Skin Care advice and products to help your combination skin routine.
Hi, I’m Katie and am a self-professed skin care junkie. Some women need separate closets, I REALLY want to install a separate bathroom cabinet. Don’t get me wrong, I do love makeup, but what really gets me excited is skin care. I am always down to be a guinea pig for whatever new serum or scrub Susie is masterminding.
I came to 100% PURE, about 8 months ago, to work on the social media team. My background has always been in cosmetics and luxury products, feeling as though “I knew” my beauty products, but it wasn’t until I came here, that I got a harsh dose of reality. Working here has really opened my eyes to what is ACTUALLY in other brands’ luxurious makeup lines and all those celebrity-touted skin care creams. And before you read on, I also thought I was using a “green” brand. I won’t say who they were, but I was their #1 customer for a very, very long time; buying up every new product and telling my friends and family how wonderful and “green” they were. I was even fooled by the price! Of course this $$ skin care cream is helping (never did I think it could actually be poisoning me)! Whelp...it took me doing a deeper dive into their ingredient list via some hardcore research to decode those hard to read names. The results were the cold, hard undeniable facts: I now know what was actually lurking inside my ex-beloved products. If you are still thinking, Katie, but not “my” brand. Well, let’s put it to the test, head to EWG’s cosmetic database and give it a whirl. Let me know what the results are; I hope for the best for all of you, but am expecting not so hot results.
It might be a result of my East Coast up-bringing, but I can tell you, since I moved to California in 2012, it’s a whole other world out here (in the best way ever)! What my Mom thinks is healthy (sorry Mom!) is just a result of a long line of mis-education and being so brand loyal you might be blind to what they are actually doing to you. Thank you all West Coast-ers for taking me in and accepting me as your own. I’m a lifer, for sure.
Let’s get into the real title of this post: MY skin care routine. My first week after work (maybe second, it was all a blur) I got home and took out every. single. product. in the bathroom. I am not joking. I looked like a complete crazy person reading every single ingredient, on every single bottle, jar, tube or vial in my bathroom. RIP to all my old products but they were getting left behind. I didn’t need a New Year’s resolution to know these toxic guys had to go starting now.
Switching to an all natural skin care routine is not going to get you results overnight. In fact, the exact might happen. There might (stressing might) be a horrible limbo period where your skin is freaking out and basically just detoxifying itself. Stay with it. There is a light at the end and I promise you it is SO worth it. Just like deciding to take the plunge into healthier eating habits, drinking one fabulous green smoothie this afternoon, is not going to have you waking up tomorrow looking and feeling like Gwyneth Paltrow ’s top Goop health advisor. It’s a marathon, and one that won’t leave you almost crying and falling over at the end.
I can truthfully admit, there was just one of my ex-products that I truly did (and still do) miss. Sometimes I catch myself thinking about it...maybe even cheating, using it “just once” and then completely quitting it again. It was my perfect skin care soulmate and after the great purge, it left a huge hole in my routine. It’s the exact definition of unrequited love (at least in the skin care sense). Luckily, I found out a month ago that Susie is developing my dream, long lost love and it is set to launch around April...must hold on for just a little longer! More on that later, but stay tuned for the healthy option of my secret, can’t live without, skincare product. I’m getting giddy just thinking about it!
I’m a little more lax on my makeup routine, skipping parts...only doing the bare minimum if I can get away with it, but skin care is NOT to be messed with. Also, the order really does matter. Why spend the money on quality ingredients and products if you aren’t using it in the correct order and not letting all that goodness work it’s magic to its fullest potential?
My morning routine is:
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Wash face with Organic Matcha Anti-Aging: Antioxidant Cleansing Foam with a Facial Cleansing Brush.
- Quick spray of Organic Lavender Tonique all over.
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2-3 pumps of Vitamin C Serum, and that’s going all over my face, neck and décolletage.
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A few dots of Coffee Bean Caffeine Eye Cream under/above my eyes, a dot between my eyebrows (I squint and furrow my brows a lot) and a dot on my smile lines.
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Followed with 2 pumps of Organic High Potency Reversal: Repair Moisturizer all over my face, neck and décolletage.
My before bed routine is:
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Wash face with Organic High Potency Reversal: Cleansing Foam and my Clarisonic Mia Fit.
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Apply 1-2 pumps of Organic Matcha Anti-Aging: Antioxidant Emulsion Tonique all over my face, neck and décolletage.
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Let that soak in, then apply 1 pump of Brightening Serum on my nose (trying to get rid of some sun damage).
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A few dots of Coffee Bean Caffeine Eye Cream under/above my eyes, a dot between my eyebrows (I squint and furrow my brows a lot) and a dot on my smile lines.
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About a dime-sized scoop of Multi-Vitamin + Antioxidants Ultra Riche PM Treatment for my face. (This is my FAVORITE product!)
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Another dime-sized scoop of Retinol Restorative Neck Cream for my neck and décolletage. (You need to use SPF the next day when using retinol.)
My multi-taskers are:
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Bright Eyes: I wear these all the time when I’m working, driving, cleaning the house, reading, cooking...I’m pretty sure my dogs think I am slowly morphing into a swamp monster.
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Aqua Boost Hydrating Mask: Winter time go-to. Or whenever my skin is just looking dry or just plain thirsty. I leave this on for a really long time (about an hour), then gently wash off with my Facial Brush. It always makes my skin so much happier and hydrated.
- Organic Matcha Anti-Aging: Antioxidant Smoothing Scrub: This scrub is in rotation about 1-2 times a week. It’s more of a gentle scrub. Everyone thinks they want that “squeaky” clean, but you don’t. This scrub has “beads” that are made of jojoba (a natural wax from a plant) and not those nasty little plastic microbeads. Two things about those plastic beads...they are so bad for the ocean (they literally never dissolve and just end up floating around), secondly, they are just ripping and scratching your skin (on a micro level) and it’s damaging your skin.
Body care round-up:
I always have about 2-3 Hand Buttercreams floating around either in my bag, at my desk or in my car. My favorites are French Lavender and Gingeraid. One’s a downer for after work relaxing, the other a morning upper, to give me some extra ginger zip. These 2 scents dominate across all the categories we have:
Body Scrubs, you bet it’s French Lavender and sometimes, Eucalyptus. A serious note here, be careful when you are getting in and out of the shower after using this product. It’s amazing but it does make your shower floor slippery if you don’t properly wash it down before getting out.
It seems like I’m trying to push these scents on you but I just love them so much. They go across the board for me when it comes to body and what I want to me smelling all day. French Lavender Shower Gel, how did you know?
This is a routine that works for me. Everyone’s skin is unique and you might be in my category of “combination skin” but you live in the hot, dry desert so take this are more of a “guideline” than a “copy this routine.” Spend the time to find what works for you. Experimenting is key and fun (in my opinion)! I’ve been vetting these for a while now but there are plenty of serums, toners and masks I tried earlier that just made me break out or have super dry skin after. My routine is also not written in stone, it varies season to season and what’s coming down the pike from Susie. I’m always happy to swap something that’s working better, but I do have some true loves that are going to be with me until the end (looking at you Coffee Bean Eye Cream and Multi-V Night Cream). If you take anything away from this: you need to stick with it. Your skin will not change overnight, and it will not transform if you don’t make time for it. Have the patience to learn about the ingredients, the correct way to apply and give it a long term trial before you bring it into the skin care family or decide to ditch it. First impressions are great but it’s the long term that is really telling.
- Tags: February-2017, Shopping Guides, Skin Care
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The information in this article is for educational use, and not intended to substitute professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment and should not be used as such.
