From an Oil Slick to a Desert!

This past winter brought on some changes with my life, outside of working and being inside for weeks at a time. Along with all of that, my skin gradually got drier and drier everyday. At first it was fine, I simply increased the amount of moisturizer I used and upped my water intake. The real game changer came when I got a rash on my face (dairy allergy did not like the 5 days in a row of macaroni pie at Christmas and then another 4 or 5 days when we made cinnamon rolls from scratch). I changed all of the products I used to get the rash to go away, it was simply a face wash, some sort of toner, and then a moisturizer with SPF. The telling time came once the rash was gone, I still wasn’t using anything with strong active ingredients, and my skin was still super dry. I mean hurts to smile, dry patches showed up on my face, dry, moisturize my face in the middle of night when I go pee, type of dry. Who knew being a product junkie and shopaholic would be helpful?

Like some other people did, I resolved some feelings of lockdown with shopping. There were packages almost daily which made me soooo happy. This included a couple from Sephora of course. Between Sephora and IPSY, I had some good products to try out and with my sudden change in skin type I am forever grateful because I had to change everything.

Toners

In terms of toners, I tried to stay away from anything with really strong, drying, active ingredients. I said goodbye to my Ole Henrikson lactic toner and swapped in a sample sized Laneige Cream Skin Toner & Moisturizer toner for night time. I really like layering toners in the morning so I tried out my Glow Recipe Watermelon Glow PHA + BHA Pore Tight Toner and then put my Fenty Fat Water on top. This way I still got a bit of an active but my skin didn’t dry out from it. I can’t remember where I saw it but they said that it’s a gentle alternative to other toners with active ingredients but still gets the job done.

Serums

Usually in my routine this is where I would use some serums with active ingredients but those unfortunately had to stop. My skin was still kind of sensitive from having a rash and then they were also drying as I was trying to figure out a balance with everything. I was using Lactic Acid, Niacinimide, and just starting to try out Mandelic Acid, all from The Ordinary. I did stop using the Niacinimide for a couple days but I found that it didn’t irritate my skin so I slowly incorporated that back into my routine. I did however up my use of any moisturizing serums I did have. I love the Buffet + Copper Peptides and not just because it’s blue :). Common sense told me to also up my use of hyaluronic acid in any form I could find it. That lead to my purchase of the Vichy Mineral 89 Hyaluronic Acid Booster serum. It does pill up and become stringy a bit after having it on my face for a while but if I’m not going anywhere I don’t really mind. It left my skin feeling super hydrated and plump. Paired with the Hyaluronic Acid I already had stocked up from The Ordinary and I was set.

Moisturizers & Oils

For moisturizers I kept with Fenty Skin. My skin didn’t mind it regardless of how much I used so with my new purchase of the night time cream I was covered for morning and night time. I did add oils to my routine, for both morning and night. For daytime I add about half a dropper of the Sunday Riley UFO Oil since my skin did prove to still be acne prone. For night time I am loving the Josie Maran Argan oil. Sometimes I swap it out for the Rose Hip Seed oil from The Ordinary or a Vitamin E oil I got in my IPSY bag before getting my Sephora package. (talk about perfect timing).

With all of these changes my skin has made such an improvement. No more dry patches, no more dullness and pain when smiling or laughing. It feels smooth and hydrated and some of my acne scars are even fading. It’s not back to oily but I think that may change as the seasons change. I don’t know what I would have done without having a lot of these products already. As much as I was telling myself to stop shopping, it actually came in handy.

To continue my exploration in keeping my skin hydrated, I’m trying a couple new products that I got through Ipsy.

I still don’t know when throughout the day I’ll think about spraying my face but I’m excited to try an oat milk moisturizer especially if I get another allergic reaction since Oat is meant to be a calming ingredient. As winter turns into spring, I’m sure my skin will change again, probably closer to what I’m used to and I’ll be able to try all the new products I’ve been saving up 🙂