Nighttime Skin Care Routine

Night Routine

 

I decided to do a night time routine post because as much as my everyday beauty routine is important, my night time aka beauty sleep time is just as important if not more. Now I have to be honest, I have been COMPLETELY guilty of not washing my face in the past. Especially during college. Too tired, too lazy, too much to drink? (only a few times…) Bad habits in college probably don’t help with my already acne-prone, oily skin. I have been much better about my nightly skin routine since college and it has paid off. I wake up feeling refreshed with glowing skin (even though I still suffer from breakouts, although these have gotten much better over the past few years). One thing I have been wanting to splurge on is a Clarisonic Cleansing Brush but haven’t done so yet. Is it worth it?! Anyway, let’s talk about my current routine.

 

1. I start off with Neutrogena Naturals Purifying Pore Scrub to clean off my face and makeup. I gently rub over my eyes and eyelashes to remove eye makeup as well and pat dry with a towel. This leaves my face feeling refreshed and clean, and also gets off a lot of my makeup. I haven’t been using a makeup remover in awhile, but sometimes I will use a little petroleum jelly to help get the extra makeup off my eyes. It works like a charm, is inexpensive and doesn’t take a lot.

 

2. Next I use an ALOCHOL-FREE toner and right now my favorite inexpensive one is Neutrogena Alcohol-Free Toner. It gives you that extra deep clean that just can’t be accomplished with face wash. I’m always surprised how much dirt sinks down in my pores during the day! P.S. I use alochol-free because my dermatologist told me too. I have sensitive skin and I think alochol-based toners are too harsh on the skin. I would recommend alochol-free to anyone. Another toner I love (but is a little more pricey) is the Arbonne RE9 Advanced Regenerating Toner.

 

3. Right now my nightly eye cream routine includes the Bremenn Upper Eyelid Lifter for my eyelids and the Cindy Crawford Meaningful Beauty Eye Cream for around my eyes and under eyes. I really love the Meaningful Beauty Eye Creme and have been using it with the Bremenn Upper Eyelid Lifter I got last year. Both seem to work well, but then again I am mid-twenties so I don’t have too much of a problem. I do have crows feet though so eye cream is VERY important to me! Do you have any recommendations for what I use next? I have also used Ole Henrikson Total Truth Eye Cream, which gave good moisture and smelt amazing. I would definitely recommend that one and the Meaningful Beauty Eye Cream.

 
4. I was so excited to be selected for Influenster’s Voxbox for Aveeno Positively Radiant Intensive Night Cream sample because I have always loved Aveeno products and it seriously has been great! First off, this cream is only $14.99. If you are an avid beauty fan like me, you probably know that most night creams don’t come cheap, which makes it very difficult to test and find out what you truly like or what is best for your skin. I depend on user reviews for this. But trust me on this one, it just takes a little bit of the cream, which smells AMAZING, and you rub it on your neck and face. A little bit goes a LONG way! This cream is supposed to “ help to reduce the appearance of discoloration, uneven tone and blotchiness, revealing healthier-looking skin,” and I would agree that so far my skin has looked healthier and helped with discoloration and uneven tone. I have only been using it a few weeks though, so I will do a FULL blog review in the next week or two.

***I received Aveeno Positively Radiant Intensive Night Cream complimentary of Influenster.  All opinions stated above ARE MY OWN.

5. I have been using Decleor Aroma Night Balm for almost a year now and I still have probably a couple months left before the container is gone. It is a little bit more pricey, but totally worth it for how long it has lasted. I absolutely LOVE this stuff. If you are looking for something to soften, brighten and really give your skin that glowing look overnight, this is it! It really helps moisturize my skin overnight, and helps heal my acne scars, which I get from time to time. If you have dry or itchy skin, I’ve read that this night balm is great for that too. Just rub a little bit in between your fingers, it almost melts in your hands like wax and then apply with light, sweeping strokes to neck and face. I still use this, even with my addition of the Aveeno Night Cream because it helps with acne scarring. I also think you can’t moisturize your face enough, even if you have oily skin like I do…especially over night!

6. Eye mask = a great night of beauty sleep! Seriously people. I had no idea that these things actually helped. I just thought you looked cute and it would help make the room a bit darker, but honestly since receiving a complimentary night mask (not the owl once pictured above… I just LOVE this one and you can find it at Etsy)  I have been sleeping better, which also means I’ve been having more crazy dreams :)

Any questions? Recommendations? Things I NEED to try?! Let me know and comment below!

How to Get Glowing Skin

How to Get Glowing Skin
I have been asked a couple times about how my skin looks so glowing, etc. so I thought I’d put together a post about some of the products I use outside of my everyday beauty routine.  I don’t have a ton of secrets, just a few things I use on a regular basis to give me a glow.

Pantene Pro-V BB Creme Product Review

Pantene Pro-V

I am completely in love with BB Creams, so when I saw an advertisement for Pantene Pro-V’s BB Creme for hair, I was immediately intrigued.  BB creams were developed to provide an all-in-one product that can do 5, 8 or 10 things at once to provide the ultimate beauty product to hide flaws.  Pantene Pro-V Ultimate BB Creme was developed with the same idea in mind, saying it provides 10 benefits:

  • Repair for Rough Hair
  • Strength against Damage
  • Silky Softness
  • Brilliant Shine
  • Smoothing
  • Moisturize
  • Frizz Control
  • Heat Protection
  • Manageability
  • Tame Fly-Aways

I am in marketing/advertising, so they are a few benefits I question just because there could be different definitions of these depending on who you talk to.  For example, I wonder what they mean exactly by repair for rough hair and manageability? When it comes to manageability for hair, I think tangle-free, whereas someone else might think it just makes it easier to style your hair. Maybe it means both? Anyway, I am just bring this up because when I buy a new product or am giving a review, I just want to make sure  it is clear that I am trying to give the best review I can based on the claims and what I find to be true.

As some of you already know, I recently colored my hair to be more blonde, which I love, but I can already feel the damage from highlighting it. That was my main reason for buying this product last week. I have been using it on a daily basis along with my color protective shampoo/conditioner and Moroccan Oil 

Pantene4

After using the Pantene Pro-V Ultimate BB Creme for almost a week, I find that a lot of what the product claims to do is true and it seems to be a great product that I will continue using and most likely buy again. My hair has been really hard to brush through after showering with the recent color transition, so after I shower, I run a couple pumps of the BB creme through my damp hair, which makes it a lot easier to brush through.  It definitely seems to help immediately moisturize and smooth my hair when I apply it.  After blow drying and straitening my hair, it has been very smooth and the frizz/fly aways have been reduced. Typically I use my John Frieda Frizz-Ease Smoothing Creme for this, but because you can apply the Pantene Pro-V BB Creme to both damp and dry hair, it seems that I no longer need the frizz ease creme and can just apply an extra pump of the BB creme to my dry hair. I would like to believe it helps with heat protection, but how would you know this for sure? I guess because my hair looks healthy even after blow drying/straightening it. It has also helped me detangle my hair before blow drying, which has really been helpful since I got my hair colored. Moroccan Oil also helps with this though, as well as giving me shiny, healthy looking hair, so some of these results may be attributed to the oil (which I love and will continue to use ALWAYS).

Pantene Pro-V Creme

Conclusion:

All in all I give this product a thumbs up. Even though it might not do everything it claims (or how I interpret some of the loose definitions/wording), it definitely has helped give me smoother, tangle-free, more manageable hair, as well as helping with frizz and fly aways. It is a nice size and has a well-made pump (you know, not one of those that is going to break on you right away). On a final note, this stuff smells AMAZING. I have been making my bf smell my hair every time I use it and he loves the way it smells too!

Ratings:

Quality – 8    Packaging – 9    Pricing – 10    Overall – 9

If nothing else, for a mere $7, your hair will smell amazing!

Pantene Pro-V Ultimate BB Creme  is available at Wal-Mart where I bought it for $6.27.

 

Linking up with Because Shanna Said So for Random Wednesday!

How I Fill in My Eyebrows

I have been getting quite a few requests for how I do my eyebrows, so I finally made a video showing my brow routine (sorry about all the extra blah blah blah in the video, I like to talk a lot haha) The key for me is just to make them look more full and I don’t really LOVE the way they turned out by the end of the video. Probably because I was kind of nervous (sounds silly since I was just doing it to a camera and not actual people at the time, right?) Anyway, my eyebrows will differ day to day just like my make up does and they aren’t always perfect, some days are better than others. But the more I do this routine, the better they turn out! Regardless, I hope this helps or answers your questions.

If you have any questions, please let me know, otherwise I hope you enjoy! Hope you are having a great weekend!

New Hair

Hair Colors

I have been wanting a change for awhile, not because I don’t like my hair dark, but it has been a shade of brown for over 4 years now. I used to be completely blonde (the first time I dyed my hair EVER) and while I didn’t want to go to that extreme, I wanted something a bit more golden. So after a lot of foil (A LOT) I am one step closer to the hair color I hope to have. I think one day when I settle on a hair color, it will be dark brown/black (for some reason I’m always drawn back to this color).

[Read more...]

New Makeup Favorites

New Make Up Favorites
Aside from my regular beauty routine… I am always finding and trying new things, so I just wanted to share a few of my favorites today (which are all drug store, hooray!) The concealer stick is NOW a part of my regular routine and I cannot believe I’ve gone without one for so long.

Valentine’s Day Nails

Valentine's Day Nails

I decided to deck out my nails out for Valentine’s Day by alternating a hot red and pink polish and doing something different with the thumb nail. I love a glitter polish layer over a white nail and was inspired by a lot of the Valentine’s Day candies out there (okay so the pink, red and white M&Ms, so cute and so yummy). Are you making your nails festive for Valentine’s Day?

Nails Full Set

[Read more...]

Daily Beauty Routine

Beauty Routine

 

It has been a LONG time since I’ve done a beauty routine post, so I decided to do an update since some of my products have changed. I have to be honest about something, as much as I love a good deal on clothing, I am much more willing to splurge on beauty products. I justify my spending on beauty products based on the fact that they are in use every day! I have had trouble skin for over 7 years now, and although I’ve come close to a perfect routine that keeps my skin fairly clear, I’ve never had naturally flawless skin. I break out easily from stress, and if I’m not breaking out, I usually have discoloration and my skin type is very oily. Finding the right products for my skin has always been a problem, but I’m always willing to try new things. Here is my current routine:

[Read more...]

Christmas Manicure

When it comes to manicures, I try to keep it simple and I love the idea of having one nail a different color or shade on each hand, so for the holidays I went for a rich burgundy shimmer color along with a gold glitter color on my pointer fingers.  What do you think? Will you be adding some glam to your nails for the holidays?

L.A. Girl Flare in “Garnet” (Available here) :: Sinful Colors in “All About You” (Available here) :: Sally Hansen Mega Shine Top Coat (Available here)

Holiday Manicure Ideas

Nail Polish
There honestly could not be a better time for such a beautiful collection of nail polish to be available! I am IN LOVE with the OPI Skyfall collection and think the above colors would look so chic together. Have you tried any of the OPI Skyfall colors yet?
OPI GoldenEye available here
OPI Die Another Day available here
OPI Tomorrow Never Dies available here
OPI The Living Daylights available here