My Winter Skincare Routine

Hey all! Today I'm sharing my winter skincare routine with you. I'm always interested to know products people use on a daily basis to keep their skin healthy and radiant so in case you were curious about what I'm using, I decided that I would make a blog post about it!

During the winter time, it gets very cold here in Quebec City (It can get as cold as -30 degrees celsius or -22 degrees fahrenheit) which means that my face, lips and body become quite dry. Also, the fact we have the heat on constantly in the house makes my skin even more dry.  Because of that, I need heavier products to help me keep my skin and lips from chapping, which is why I have a different skin care routine during the winter.

• For my body, I like to use the Coconut Body Butter from The Body Shop during the winter months. It's very thick and hydrating which means it's perfect to keep my skin in good shape throughout the colder weather. I use this whenever I feel like my skin needs it.
• I also like to use Massage Bars by Lush at the end of some of my showers. Hot water can dehydrate the skin so by applying this oily product to the skin at the end of my shower, it forms a layer of protection on the skin which keep the moisture from the skin from evaporating once you get out of the shower. I like to use this at night because it does leave the skin with an oily residue.
• Last, I use the Glysomed Hand Cream several times a day. It's my absolute favorite hand cream because it leaves my hands very silky, but not oily. My hands are so soft and nourished after this, I've never seen anything like it.

My face is the most prone to getting dry during the winter. I get dry patches on my nose and forehead (the flaky noticeable kind, yuck) and my under eyes get very dry. Because of this, I use much heavier moisturisers during the day and night time.

• For the day, I like to use the Avène Eau Thermale Tolérance Extrême Cream. It's quite thick and it definitely gives much needed hydration to the skin. It's also great for my sensitive skin which has a tendency to be more prone to eczema during the winter time. This moisturizer is specifically designed with eczema prone skin in mind which makes it a perfect choice for me.
• For the night, I use the Garnier Ultra-Lift Firming Night Cream. It's a nice thick cream which feels great on the skin. It does have a scent to it, which I'm not too fond of since my skin tends to be extra sensitive during the winter, but I'm almost done with this jar so I'll try something new next time.
• Eye cream is critical for me during the winter months because I sometimes get eczema around the eyes and dry patches on my lids. I like this Olay Eye Cream to help soften my eye area. It's a gel formula so it's not too oily for the delicate eye area.
• As far as my cleansing routine is concerned, it's the same year round. I do tend to exfoliate more often during the winter time because dry skin tends to make my skin look dull. I exfoliate about 2 to 3 times a week during the winter, while I may do it maybe only once a week during the summer. I've been using the St-Yves Apricot Scrub for years now and I like it.
• Last, I like to use the L'Oréal Go 360 Clean Facial Cleanser to wash my face at night. I like the scrub that it comes with and it feels fresh on the skin. I think it's a great cleanser for year round.

 Next, for my lips, I do pretty much the same thing year round because I get super chapped lips no matter how much water I drink and how often I apply lip balm. It's always been that way (and that's probably why I have an almost unhealthy obsession with lip balm, ahaha).

• In the morning and at night, before applying lip balm, I exfoliate my lips using the Popcorn Lip Scrub by Lush. It gets rid of any dead skin and helps smooth my chapped lips before I apply any lip product. It's definitely been my holy grail ever since I got it this past summer.
• Next, if it's morning, I will apply a light balm such as Maybelline Babylips or Softlips or something like that.
• At night, I prefer something heavier such as Blistex Lip Medex, Nivea Lip Butter or Vaseline Lip therapy.

Lastly, I thought I would mention the products that I use for makeup removal, which is, in my opinion, also a crucial step in any skin care routine. Efficient makeup removal is super important if you want healthy and clear skin.

• First, I remove my eye makeup using Equate Eye Makeup Remover. It's somewhat similar to the Neutrogena Oil Free Makeup remover, but I don't like it as much. The reason I use this one anyway is because I wanted to try it and now I have a full bottle of it which I'm trying to use up. Anyway, it does work to remove my makeup ok, so it does the job for now.
• Next I Remove the bulk of my face makeup using Equate Facial Cleansing Towelettes which I'm a very big fan of.
• Last, to make sure that all my makeup is removed and that there isn't any oily residue on my skin from the makeup remover, I use Bioderma on a cotton pad all over my face. This is a no-rinse face makeup remover that is very gentle on the skin. It sort of feels like putting water on your face, but you can see it remove all the rest of the makeup that all the other products couldn't get. If I'm going to wash my face soon, I may skip this step, but if I go let's say, a few hours before washing my face, I will always use Bioderma to end up my makeup removal routine.

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That's all I do to my skin on an everyday basis during the winter time to help keep it clear and healthy looking! I hope you find this helpful or interesting. :)

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Fall Series : What I Eat in a Day

Hello everyone! For some reason, I'm always super interested in knowing what other people eat on an everyday basis. I often read Anna Saccone's What I ate Wednesday and I always thought that it was a fun concept so today I decided to share what I typically eat in a day during the fall months!

Breakfast

I usually have breakfast around 7 am when I have school. I always like a cup or two of coffee with my berry smoothie to help me start off my day. If you're interested in knowing how I make my everyday berry smoothie check out my recipe here.

Lunch

 Next, this is the kind of lunch I will be having if I'm coming back home from school. I could show you lunches that I bring at school if any of you is interested as well. This is a grilled cheese sandwich on whole wheat bread with tomato based veggie soup, perfect for cool fall days!

Dinner

 My last meal of the day varies according to my mood. Today, I felt like cooking so I made a salad with tuna on a 9 grain wrap. In case you're curious, my usual salad contains lettuce, a bit of sharp cheddar cheese, a quarter of an avocado, marinated roasted red peppers, sugar snap peas and cucumbers. It's my favorite!

Snacks

To make my life easier, I took a picture of all the snacks I had today instead of snapping a picture every time. I like to have a variety of things for snacks, but I'm big on fruits a lot of the time. Today I had a strawberry-chocolate yogurt with granola, one mandarin, a cup of peach applesauce and a red plum. I also had 2,5 liters of water (5 bottles of water during the day) and a few cups of ginseng Oolong tea.

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That's all I eat on a typical day! Obviously my meals do vary so if you're interested for me to do this more often, let me know!

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My Everyday Foundation Routine

Hey all! Today I decided to share with you all the products that I use on a regular basis to make my skin look nice and to hide any imperfections! I've mentioned this before, but I don't wear makeup every single day. So this foundation routine is essentially what I'll do if I decide to wear makeup (and the foundation routine I use to prep my skin for any blog posts on here!). So in case you were wondering what's on my skin, well here it is!

My skin

First, I'll talk a little about my skin, so that you can determine if the products I'm using would suit your skin in case you want to try any of these products. My skin is usually normal to dry and I don't get oily very often. (although this spring and summer my skin has been uncharacteristically oily) The main issues I have with my skin is redness in the cheeks (I have rosacea) which I need to cover and some acne here and there. My under eye area also tend to be dry and I get flaky skin on my nose and forehead on occasion. With that said here is how I proceed to concealer and brighten my complexion :

Base

First, I apply moisturizer. Lately I've been liking the Moisture hydrating lotion by Neutrogena because it has SPF 30. I like using the Real Techniques buffing brush or Expert Face Brush to apply this. In the winter, I use a heavier moisturizer because my skin gets drier. After moisturizing, I spray my face with the Urban Decay All Nighter Spray. This is a new step to my routine and I haven't determined how useful it is yet, but for now, I'm testing it out.

Foundation

Next, I apply my foundation using the same brush.  (I also often use my hands for this) Lately, my favorite is the Rimmel Wake me Up Foundation. I love how silky it is on the skin and it think the coverage is great. It leaves a nice dewy finish, which I prefer since I tend to have dry skin. I'm not big on matte finishes on myself since it tends to bring forward the dry patches on my skin which isn't very flattering. Personally, I like doing my foundation first for a couple reasons. First, many of my problem areas are usually well concealed with just foundation which eliminates the need to cake on more product by adding concealer. Second, I hate fixing fallout from my eye shadow once I have foundation on. I prefer wiping everything clean and then applying my face products. Lastly, I haven't found a concealer that I like a lot for my under eye yet so I like to apply a slippery foundation on first so that the concealer has a base so set on and it doesn't get into the fine lines around my eyes as much. Phew, that was a lot of information wasn't it? I guess I have loads to say about foundation :P

Concealing

Next, I conceal anything that is still showing through with either Maybelline Mineral Power concealer and/or Maybelline Dream Lumi Highlighting concealer. I like to apply the lumi in a triangle shape underneath my eyes from time to time if I'm going for a bright highlighted look. I like  to pat on my concealer to blend it out. I also sometimes use the deluxe crease brush from Real Techniques to blend, especially if I went heavy underneath the eyes and I don't want to ruin my blending job by patting with my fingers over it.

Powders

 Last, I powder the middle of the skin using the Stay Matte Powder by Rimmel and with a blush brush by Eco Tools. I only do it in the center of my face to conserve the dewyness of the foundation. After that, I also apply blush with the same brush. I don't really have an everyday blush, but I do really like this one by Rimmel called Pink Sugar. Next I highlight the top of my cheekbones with the Stila Highlighting duo in Kitten using the contour brush by Real Techniques. After all is applied, I spray my face again with the Urban Decay Spray to help it stay on longer and to attenuate the look of powder on my skin, which I am not a fan of.

The results

Clearly, I also have eye makeup on here, but let's focus on the skin :P I also want to mention that my lights are very hot, which make my skin look a little more shiny than it really is in real life.

That's all I do! I hope you enjoyed this post! Let me know in the comments what your favorite face products are! I'm love trying out new ones! I really want to try a few new foundations and concealers. Let me know if you have any recommendations.

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