My night time skincare routine

Ever since my skin had a freak out a couple of weeks ago, I've switched up quite a bit of my skin care products in a bid to repair my skin barrier and to maintain it so I thought I would do an updated night time skin care routine just to introduce all of the products I've been using (and loving).

(Credit: x)

I've always been an advocate of the double cleansing method, and these days I do it even if I do not wear makeup because not all sunscreens can be washed off with just a water-based cleanser. But before I get into that, when I do wear eye makeup, I reach for The Face Shop's Herb Day Lip & Eye Makeup Remover to clean off all the mascara, eyeliner and eyeshadow off my eyelids. I know you technically can use a oil cleanser to remove eye makeup but I hate when it gets into my eyes and leaves a film that's super gross and blurring so I usually opt for an eye makeup remover instead. Like all other eye makeup removers, this one requires you to shake it to mix both layers together, douse a cotton pad with this, hold it over your eyes for 5-10 seconds, then gently swipe the eye makeup away. This doesn't have a smell, doesn't sting my eyes, removes all of my eye makeup effectively and is pretty affordable so I really like using it.

How I repaired my damaged skin barrier

Recently I suffered from a really damaged skin barrier that came seemingly out of nowhere. I didn't switch up anything in my skin care or makeup routines, I haven't been travelling, I literally did nothing different than what I haven't already been doing for months before.

The first sign I had that my skin barrier was damaged was that my skin started feeling really rough, like the best way I could describe how my skin felt was that it felt like "alligator" skin and nothing I did could get my skin feeling better. Then it got progressively worse, I started noticing my skin becoming really red and hot to the touch, then it started getting really sensitive and products that worked fine for my skin previously started burning my face which really started to scare me. The only part on my face that ever gets sensitive is the area around my nose but I started getting burning sensations around my cheeks, my mouth, and even around my forehead. I also started feeling like my skin was extremely dry and tight which I rarely experience, and even then, only when I go to cold countries where the climate is a lot drier. There were some areas on my face that started peeling as well.

I started an extensive testing session with all my products and figured out what worked for my skin and what needed to take a back seat till my skin got better. What I did was to apply a small amount of the product on my skin to see if it stung, if it did, I immediately washed it off my face and started with something else. I don't know if there's a better method to this but it was the one that worked for me.

Product Empties #8

I have left my blog dead for wayyyy too long. Honestly, I don't even know if any one reads this anymore but I've got a whole paper bag full of empties that I really want to throw away but I can't until I actually do up all these empties posts so guess what's coming your way... Loads of empties hahaha. I'll do what I usually do, 10 items per post to keep it short and sweet so without further ado, shall we get started?