My Morning Self Care Routine

With so much more time on our hands these days, I find myself trying to take care of my skin better. I have so many lotions and potions sitting around at home, what better time to do try new ones and rediscover old ones than now when we're all stuck at home?

Let me walk you through a typical morning routine for me right now.

Cleansing

The first thing I do every morning is to cleanse. I know there's a whole debate on whether using a cleanser in the morning is the "right" thing to do or not. Honestly, I just do whatever I feel my skin needs the following day.

Some times when I use a heavier sleeping pack of moisturiser at night, I wake up with a film on my skin and I don't like leaving it there so that's when I reach for my cleanser to wash that layer away. 

The cleanser I'm currently using right now is Huxley's Cleansing Gel; Be Clean, Be Moist (what a name haha). I like how it's very lightweight, removes any sebum or layer left on my skin overnight, and doesn't strip my skin, leaving it overly dry afterwards. That being said, I don't think it's holy grail material - I like it but I don't love it. Also, I really don't like how strong the scent is. Don't get me wrong, it is a nice scent typical of all Huxley's products but I just don't like how overpowering it is.

What to do when you're stuck at home

Since Singapore is implementing a "circuit breaker" as our PM puts it, I thought I would come up with a list of things you can do if you're stuck at home with no where to go. These are things that I've already done myself ever since I quit my job last year (taking #funemployment way too seriously for way too long haha).

1. Start a blog 

(Or start updating yours if you already have one). I've had this blog for many years. If I scroll back to when I posted my very first post, that was in 2007, which makes this blog at least 13 years ago, say what?

This blog has gone through many phases, from being a "Dear Diary" place, to a travelogue, to a skin care and makeup space. Right now, I think I'm just going to use it to post up whatever I want, even if it isn't necessarily about beauty, although do stay tune, I'm very sure beauty posts will come back!

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.

Review | COSRX Oil-Free Ultra-Moisturising Lotion (with Birch Sap)

I have tried quite a few of COSRX's products and many people swear by them saying that they can do no wrong. I however, am not a fan of all of their products. Many of them were okaaay on my skin and didn't deliver amazing results. Products like the Centella Blemish Cream which has a cult following, I really didn't like how it sat on my skin. It also hasn't done much for me but that is another story for another day.

Today, I want to talk about what I did like from COSRX and it is their Oil-Free Ultra-Moisturising Lotion (with Birch Sap). What a long name.