experimenting and go to makeup counters and ask.
As for anti aging products...how old are you again? I would start using anti-aging products when you reach your 20's. You can start out slowly with these products because they can get pretty pricey. I would start off with Neutrogena's Healthy Skin Anti-Wrinkle Cream (SPF 15..something like that). It comes in a tube and I use it everyday before I put on my makeup. It's only like 12 dollars. I def. noticed a difference and it didn't leave my skin feeling oily. Again keep in mind that everyone's skin is different. Then the next step would be a night cream that you could use. Drug stores have really good products for these too if you don't want to spend a lot of money.
Toning...This is the step after you use your cleanser/exfoliator. Depending on the products it will take off excess makeup that you missed, even out the skin tone and the main thing for a toner is to prepare the skin for moisturizing. Look into toners before you buy one because you want one that's right for your skin.
I hope this helps! =]