Skin Care Routine, Plus Hair Care & Makeup — April 2011

OCTOBER 2011 UPDATE ON THE WAY

Hey every­one! I just updated you on my skin care rou­tine in Jan­u­ary, but in March it started to get warm (it’s in the high-80′s here already) so I needed to change some things and sim­plify it a lit­tle bit. Thussss, I want to share what I am doing. I have also included what I use for hair care, as well as makeup on spe­cial occa­sions since I get a ton of requests for makeup recommendations.

{SKIN CARE}

CLEANSER. ARCONA Triad Pads, $30, 45 pads (lasts up to 45 days with daily use)
A must-have. I use a pad in the morn­ing and a pad at night, after using an ARCONA Clar­ity pad. I use the scrubby side for my face, then I turn it over and use the smooth side to wipe my neck and chest. It’s extremely refresh­ing, smells deli­cious, and leaves your skin moist and glow­ing. Since I don’t wear makeup (except on my eyes) and I don’t live in a heav­ily pol­luted area, the pads are an excel­lent replace­ment for wash­ing my face with a tra­di­tional cleanser. The pads are also use­ful if you are trav­el­ing, stay­ing in a hotel with chlo­ri­nated water, or camping.

ARCONA Clar­ity Spot Repair for Face/Body, $28, 45 pads (lasts up to 45 days with daily use)
These pads are amaz­ing for pre­vent­ing hor­monal blem­ishes women tend to get around period time, and excel­lent for pre­vent­ing razor bumps and ingrown hairs (face, legs, etc.). The smell is really intense and makes my eyes water, and even though my skin is sen­si­tive, it does not irri­tate it what­so­ever and is great for days when my skin might be pretty oily due to hor­monal shifts. I like to use one before I work­out to pre­vent any workout-related blem­ishes. Works wonders.

EXFOLIATOR. Skin Apothke Ubtan Scrub, $15, 2 oz. (lasts about 4 months with use once or twice per week)
This scrub has been in my arse­nal for almost a year now and is great for all skin types, espe­cially those that are prone to red­ness and irri­ta­tion. This is safe to use daily, but more sen­si­tive skin may choose to use this less often. You can mix it with yogurt (plain, unsweet­ened, no addi­tives or preser­v­a­tives) or plain fil­tered water. This scrub imparts an amaz­ing glow on your skin, and it will feel incred­i­bly smooth and nour­ished, not dry or irri­tated. A must-have.

ARCONA Cran­berry Gom­mage, $42, 3.4 oz. (lasts about 6 months with use about once per week)
I have been using this scrub for about 6 months now, and it’s amaz­ing for pre­vent­ing blem­ishes and elim­i­nat­ing black­heads. I have about 1/3 of the tube left, so for the price, it lasts a very long time. I alter­nate between the Ubtan Scrub and this Gom­mage when­ever I feel like it. I really love the rounded jojoba beads in this, so if you have uber-sensitive skin prone to tear­ing and flak­ing and blem­ishes, give this scrub a try.

MOISTURIZER. ARCONA Magic White Ice, $38, 1 oz. (lasts 2 months)
I use 1–2 pumps for my face and neck. It’s the per­fect mois­tur­izer for me (my skin is oily in the T-zone, nor­mal on cheeks, and tends to be sen­si­tive). It absorbs quickly, smells lovely, doesn’t leave a greasy feel­ing, and really helps to bal­ance the skin instead of just cov­er­ing it up in some goopy mois­ture mess. This is the best mois­tur­izer I have used (aside from coconut and olive oil). This will not be mois­tur­iz­ing enough for dry skin, though.

EYES. Skin Apotheke Vit­a­min C Reju­ve­nat­ing Eye Balm, $21.95, 1 oz.
This is the best eye cream I have ever used. It has a creamy, light­weight tex­ture that melts into your skin. As you guys know, I’m pretty pale so my skin has a ten­dency to show those lovely bluish-green (on some peo­ple they are pur­ple) under-eye veins. I have seen a tremen­dous improve­ment by using this, and you can hardly see them now. This also works per­fectly under concealer.

EYELASHES. Home Health Cold Pressed Cas­tor Oil, $8.29, 16 oz.
I’ve used cas­tor oil on my lashes for years and it keeps them thick and healthy – if you’d like, check out the post I wrote on how to get long, thick eye­lashes.

BLEMISH TREATMENT. ARCONA Tab­ula Rasa, $22, 1.17 oz.
This is really runny and thin, so I use it by unscrew­ing the pump top and dip­ping a Q-tip into it. Just dot it on your blem­ish once or twice per day, and that blem­ish will be gone within 2 days. I like that it doesn’t dry out or irri­tate my skin. For a dou­ble whammy, you can use the Clar­ity pads (see above) to tone after you wash, then dot this on. Let it all sink in for a few min­utes and then apply your moisturizer.

ANTI-AGING TREATMENT. ARCONA Vit­a­min A Com­plex, $68, about 2 oz. (lasts 3+ months)
At 24, I needed to start using an anti-aging prod­uct (the younger you start, the bet­ter). So I started using this about a month ago and it’s made a lovely dif­fer­ence in my skin already. I am fair and have incurred my share of sun dam­age when I went through a period of 2 years where I was out in the sun a lot and not wear­ing sun­block or a hat. This is pricey, but it lasts a long time because you only use it 3 times per week. If you’re prone to black­heads and fine lines (or dehy­dra­tion lines), then this prod­uct would be great for you. It really reduces the amount of black­heads and keeps the skin incred­i­bly mois­tur­ized and works to even out your skin tone by revers­ing sun dam­age (thanks to the vit­a­min A).

DEODORANT. Ele­gant Rose Bou­tique Laven­der Vanilla Nat­ural Deodor­ant, $7.50, 2.5 oz. (lasts at least 4 months)
This deodor­ant does not irri­tate my skin, it smells amaz­ingly good, and it lasts all day. It doesn’t stop you from sweat­ing (you don’t want that, anyway…you’re sup­posed to sweat), but it does stop any poten­tially nasty smells.

{HAIR CARE}

SHAMPOO. My hair is fine and nat­u­rally curly, and because it’s curly the cuti­cle does not lay flat and is prone to dry­ness and frizzies. I have found the best sham­poos for me are Aubrey Desert Herb Sham­poo, Cton­ics Core Sham­poo, and Ama­zon Beauty Rahua Sham­poo. I alter­nate between them every few days or so.

CONDITIONER. I use Cton­ics Elixir Blos­som Con­di­tioner as a strength­ener and thick­ener, and Ama­zon Beauty Rahua Con­di­tioner to moisturize.

TREATMENT. Once every 2 weeks I use hair treat­ment oil from Skin Apotheke.

{MAKEUP}

FOUNDATION. While I don’t ever wear foun­da­tion or tinted mois­tur­izer, I have been asked for rec­om­men­da­tions on those that are nat­ural and of good qual­ity. I have inves­ti­gated foun­da­tions based on their ingre­di­ents and reviews, and have found that Alima Pure, All Nat­ural Face, Liv­ing Nature, Vapour, and Miessence would be good choices. See if you can order sam­ples first, but if not, most stores have great return poli­cies if a color or some­thing doesn’t work out.

CONCEALER. RMS Beauty Un-Cover Up in 11 or 22. An excel­lent con­cealer for under-eye cir­cles or a blem­ish. This goes on smooth and creamy, stays on all day, doesn’t crease, and doesn’t clog your pores (you don’t want those lit­tle while milia bumps!).

MASCARA. Real Purity Mas­cara in Brown and Black, $13
This is my favorite all-natural mas­cara. It doesn’t irri­tate my eyes, the brown color looks nat­ural with my white­ness and red-blonde hair (black can look too harsh for the day, but looks great for night­time), and it doesn’t flake or rub off. Awe­some prod­uct, and the best mas­cara I have ever used.

EYELINER. Bare Min­er­als or Jane Iredale. They are nat­ural and do not irri­tate my eyes or rub off. If you like the water­line, make sure to set the liner with a match­ing nat­ural eye­shadow pow­der (see below).

EYESHADOW. I have a col­lec­tion of eye­shad­ows from Alima Pure, My Beauty Addic­tion, All Nat­ural Face, and Jane Iredale. I bought a few sam­ple sizes of Alima Pure because it’s so cheap and I don’t use them that often. I have had the same tiny sam­ples for about a year. I use their matte black and matte brown eye­shadow pow­ders to set eye­liner on the waterline.

BRUSHES. All of my brushes are from Sigma, with the excep­tion of 2 brushes from Alima Pure and 1 from 100% Pure. The Sigma brushes are my favorite since they don’t shed and are easy to use since I’m such an idiot with makeup some­times.

MAKEUP REMOVER. Aura Cacia Organic Sweet Almond Oil. It is great for remov­ing eye makeup and mois­tur­iz­ing the eye area. For full face makeup, you may want to use coconut oil instead.

FTC Dis­claimer: I am not affil­i­ated with or spon­sored by any of the com­pa­nies I men­tion in this arti­cle. In the past, I have been sent free prod­ucts to try by Arcona and Skin Apotheke, and have since re-purchased every­thing on my own. Every­thing is my 100% hon­est opinion.

What is your skin rou­tine? If you’ve tried any­thing men­tioned here, how did you like it?
~Steph x

Related Posts:

• 10 Best Nat­ural Skin & Hair Care Prod­ucts of 2009
• My Skin Care Rou­tine – Novem­ber 2011
• How to Get Thicker Hair