Night Skincare Routine

Hello!

So if you read this post you're already pretty well informed about my morning skincare routine and you may even have an idea of the type of skin I have, however I want to say here that skincare is a pretty personal thing and something that works for me may not necessarily work for you.

I have oily skin that is seriously lacking moisture - weird, I know. But when your skin is dehydrated it makes up for it by producing more oil than it actually needs, hence the oily skin. I don't have sensitive skin at all, I've never had an allergic reaction to any skincare products and so if you have sensitive skin it may be worth looking into the ingredients before you go off my recommendations. I am prone to break outs, and everytime I have one it leaves terrible scars behind that are a nightmare to get rid of. I'm only eighteen so I don't really suffer with wrinkles, although moisturiser in general is a pretty good wrinkle prevention as it plumps up the skin and stops it from drying out.

The first thing I do every night is take off my eye makeup, and my current remover of choice is Rimmel Gentle Eye Makeup Remover. I just put it on a cotton pad and hold the cotton pad to my eye for five to ten seconds and then gently sweep the product away. My advice here is always be gentle. Your eyes are incredibly sensitive and if you just scrub at your eyes with the cotton pad it's not going to remove the makeup effectively, and it can actually cause wrinkles and damage the skin around your eye.

I then use my Camomile Silky Cleansing Oil. I'm not going to go into too much detail about this because I've already written this post here, so if you're interested head on over to read more about it!

The next step is to cleanse your skin. If you're like me and you wear makeup on a daily basis this is so important. The cleansing oil I've previously mentioned is a good cleanser, however sometimes just cleansing once isn't enough to really give your pores a deep cleanse to prevent breakouts. My cleanser of choice right now is Simple Moisturising Facial Wash, although I am coming to the end of this and I have a new cleanser to try out once this one is over. I probably will eventually repurchase this because I have really enjoyed using this and it's really rare for me to actually use up a full product. I like this cleanser because it is a foaming cleanser which makes me feel like I'm actually doing something to my skin and it's 100% soap free. It contains no perfume, no colour and no unnecessary or harsh chemicals like all other Simple products. It's also incredibly cheap which is of course a bonus for a great cleanser!

Next is my Simple Soothing Facial toner swept all over my face on a clean cotton pad. I have mentioned this previously so I won't go into too much detail, but I always like to check the cotton pad to make sure there's no makeup there. If there's makeup on the cotton pad I will always go back and cleanse again, although it's very rare that this happens.

If you have sensitive skin I would skip this step, or maybe only do it every other day: exfoliating. I love facial scrubs, I feel like they make so much difference and I love the feel of them on my skin. The one I've used for over a year now is Neutrogena Visibly Clear Blackhead Eliminating Daily Scrub. This stuff made the biggest difference to my skin. I actually never notice blackheads anymore and I used to have them pretty bad around my nose and chin. This is my third bottle and it's nearly all gone and I will be repurchasing it. It's not at all abrasive, it doesn't irritate my skin at all, I really do understand why it's advertised as a daily scrub because it's not too harsh but it's still effective. It does say that it helps reduce the size of pores, but I'll admit I've never noticed a difference in the size of my pores from using this.

I then brush my teeth, boring but necessary. I plan on doing a dental health care post somewhere along the line, but right now I'm using the Crest 3D Whitening Toothpaste. I've been using it for two weeks now and I'm not noticing too much of a difference, but I'm lucky enough to have a pretty naturally white enamel anyway - I don't have a supermodel smile by any means, but they're not terribly stained or noticeably yellow. I will be trying out the Crest 3D Whitening Strips soon and hopefully they'll make a bigger difference!

The next step is moisturising, and for me that's three different products: a skin moisturiser, an eye cream, and a lip balm. My moisturiser of choice for night time for a while has been Simple Replenishing Rich Moisturiser, but I've somehow lost it. I do really love this moisturiser though, it leaves my skin feeling really smooth but it's terrible under makeup and rather thick and takes a while to sink in, so that's why I've always used it at night. It also doesn't have an SPF and that's an important quality in a daily moisturiser for me. So since I've lost that moisturiser for the last week I've been using Nivea Oil Free Moisturising Day Cream as my night time moisturiser simply because I had it hanging around waiting to be tried out and it's targeted towards oily and combination skin. I do like this, but once again, I wouldn't use it as a day cream because it's thick, takes a while to sink in and I can't imagine it would look good under makeup. It does have a scent but it's a really strange scent to explain, it doesn't bother me but it's not a smell I like either. The scent doesn't stick around on your face thought so I don't complain about it.

My eye cream of choice for night time is actually the perfect eye cream. I LOVE this stuff. Being eighteen I don't actually use an eye cream for wrinkle prevention, but I do have pretty dark circles under my eyes and so I like something that has a brightening effect to cancel that out. It's Queen Bee All Natural Eye Cream. I've never seen anyone write about this or anyone talk about this and it's such an underrated product. It's a really strange consistency, it's not a cream, it's more like a solid that you have to really warm up with your finger to get product onto it. I have done a full blog post raving about this eye cream in more detail so feel free to check that out for some more information! The next day my under eye circles are so much better, it's such an instant result and such a noticeable difference. It does say that it's good for wrinkles and can be used all over the face and so if that's what you're looking for in an eye cream this could still be great for you then!

My favourite lip balm is the Nivea Lip Butter in Vanilla and Macadamia. This stuff is so good for the price, it's a similar price to Vaseline but so much better! It's a lot thicker but doesn't leave your lips feeling disgusting, leaves your lips moisturised for hours and is a great lip balm for any time of the day. For the price you really can't go on and I would recommend this one.

Occasionally I use face masks and spot treatments, but this is my everyday routine. I will do a post next week with all my favourite 'extra' products to use when my skin needs an extra pick me up so make sure to pop back then if you're interested in hearing more about that! And I know this may seem like a lot of stuff to do every night, but this honestly only ever takes me five to ten minutes and for the results it gives me I think it's worth it.

Until next time,

Lauren x