Summertime Skin Care Regulars

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I started wearing foundation regularly about 2 years ago, and ever since then my skin has been more prone to acne. More acne yields more acne scars. Once the summertime weather made its debut, I decided to say farewell to all forms of foundation on my skin. It's the best decision I've made for my skin in a long time. 

My skin type? Oily, oily, and OILY. Since I've been taking a break from wearing foundation on my skin I have not had any breakouts, except for the occasional hormonal flare-up.

Here are a few things that have helped me reduce blemishes and minimize the size of my pores.

Skin Probs, What's New?!

I don't know how the girls with flawless skin do it, but I sure as heck need to find out.

As of late, I have started to pay better attention to the products I use to cleanse my face. If I forget to take my make-up off at night then I know my skin is bound to feel and look gross in the morning. That also leads to issues with dirt transfer onto my pillow case, and my goodness I cannot stand a dirty pillow case lol. 

I have oily skin during each season and there are so many different ways to supposedly combat excess oil secretion throughout the day. Unfortunately nothing has successfully worked for me so I will continue to carry my oil absorbing sheets with me.

Here are a few face products that are currently in rotation:

MORNING

Lush Cosmetics Dark Angels

Alba Botanica Hawaiian Facial Cleanser

Alba Botanica Hawaiian Facial Toner

Alba Botanica Hawaiian Oil Free Moisturizer 

NIGHT

Shea Moisture African Black Soap Body Wash

Shea Moisture African Black Soap Body Lotion

OCCASIONALLY 

Shea Moisture Lemongrass & Ginger Body Scrub

Bentonite Clay

Murad Oil Control Mattifier

These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things

SKIN

Bentonite Clay | Revlon Facial Sauna

I discovered bentonite clay a couple of years ago and it is such a great product for your skin as well as your hair. I was not able to fully reap the benefits of bentonite clay until I used this facial steamer. Using the steamer lets me open up my pores allowing the face mask to really get out all of the gunk! They are both very cost efficient and great items to add to your collection.

HAIR

Tangle Teezer | Coconut Oil | Argan Oil | Oyin Handmade Burnt Sugar Pomade | 

Tresemmé Naturals Conditioner | Dark & Lovely Au Naturale Soufflé | 

Shea Moisture Curl Enhancing Smoothie

The Tangle Teezer is the only brush that can truly tame these kinks, try it out for yourself!

Coconut Oil, hands down the best oil EVER! I use it on my skin, hair, and nails. Leaves great shine, makes for a great pre-poo, detangler, and moisturizer. It also promotes nail growth when rubbing it on your cuticles daily. Not to mention it smells AWESOME and everyone will notice.  

Argan Oil is a must have! It gives great shine, fights frizz, and leaves a smooth and polished finish. I usually apply it on wet twist outs after I've applied my moisturizers. 

Burnt Sugar Pomade by Oyin Handmade, which might I add is such an AWESOME brand, is not my most used product but still a favorite. Because it's a humectant I apply it to my wet ends so that they can retain a lot of moisture that they need.

Tresemmé Naturals Conditioner is cheap and effective, nuff said. 

Dark & Lovely Au Naturale Soufflé is my new favorite styler but it has it's limitations. As far as the style and hold it's A1, but this product lacks moisture for me. I cannot set my hair every night with this product but for the first couple of days it does what it's supposed to do!!

Shea Moisture Curl Enhancing Smoothie was the first product I purchased when I did my big chop almost 3 years ago. It's moisturizing and cheap. The only thing I do not like is how heavy it is. It also does not have great hold so a gel type of product is usually applied with it.

BEAUTY

Carmex | Maybelline Falsies Mascara | Milk of Magnesia | MAC Select Cover-Up Concealer | 

Maybelline Matte Eyeshadow | MAC 242 Shader Brush

These are my daily essentials!!

Carmex really needs no explanation. I've played around with Burt's Bee's and all the other cute chap sticks but I just took it back to what works. 

Maybelline's Falsies Mascara is a new favorite until I find the next one. My lashes are naturally longer so the affect of having false lashes on is super fun.

Milk of Magnesia is indeed intended to be ingested BUT the beauty gods have said otherwise. To my oily skinned beauties this stuff is truly a godsend. 

MAC Select Cover-Up Concealer is what I use to define my brows. It also helps out with my dark under eye areas as well as any other dark spots on my face. I like to use a concealer that is closer to my skin tone because I personally do not care for the all around highlighted look on my brows. 

Maybelline Matte Eyeshadow is what I use for my eyebrows. This is my most recent eyebrow experiment. I've used pencils from MAC, covergirl, Sonia Kashuk and a shadow from MAC but to no avail. I want to find a cost-efficient favorite already! For now this works!

MAC 242 Shader Brush was introduced to me by a MAC make-up artist. I use it to define my brows with the MAC select cover-up concealer.

xoxo, Cae