My Go To Beauty Routine
From a Gentle + Moderate Beauty Junkie
Did anyone here ever read Into The Gloss when it was really in its heyday? Glamorous people would take readers to their medicine cabinet- my favorite place- and let them open it- my favorite activity. They’d walk us through the products they used, the procedures they loved, and the order of glam operations that got them from their beds to a day on the town and back again. Though the website is apparently still occasionally posting, no one has knocked on my door for a cabinet tour (rude?), so I figured I’d kick things off myself. Welcome!
I don’t claim to know any of the “answers” and am always, always learning about this fun and bonus world, but here’s where things stand in my bathroom as we know it today:
First things first, in a world where my finances allowed, I would be getting regular facials throughout the year. For the time-being, I try to get at least one good annual facial, during which I pointedly grill the esthetician for all of the knowledge they have about skin and faces, specifically mine. This feels like a nice and necessary checkpoint to 1. deep clean my pores, and 2. make sure that the products I’ve been blindly buying because someone on the internet said they worked for them, work for me. Ergo, this is actually saving me money in the longrun! Don’t look for my math, I did it in my head. But truly, I’d rather set aside an annual fork-up fund to have someone be like, please stop buying random crap that’s hurting you more than it’s helping you and just do this simple routine. A good guide is worth the investment!
This year, a friend recommended Jessi at Sarah Ford in LA and she absolutely rocked my world. It takes a while to find your shepherds in a new city (esthetician, hair dresser, literal medical doctor), but now that I’ve found Jessi I’ll do whatever she says. Her advice is specific to my little combination skin that’s prone to congestion and was desperate for more moisture and exfoliation, but your expert will get specific with YOU, don’t you see! I’ve also had great experiences at Heyday for a cheaper facial and they’re always running promos. My first facial(s) there was a BOGO experience!
AM
In the morning, I’m a water-on-the-face gal. Some people like to wash with cleanser in the am but I feel good without it and Jessi agrees, so just a splash for moi! Then I go in with a Vitamin C serum (currently loving this one from Prequel), and top it off with either Prequel Redness Reform or Air Angel. The instructions on Redness Reform say you can top it off with a moisturizer, but I generally feel pretty moistured after I use it? Sue me if I’m wrong here!
Next is always always always SPF- apparently a good amount for your face is squishing out product down the length of your pointer and middle finger. For a tinted moisturizer or anything makeup-y with SPF this is simply too much color, so I stick with a tinted/regular sunscreen for SPF purposes, and then plop any bonus products on top of it. The Elta MD tinted sunscreen is a nice, glowy base on a day I don’t want to wear other makeup, or their untinted version is good under more of a full face. I’m trying to get better about reapplying throughout the day, but sunscreen every morning is a must.
MAKEUP
Ok, makeup. Always a journey!! So much of my makeup education has been me picking something unassisted, feeling like something isn’t quite right, wearing it however many weeks/months until I see my mom next, having her go, …..something’s off with your blush? and then me being like I KNOW, RIGHT?! and going into Sephora to beg someone to guide me. If they lead me astray, so help me god, the cycle begins again. But right now, for the most part, I feel like I’m in a better place.
Finding the right foundation for myself has been TREMENDOUS and very recent! Stop me if this sounds familiar, but when I saw my mom recently she was like, “Your makeup?” “I know.” “Sort of sallow?” “Right?” and we went to Sephora where I was color matched by literal surgeons. Let this be a promise that I will never try to match myself without a degree and/or online again!!
Turns out I am, and always have been, “110 Light Neutral” in the gorgeous Haus Labs medium coverage foundation. On that same trip I also got a beautiful Makeup by Mario cream blush in “Sweet Pink,” which I’ve been applying via Katie Jane Hughes’ method of dabbing some into my palm, priming the brush, and painting it on after that. Sooooo much smoother and more blended! All of her videos are so educational, I highly recommend. I set this with a bit of powder, per the Sephora gods’ recommendation, and then top it off with some powder blush because my skin gobbles makeup UP. I’ve been using Makeup by Mario powder blush in “Mellow Mauve,” and, as the shade names suggest, have been trying to stop fighting the fact that my coloring is gentle and my complexion prefers low to medium contrast makeup. Goodbye to the days of black eyeliner and red lipstick!! I didn’t wear the makeup, the makeup wore me!
I always curl my lashes with my very reliable and very old Shu Uemura eyelash curler (has anyone ever replaced the pads? should I?), since I love a big long lash. I’m working through the various mascaras I’ve somehow collected, but when it’s time to buy a new one I think I’ll go with a softer brown (my favorite drugstore brand since high school never fails). In recent years I started experimenting with wearing a pinky-berry lip liner as eye liner (perhaps not kosher, but I loved the color next to my hazel eyes more than any deep purple that was ever recommended in the obsessed-with-this-topic 2000’s!). Lip liner weirdly doesn’t stay put on eyelids for very long, but I got this soft rose eye liner from the Sephora sale recently and boy does it do the trick. A new fave!
If I’m wanting a little more polish, I’ll use a few dots of the Charlotte Tilbury Flawless Filter (probably in the lightest shade? I’m a pale petal of a girl!) as a highlighter. Again, is this kosher? Who knows. I think it’s intended to be used as a glowy base under makeup, but whatever, I like it! I got a sample size when I wanted to feel fancy for my friends’ wedding a few years ago and that tiny little bottle has lasted me so long. Smush it all everywhere until they stop you, that’s my motto.
Finding my perfect lip shades is the next frontier of my makeup journey. I’m wanting something that looks natural, but a little elevated- my lips, but better, etc etc. During the same Sephora sale I ordered the Makeup Forever lip liner in “wherever walnut,” which everyone on the internet said was the perfect liner in the perfect shade. But on me (ppg, pale petal girl, etc) it was way too brown! Color me devastated. On my subsequent trip to the store (learn the lesson, Nielsen), I found a lip liner from the Sephora line that was pretty much the exact color of my lips (“touch of rose,” if you must know), which is perfect for adding color back after I’ve done my base but isn’t tremendously long lasting. Do you have a lip combo you like?? Are you as pale as the moon and just as unfamiliar with lip liner? Let a girl know!!
PM
I’m absolutely certain I could find something like this for cheaper, but I love my Youth To The People Superfood Cleanser and have not successfully tried a dupe yet so fine I’ll finish yet another bottle! It feels like it really cleans my skin without stripping it, and doesn’t leave a filmy feeling like some of my other recent cleansers have. Jessi recommended I use this Personal Day cleansing powder for my second cleanse every other day- it has micro-exfoliants and calms the skin down and tbh on her protocol my skin has never looked better! Two or three times a week she has me use this azelaic acid, which also helps with skin texture, and which she wanted me to start using before we got into a retinol routine. Who knows! Can’t wait.
After this I dab on some eye cream (currently working through a bunch of randos/samples, but in general I love the Ole Henriksen Banana Bright Eye Cream), and top it off with my new fave moisturizer, Instant Angel. This reminds me that I need to reorder the Josh Rosebrook Active Enzyme Exfoliator- a mask with a physical exfoliant that leaves my skin feeling soooo smooth and juicy! An instant fix. I always plop a chapstick or lip treatment on before bed, but if I was picking it would always be the Laneige lip sleeping mask. So good!
And that’s pretty much my whole deal, tbh! Left a few things out so we have something to talk about at dinner (perfume dupes, preferred menstrual cup, etc), and to maintain my famous sense of mystique.
What products are you loving these days? A moon’s dyyying to know!
Love ya!
xx Olivia