An Untimely Morning Skincare Routine Post

Amidst all the tragedy of yesterday’s school shooting, it seems a little odd to post a fluff piece like this. I’ve been reading too much twitter (a 21st century millenial statement if I’ve ever heard one) and I’m hesitant to hit “like” on tweets that sound good, or to retweet strongly worded statements because I’m reluctant, as always, to show support on social media. It’s times like this where I can see why Taylor Swift doesn’t have a political stance. But then again, she has way more influence than I do and again, is social media silence the same as complicity? I would like to think that if someone were to ask me in person how I feel about certain issues, I would be able to respond with something thoughtful. I don’t like retweeting and I don’t like blogging because I feel like it’s just a one sided conversation. Or am I just scared? Again, don’t know the answer and I feel like I’ve asked this a bajillion times to myself (and on this blog) but hey, at least I’m consistent, right?

I generally do everything in the same order – I wake up, lie in bed for a while (longer than I should, looking at my phone), then get up and use the bathroom and brush my teeth. I wash my face with my contacts off, dry off, put my contacts in, then start with toner that I let sink in and dry a little while I change. Then I add moisturizer, eye cream if I remember, and sunscreen! Which according to most beauty blogs is supposed to be very important, and I can see why, so I always use sunscreen.

I’ve been trying to use up my Ole Henriksen Face the Truth Gel Cleanser for the last few weeks – this originally was in my nighttime routine but I realized I liked using a brightening cleanser in the morning. Before that, I was using the Indie Lee brightening cleanser which at first smelled too sweet for my liking, but then grew on me because of hw light it felt. I have about 3/4 of an inch left of the Ole Henriksen one which does not seem to get any less, and I’m looking forward to going back to the Indie Lee again. I really feel like I should already be done with this stupid cleanser though and I am this close to just throwing it away. The toner I’ve been using in the morning (in the pink top bottle) is from Etude House, which is the first type of toner that was recommended to me by Sharon. Thanks Sharon for telling me I should use toner! My first foray into skincare and it has been a slippery slope of reading too many product reviews and trying new things since then. Haha. This is also something I feel like I should be done with already and I try to do the “layering” toner technique which is basically just dump toner on my hands three or four times and pat it into my skin in an attempt to use it up more quickly.

I’ve recently been using a mini size of the Tatcha Water Cream for my morning moisturizer, which I got as part of a set because I wanted to try the Tatcha oil cleanser. I’m not sure if I’m a fan of these gel type moisturizers since it doesn’t feel too moisturizing at first and it feels like I’m just smooshing this gel across my face. But when it does sink in, it does feel very light and my skin feels moisturized enough so it’s been ok so far. I recently pulled out this squalane oil from The Ordinary (which I got a while ago, so I wonder if it’s even still good) to add on top of my moisturizer during nights and mornings, so I generally add that when I want my face to ~*glow*~. (My face doesn’t glow. It just ends up looking sticky and chubby. I don’t think stickiness and chubbiness are related, but that’s what it looks like.) For sunscreen, I’m also trying to use up the Glossier Invisible Shield sunscreen. Every morning I pump the bottle and hope that none will come out, but inevitably two or three pumps will come out and I smear it on my forehead and neck. Every time I think that none will come out again, I shake it and more comes out. This is slightly sad especially because I can’t even tell how much product is left. For the rest of my face, I put on the Dr. Jart+ Tiger Grass Color Correcting Treatment, which diminishes some of the redness around my cheeks and blemishes and is sometimes good enough to cover my insecurities to allow me to go without foundation for the day.

The one thing I always forget is to use eye cream. I was looking at photos of myself with makeup and comparing my makeup done professionally to when I try and do my own makeup. I think I noticed the most difference in the colors of eyeshadow used (and how) and also the brightness under my eyes – I don’t use concealer under my eyes most of the time because I hate how it feels but it does make my face look more shadowy and weird. So I guess using eye cream is supposed to help brighten that area, but it’s just one extra step that I’m not used to adding in yet. I use the Supergoop! eye cream in the mornings because it has SPF as well (yay sunscreen).

And that’s all! It seems like a lot written all out, but it doesn’t actually take that long to smush everything onto my face in the mornings. Fingers crossed I’ll finish that stupid cleanser, toner, and sunscreen soon so I can feed my new product obsession and try new things…