A Bit (Okay A Lot) About Skincare

In the interest of covering the basics, I figured I'd give a little overview of my daily skincare routine.

Here, in my unfortunately overexposed style, are my long-running skincare favorites

Now for some background:
There is no way to quantify exactly how pale and sensitive my skin is.  Most new skincare products I try end up either breaking me out or giving me a very uncomfortable burning sensation, which as you can imagine makes it pretty difficult to find products that work for me.  But through a lot of painful trial and error, I've managed to find a pretty basic range of products that I absolutely love.  As far as skin-type goes, as many Canadians can probably relate to, my skin is often quite dehydrated.  However despite this, I also get to enjoy a bit of an oily t--zone, landing me smack dab in the middle of "combination skin" land.  How fun.

Cleanse/Exfoliate

Josie Maran Argan Cleansing Oil (L), Boscia Smoothing Facial Scrub (R)

At the risk of jinxing my moody skin, I think I've found my Holy Grail cleanser in Josie Maran's Cleansing Oil. Usually, when I use cleansers of all sorts, my skin get dry and irritated and honestly it's just not worth it.  That's where this baby comes in: this is easily the most moisturizing cleanser I've ever come across, it definitely doesn't feel like it's stripping my skin of anything I'm going to miss. I do only use this cleanser at night, in the morning I just use good ol' water. As an added bonus, because it's oil-based, it is amazing at removing makeup. Win-win!

Boscia's Smoothing Facial Polish is an interesting one. It's definitely not an exfoliating scrub that is going to really get that deep-down clean but I think anything that does would cause my skin to...I don't even want to think about it.  But if you're looking for a nice gentle scrub that is going to leave your skin feeling smooth and fresh, I'd give this one a go.

Moisturize/Protect

(Top L-R)

Kiehl's Creamy Eye Treatment with Avocado, Chanel UV Essentiel SPF 50/Pa+++

Elizabeth Arden Visible Difference Skin Balancing Lotion- Combination

Avene Thermal Spring Water for Sensitive Skin

I was debating not including Kiehl's Creamy Eye Treatment, as I sort of use it on and off.  In the winter months, I really enjoy using it, but in the summer I find I don't need that much moisture.  Seeing as the extremely delicate skin around the eyes is probably the most ridiculously sensitive part of most people's faces, I was quite impressed with how soothing I find this product to be.  I put it on at night and rarely do I wake up with my eyes feeling puffy or swollen (excluding the whole allergy-season issue but lets not go into that).

Now I have quite the epic travel tale regarding my search for a sunscreen that my face would tolerate, but seeing as I don't think anyone is as fascinated with my detailed and frantic search for the perfect sunscreen, I'll forgo that little story for now. One point I will mention is that I happen to be allergic to the sun.  Sadly that is a real thing, I tend to have a very painful, yucky reaction when my skin is exposed to the sun, but certain sunscreens really really help.  Like a lot. This is one of them.  Though this product costs much more than I would ever feel comfortable paying for a sunscreen (about 43 euros), I begrudgingly admit that to me, it's worth every penny.  It is so light, and absorbs so quickly, it feels almost like a velvet-y powder on your skin after a few minutes.  I really can't rave about this enough given how happy I was to find it at the time, but I think I'll end the flow of praise here.

Now this is my the newest addition to my little skincare collection but it's made itself right at home.  Elizabeth Arden's Skin Balancing Lotion for combination skin is an extremely light moisturizing gel that absorbs quickly into the skin and leaves me feeling hydrated but not greasy.  It smells very fresh, and I was advised by the lady at the counter to avoid the one with SPF as the ingredients might be more irritating.  Fine by me as I wear a separate sunscreen anyway. I use this in the morning and like the Chanel sunscreen, it makes a lovely makeup base.  

Avene's Thermal Spring Water is one of those products that most people would probably think could be forgone, but it's such a part of my routine that I just couldn't.  I liberally spray this bad boy all over my face right after cleaning both in the morning and the evening, and it just gives me that little bit of refreshment and hydration that I love.  Confession time: I don't actually use a moisturizer of any sort at night.  I know, bad Canadian, bad! But with the combination of the cleansing oil and the thermal water, I feel like anything more would just be too heavy on my skin (I warned you I am crazy-sensitive).  Now I don't know that Avene is the be-all, end-all when it comes to thermal water in a spray can, but I'm sure there really can't be that much variation, and to be honest I have a few mini cans of this lying around as gifts with purchase so no harm there.

I'm sorry, I had to.  This is my T-Rex Face Cloth

I feel this lovely picture is a bit self-explanatory but I go through face cloths like crazy and I thought I'd share my personal favorite. I need to cling onto my childhood somehow.

Note: In the top picture is Clindoxyl gel, which I use as a spot treatment for the occasional blemish.  I got it from my dermatologist and I find it works quite well.

I feel like I've just written a novel, but I hope at least a couple things here have been helpful, especially if any of you have to deal with hypersensitive skin.  In the future I probably won't post about this many products at a time as I realize this was probably quite a slog to get through for anyone reading.  And now I'm just making it worse. 

Thanks for reading

Kendall x

I Was Bad Today...A Few Impulse Buys

So I happened to be at the mall today (for a very legitimate, non-makeup-related reason) and I just happened to have a $20 coupon to Sephora burning a hole in my pocket.  I managed to only come out with three items and despite being "Impulse Buys", I'd been wanting most of them for quite a while.

Chloe Eau De Parfum Rollerball

I had been looking for a new rollerball to carry in my purse for a while now and to be honest I was just attracted by the simple, understated packaging. However, once I actually tried this baby I was hooked.  Now I'm absolutely crap at describing scents but this one seems very fresh and floral to me, which I love, especially as it's not sickly sweet.

NARS Blush/Bronzer Duo in Orgasm/Laguna

Orgasm and Laguna are probably the most well-known products from the blush/bronzer range at Nars and I do see why; Orgasm (left) is a beautiful peachy pink with a good deal of shimmer and nice colour payoff- not to the point where you have to be uncomfortably light-handed though.  Laguna (right) is probably already my favorite bronzer. I have a big problem with bronzers being too orange, but this one is a perfect light cocoa brown that gives a beautiful tan glow and I even think it will be quite handy for contouring.  Swatches to come. 

Tarte Picture Perfect Curler (and lights, camera lashes! 4 in 1 mascara)

This was definitely the most impulse-y of all- those darn bins that line the Sephora checkout line! I'm not usually one for fancy makeup tools unless I'm really positive they're going to make a difference..but this one has a purple handle! All jokes aside, my old Revlon one had served me wall and is currently looking a bit grubby to say the least and I figured I may as well invest in one that would last.  It also came with a sample of mascara and I'll probably give that one a go.  Though to be honest I'm pretty pleased with the current mascara cocktail I've got going.

So that's all the (makeup-related) damage I've done today.  I have to apologize for for outright shitty photo quality, I'm still working on things such as lighting and having a halfway decent camera but I promise I'll get myself sorted soon!

Kendall x

A Quick Hello

In my obligatory introductory post, I figure I'd better get a few of the basics out of the way:
I'm a University student in Canada without a big 'passion' but a ton of things I'm pretty fascinated with.
Once I get a little bit of motivation (or whenever I get too frustrated with schoolwork or life in general), posts you can expect will likely include a few (sometimes awfully sad) attempts at crafting, a lot of things that will expose my distressing makeup hoarding tendencies, and generally just things I find enjoyable.
I hope you enjoy reading (if anybody does ever end up reading this), I'll try to be a good little blogger
Kendall x