Not long ago, Michelle Phan visited China and came back discovering that on average an Asian woman would use 9 skincare products daily. I have never really thought much about this subject until she mentioned. Not to mention, before I had myself obsessed with achieving healthy, radiant skin, I honestly only used face wash, toner and moisturiser. I admit though, I'm a lazy person (which is why I am still procastinating when my project deadline is next Friday), sometimes I just wash my face and dash to bed because I am so tired, sometimes, I don't even take my make-up off at all and pass out (those are nights when I've had a bit too much...ahem....alcohol)!
However, lately I've been trying my hardest to keep the skincare routine going. During the day, I have no problem keeping up since I am awake, it's night time I get lazy at.
@StrawberryB2uty on Twitter suggested I do a post on night time skincare layering, well my friend, here it is! =]
Before I continue though, I've never had perfect skin; all through my teen years, I was bombard with spots, I had little knowledge then on how to deal with them, so my entire forehead is now covered with marks left by spots. I would also like to mention, that skincare alone won't help, your diet has to change - have a balanced healthy diet. Another matter is that your hormones may have effect on your skin as well, I've suffered for years of spots due to high levels of hormones -my solution was to take the pill (it controls my period pain and hey, I have got to admit spots have appeared less!) I would seek your GP/doctor for professional advice on this though.
So after I've took my make-up off, washed my face I go through the following routine...
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| Step1: Boots Botanics Rosewater Toner |
After washing my face, I always feel that even though I've used eye make-up removers and cleansing milks/oils, then a cleansing gel, not all of my make-up will be removed entirely. Thus, I use this Rosewater toner to clean up any left over. This toner, is gentle to the skin, so I could clean up any make-up on the eyes as well. It leaves my skin supple and soft too. (Smells great also!)
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| Step2: Vichy Normaderm 3in1 Lotion |
This product was made for acne-prone skins (in fact I think the whole of Vichy's Normaderm line was made specifically for acne-prone skin), now although I don't have acne as such, my skin, like I says, is very blemish-prone (spots here and there, it all adds up in the end!)
I pour some of this onto my cotton pad and sweep it over my face, then start patting the product onto my face especially onto areas that I am more prone to spots (in this case, it would be the right-side of my forehead).
This lotion also claims to unclog and tighten pores and gives your face a matte effect. Because of this, bare in mind, it can be a bit drying so you must remember to moisturise after using this!
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| From right: Step3 -Garnier Roll-on eyes; Step4- Boots Botanics Eyes&Lip Serum; Step 5 - Elizabeth Arden Eye Renewal Cream |
The skin around our eyes are more delicate from the rest of our face. They require more moisture to keep the skin soft and a healthy blood flow to keep away the bags, puffs and panda eyes. Wrinkles also appear most easiest around the eyes.
I first roll-on the Garnier stick, this acts like a eye message for me; it pushes the blood around my eyes and allow the blood to flow better and helps to de-puff the bags. On stressful times like these lately, it helps. You could also use your eye cream and your fingers you message your eyes with a patting motion. =]
Anyway, then I use the correction serum; this moisturises my eyes, but most importantly I use this to help my lashes to grow faster. I had spoke about this before so let's move on.....?
Ok, so lastly for my eyes, I lately started using Elizabeth Arden's eye cream. This was given to me from a friend who had no use for it along with the moisturisers from this line. To be very honest, I haven't noticed any difference on the effect of this product but I do like how it's a cream based and it promotes more moisture. So far so good for this product.
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| Step6: L'oreal's Youth Code youth boosting serum |
I honestly don't want to go into too much detail about this face serum as I will do a full review later on. Basically I use this to help minimal my pores. I don't have wrinkles as such so I won't be able to tell you if it's good for that - apologies, I'm only 22. =D
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| Step7: Vichy's Normaderm Anti-Inperfection Hydrant |
Another product from Vichy's Normaderm line. This moisturiser has been spoke about around the beauty community. The reviews I get are rather positive. Although this hasn't made any drastic changes to my skin, it instead has prevented my skin from becoming worst; it has prevented any of my spots from getting any larger and after a good sleep, my spots are decreased in size instantly. I don't perhaps find this "hydrant" enough for my skin though, but it does help the conditions of my spots so I keep this in my routine.
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| Step8: Soap&Glory Dr Spot |
So I've been moaning about spots, well meet my spot gel! I don't have a favourite for spot gels, but this one I like so far. It decreases the size of my spots overnight and reduces redness. The only thing I don't like, about this is that if you apply this during the day and when you are trying to apply foundation over it, it gets all flakey and it's just messy and
extremely annoying! So I only use this during the night.
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| Step9: Elizabeth Arden Night Renewal Cream |
Lastly, and trust me, I dont apply this until I know I am actually going to bed to sleep. Night creams tend to be more heavy as they are meant to be more moisturising (thus I can't apply this on until I am going to sleep because it makes my wonky glasses slip 'n' slid). This was the other product that was given by a friend along with the eye cream above. She told me she did not like the texture of the moisturiser. Now I don't know if she meant both the day and night creams or just the day cream or just the night cream. I haven't used the day cream yet because I have no use for it just now as it doesn't have SPF.
Anyway, textures of most night creams are normally hard to like.
I have done some research for this particular night cream and here is a bit of what I found:
"This rich-textured cream claims to be clinically and dermatologist tested to replaces daily moisture loss while you sleep and smoothes the look of fine lines. This cream works well in conjunction with hydroquinone spot treatments, peptide serum, and retinoids because the rich formula has a thick, heavy base which helps drive active ingredients into the skin. It also DOESNT contain alpha hydroxy acids, which when used back-to-back with retinoids can inactivate each other. It is very moisturizing on the skin with out feeling greasy even though it is thick and heavy, but night creams are suppose to be."
I don't know if this person who reviewed the product was a professional dermotologist or not, but I agree with everything this person has claimed this cream will do.
First of all, my skin is instantly brighter and more radiant in the morning, spots and even spot marks are instantly reduced size or redness/colour. My skin becomes more supple and it's even more noticeable of the difference when I apply foundation and concealer on because I am using a lot less product than before to cover. Pores are decreasing, slowly but if I look closer, I could see a slight difference, I recognise this might be because the cream has helped "drive" the ingrediants from my face serum.
I definitely love this night cream although the only downside is....the smell. It's not a nasty smell, it's just smells like a strong lavender, that I wish it was a lighter smell. I don't know if this product contains parfum but if it does, thank god my skin hasn't had any bad reactions from it!
So I've just spent my entire Tuesday on this very stressful week onto this post, I hope you all appreciate it! =P
OH! And if the survey was correct about the average asian using 9 skincare products daily, then I must be average - 9 in total for night time (don't worry I use less during the day).
Do you layer your skin products at night? If so has it worked for you or do you feel that it's all gibberish?
Comment below if you like =] Hope you all get some beauty sleep sooner or later (it's almost 11pm here), I won't tonight due to my progressing my project.
But no worries, just cover your stress and mess with a smile =] works better than make-up!
