Skincare routine

When I asked what you all wanted to read about on my blog, Tanja Sophie answered "Skin care, make up, how you stay in shape, what you eat". At first I was a bit surprised by this (because I don't consider myself the best person to talk about that...I don't have a perfect body nor perfect skin) but decided to give it a  go anyway.

Eventhough I am not a "girly girl", I love to read blogs about make-up, skincare, hair.and I also regularly watch youtube videos about these topics. I also love homemade DIY beauty recipes a lot.

This first post is about skincare only, but I will write about the other topics later. (Sorry guys, I guess a lot of you will skip these posts, hehe.)

My skin is mixed (normal to dry with sometimes a bit an oily T-zone), but after a skin analysis with a skin scanner, I learned that my skin is also dehydrated. They advised me to moisturize extra well and especially drink a lot of water.

Basically there are only 2 things I do for my skin every morning and evening: cleaning and moisturizing.

In the morning: For the cleansing I don't use any water or soap of any kind. I just drench a cotton pad with rosewater and clean my face and neck with this. Most of the time I buy ready made rose water in bottles, but you can also make it yourself. (You can find a good recipe on *this* website)

After some seconds the rosewater gets all dried up and then I apply my moisturizer.

Since about a year ago, I use "Belle de Jour" by Kenzoki and I absolutely love this cream. The smell is just incredible and it makes my skin very soft. Unfortunately it's quite expensive (about 110 euro for a little pot of 50ml) and -for me- it's not sufficient in cold/winter time. My skin gets very dry in this time (especially on the cheeks) and some hours after applying the cream, I can feel that my skin starts to be more dry and pulling again.

In the evening: When I'm wearing make-up that day, I first remove all my make-up with a makeup removing tissues for sensitive skin or with a cleanser milk. (Most of the time I use Diadermine but it can change). I find it very important to sleep with a clean hydrated face and so I will never go to bed without cleaning and moisturizing first. No matter how sick/tired/drunk/ I would be.

When my face looks clean, I use yet another cotton pad with cleansing milk to be really sure that all the make-up got removed.After this I clean my face again with a cotton pad drenched in rosewater. And to finish I apply my nightcream.

As nightcream I use Biocura's anti-aging nightcream since some years now. I love this cream. It doesn't make my skin feel more soft or so but it does moisturize very well. It's really the best cream I've ever used, it works like a charm and it's very budgetproof (only 2,70 euro for 50ml !). I tried other creams of this brand but they definitely work less good for me. 

In winter or when my face feels more dry, I don't use my normal daycream in the morning but apply my nightcream instead.

Additional care: 

I like to stick to my basic routine and prefer to not use too much extras.

Sometimes it's necessary though.

- Before going outside and when my lips feel a bit dry, I use a chapstick.

My favorite is Labello with cherry taste. I'm not a fan of fruity flavoured lipcare but this cherry Labello is definitely an exception. And it also gives a nice subtle red color.

- If my lips are dry or chapped, I use Blistex lip relief cream or pure karité butter. They both moisture and soothe my lips very fast.

- After taking a shower I sometimes apply a body butter from the Body shop (Moringa or coconut smell). It works very well (and I love that all their products are animal testing and cruelty free). I'm too lazy to do this every day though. I also don't like the fact that I'm all sticky before putting my clothes on, and find the smell of the cream too much in combination with my perfume. 

- When my skin starts to feel a little bit dull, I use a homemade sugar & honey scrub, or a rough sea salt scrub. I only do this 2 or 3 times a year, mainly after I've been on holidays and had a lot of sun exposure.

- When I have a dry area of skin somewhere, I swear by pure karité butter (also known as shea butter), or pure argan oil.

- Sometimes I apply honey all over my face to make it a bit more soft and nice. It doesn't work as well as karité butter, but it definitely works. And it's easy and quick, and smells nice.

- When my skin complexion isn't so good (due to bad foods in the days before f.e.), I use sea salt to get it better again. Sea salt works as a natural exfoliator and detoxifier, and it has antiseptic effects. I take a tablespoon of sea salt and mix it with a little bit of water. Then I apply it all over my face with my fingers or with a cotton pad. I leave it on for about 30 minutes and then wash it off. After 2 or 3 days my skin is usually already in a much better state again.  

- To take care of my feet I also use pure karité butter, this way they are always super soft. I apply it just before sleeping or during the day (when I stay at home) in combination with thick socks.

Same goes for my hands. During the day I apply a little bit of butter so they don't get too greasy. Once in a while I put a thick layer in combination with cotton gloves.

That's about it.

I have to add that my skincare routine has been completely different until 3 years ago. I had tons of stuff which I very regularly used (masks, facial scrubs, peelings, body scrubs, toner, body creams, eye cream, cleansing soaps...all kind of different types and brands). Over the years I just started to use more and more.

After my teenage years (with accompanying  acne), the acne dissapeared more or less but my skin stayed in quite a bad state. Redness, very sensitive, quickly oily, very easy break out... it just wasn't clear and healthy looking. So I kept on buying new and more products, which all promised a clear and healthy skin. But nothing worked and it only got worse.

So on a certain day I decided to drastically change my skincare routine. I stopped using all the products and only used a moisturizing cream in the morning and evening. My skin instantantly started to look way better.

Shortly after that, a friend told me about rosewater and how she benefits from it. So I decided to try it out. With absolutely great results. Since I don't wash my face with water anymore but with rosewater instead, it doesn't "pull" anymore and feels a lot less dry. It may sound a bit odd, but water really dries out your skin.
At the same time I started to browse through youtube videos which plead for natural approach in skincare. And this is how I found out about karité butter, argan oil, coconut oil, healthy homemade masks and scrubs and much more.

Rosewater and karité butter are definitely 2 wonder products and I would recommend everyone to try them out. Maybe it works as good for you as it does for me. On top of that it's way cheaper than other products.

In general I would say, reduce in all the chemical and synthetic stuff and go for natural. Just be nice to your skin. :)

To take good care if your skin, it's very important to also live healthy. Enough sleep, regular excercise and a good diet.

I notice a very big difference in my complexion when I change my eating habits, even when it's just for 1 day. Cheese or dairy products don't do much good for my skin. Sometimes I even get an allergic reaction from certain cheese (think red spots and bumps all over my face and neck...very sexy, hehe). That's one of the reasons why I switched to soy milk and almond milk. When it comes to good cheese, that's unfortunately one of my weaknesses...

But more about a healthy diet and excercise in upcoming posts :)

It's needless to say that every person is different and may benefit more from other products and treatments. I just wanted to share my personal routine and hope you enjoyed reading!