My Autumn Skincare Routine

Darker mornings (ugh). Rainy weather (yay). Rapid weather changes (ugh). Turning on the heat (… ugh?). There are lots of things about Autumn (or any change in season!) that can throw your skin, and body, and sinuses, into disarray.

A prime example: I spent all day Tuesday with itchy, watery eyes. Did you know Fall allergies exist? Well, apparently they do. One allergy pill later and I felt right as rain, but wow, what a surprise.

Another example: in two weeks, we have gone from summer (80+ degrees every day) to pouring rain (literally, 7 straight days of rain, rain, rain) to colder temperatures (it didn’t get over 45 degrees until 1pm the other day). Those rapid weather changes can do a number to just about everything in your life. Plus, turning on the heat can cause your home to get drier, which in turn can effect your skin.

That’s right: we’re talking about my favorite topic of all time. Skincare!

It’s been a minute since I posted about skincare. To be fully transparent, part of why I stopped posting so much beauty content was because: 1) it wasn’t popular here on the old blog or on Instagram and 2) I kind of fell out of love with skincare for a little while. It started to feel arduous rather than fun—and nothing is worse than when a hobby because a huge pain in the ass, am I right?

However, in the past few weeks, I’ve been getting back into it, slowly but surely. I wanted to share my new, improved skincare routine that is helping me survive these rapid weather changes and the new season. Let’s jump right in.

1. Morning cleanser: ItCosmetics Confidence in a Cleanser | Evening cleanser: Murad AHA/BHA Exfoliating Cleanser

I love ItCosmetics, but I didn’t realize they had a cleanser until recently. And baby—is this a cleanser or what! It smells like lemongrass and is super moisturizing. I use it after I oil cleanse (plain jojoba oil, then wiped with a reusable wipe) and I make sure to wash my face for 60 seconds total. (If you aren’t following the 60 second rule, get on it!) It makes my skin feel so soft and ready for the day.

In the evening, I typically either use ItCosmetics again or my Murad AHA/BHA exfoliating cleanser. I received the Murad cleanser in one of my Ipsy Glam Bag Plus (es?) bags, making the entire Glam Bag Plus experience worth it. (You can read that review here.) It is exfoliating, so I don’t use it every day, but I have noticed with all these weather changes, that my skin texture has been fart noise, you know. Every 2 or 3 days, I use this in the evening. As a note of warning, you shouldn’t use this in the morning because AHA/BHA can make your skin even more sensitive to the sun!

2. Morning toner: Pixi Glow Mist | Evening Toner: Peter Thomas Roth Peptide Peel Pads

I received the Pixie Glow Mist in another Glam Bag Plus (review here). I use it in the morning because I find have a bit of extra moisture helps me apply foundation or concealer, or whatever I’m wearing that day. Plus, it just smells good and feels decadent to put on a face mist.

In the evening, I use the Peter Thomas Roth Peptide Peel Pads. (I reviewed the entire Peter Thomas Roth Peptide collection here.) I repurchased these peel pads because I liked them so much; they definitely help with my skin’s texture and my acne, plus they’ve helped reduce my redness and acne scars. A win-win. They can be quite strong, so if I notice my skin feeling sensitive, I’ll skip them for a night and just use more Glow Mist.

3. Morning Moisturizer: Purlisse Blue Lotus Daily SPF 30 | Evening Moisturizer: Sunday Riley CEO Vitamin C Cream + Purlisse Watermelon Aqua Balm

All three of these are also from Ipsy, which really seems like a shill, doesn’t it? I swear it isn’t, but why waste product?

Everyone should be wearing an SPF 30 or HIGHER, applied in the morning. Period, I won’t be discussing it any further! I like this one from Purlisse because it isn’t too heavy and doesn’t leave a white cast on me. (I want to note here: I have no idea if this would leave a white cast on darker skin. I tried searching for some reviews, but can’t find anything. If you know or have used it, please let me know and I’ll update accordingly!)

At night, I mix a small dollop of the Sunday Riley CEO Vitamin C cream (still reeling that this costs $85 a pop!) with a squeeze of the Purlisse Watermelon Aqua Balm. I love how the CEO cream makes my skin feel, but it is so heavy; the aqua balm helps cut it a little bit and not leave me feeling disgusting.

4. Products I Might Use

Dr. Lipp Original Nipple Balm: It’s actually just lip balm, but honestly, you could use it on your nipples if you’re breastfeeding (or just feel like you need it, no shame). I use this for my extremely dry lips that I get whenever the season changes, the dry spots I get under my ears in the winter (it’s eczema, I know it is, please), and anything else that might call for it (like a sore nose from a cold). It’s unscented and lovely. I actually used all of the tube I received as a sample and bought another one. I’m very cheap, so that’s a testament to how much I like it.

Hello FAB Coconut Water Cream: I love moisturizers and this one is very, very light. If my skin is feeling sensitive, but not exactly dry, I like to use this one. It’s great for when I’m breaking out and don’t want to feel even more like a grease ball. It is a little expensive, but I feel like it’s worth it. (And if you can snag a sample from Ipsy, it’s even more worth it!)

NEOGEN White Truffle Oil Serum: When my skin needs a little extra TLC, oil is where it’s at! I use this before my moisturizer and let it dry for 10 minutes. It’s technically an oil, but it absorbs like a serum, so it won’t act like a sealant. I like to use this at least once a week, just for that little extra added boost.

IBOM Lemon Verbena Clay Mask: This is one of my favorite masks at the moment. It smells amazing and, like any good clay mask, helps suck all the impurities out of your skin. Oil, acne, whatever you need to purge, this mask is ready and waiting. It does have some exfoliating elements so I don’t use this when my skin is particularly dry or sensitive, and I rinse very gently.

There you have it! My skincare routine, start to finish, morning and evening. How do you switch up your routine in the Fall?

Beauty Review: Ipsy Glam Bag Plus, July 2019

Ipsy, Ipsy, Ipsy… what am I going to do with Ipsy?

I was so excited for the Glam Bag Plus—in fact, I was so excited, I kind of threw myself into it without really thinking about it. I mainly just wanted that sparkly glamour of 5 new products every month without fretting about the sizes.

But it’s not really all it’s cracked up to be, is it? Sure, I get the thrill of trying new things without spending an arm and a leg. But at what cost? To my sanity that is.

That’s a bit of an exaggeration, but I wasn’t sure how else to start this blog post. I swear, I will write a life update soon. Just not now. I have a lot to look forward to in the next month: I’m heading on a vacation (somehow the worst AND the best timing at once) next week, then I’ll be hopefully working on some fun, exciting projects and not sitting at home watching Queer Eye and wishing Jonathan Van Ness would come and just hold me and tell me I’m pretty and it’ll be ok.

The products I got this month from Ipsy feel like a hodgepodge—and not necessarily based on anything I’ve shared with Ipsy. (More on that…) Sometimes, I get this feeling there isn’t a lot of personalization here, but more grabbing and shoving and sending. But that’s just a suspicion, I have nothing to back that up, please don’t send me an email Ipsy. (Did I mention a brand sent me an email refuting a review of mine? Yeah. That happened.)

If you’d like to try Ipsy Glam Bag, you can sign up here. Without further ado, let’s talk this month’s picks.

1. Huda Beauty 3D Highlighter Palette in Pink Sands, $45

When I finally got my Ipsy product sneak peek (it took until the day before the thing shipped), I was on the edge of my seat. Would I get one of the Huda Beauty eyeshadow palettes I’ve been lusting after? I was so hopeful I would. After all, I’ve said repeatedly for Ipsy not to send me highlighters, I have it marked on my quiz and everything.

Imagine the punch to the gut it was to see that I got the highlighter palette.

Yeah. Ipsy did that. I swear they do it on purpose.

It’s a perfectly fine highlighter palette. It’s pretty! I won’t use it, except for maybe Ibiza. I don’t wear highlight. I’m not interested in it. I’m so tired. I feels so lame to say it, but I was so genuinely crushed by this being in my Ipsy box, I almost canceled the entire thing. I’m giving them one more month and then I’m done.

2. IT Cosmetics Superhero Elastic Stretch Volumizing Mascara, $24

A few years ago, Ulta did a birthday give for the July-September birthdays (since the gifts change quarterly) that was an entire eyeshadow palette. They got an ENTIRE EYESHADOW PALETTE. When I went to get my gift in October, I thought, “Gosh, I bet we’ll get a different palette.” No! It was a mini tube of mascara. Even the associate looked embarrassed as she handed it to me; she knew they’d just been handing out 12-shadow eyeshadow palettes and here she was tossing me a tube of old mascara.

That mascara was IT Cosmetics Superhero Elastic Stretch Volumizing Mascara. I hated it then too.

3. Purlisse Watermelon Energizing Aqua Balm, $24

I’m not a total cynic. I love this product! I love a good moisturizer and this balm smells like watermelon, so I immediately love it. It is a great moisturizer for summer when you need a little moisture, but also don’t want anything heavy on your skin. Forrest keeps trying to steal it off my bathroom counter, saying, “It’s watermelon flavor!” Not really.

4. Pixi by Petra Glow Mist, $20

I love a good mist and I love Pixi products, so this was the perfect thing I needed in this box to keep me from throwing in the towel. It is essentially an oil mist with a lot of nourishing ingredients. It recommends using to set makeup, but I’m oily enough, thank you. I use it before bed to cool down and for an extra amount of moisture.

5. Feel Balanced Moisture Balancing Cream, $28

I was initially so annoyed by the highlighter palette, that I was ready to say, “a BODY lotion!? They sent me a body lotion!” I have so much body lotion, I didn’t need another… but this one is so, so nice. I gave myself a blister on my elbow a few weeks ago doing embroidery (stitched too hard, I guess) and so I’ve had a big dry patch on my elbow ever since. This fixed it up in just one use, so honestly, that’s pretty great. It’s also been helping my raggedy cuticles from washing my hands too much and too hot. All-in-all, a 10/10.

Final Thoughts

This box has a $141 total value. Whew! That’s pretty good. It’d be nice if I didn’t get two absolute dud products that I will never use in my life. On the plus side, I know I will use all of the Glow Mist, Watermelon Balm, and Balancing Cream, so that’s a plus.

Beauty Review: My April Ipsy Bag

Mercury Retrograde ended last weekend and, let me just say, it was an absolute doozy for me. It started rough (a really high tax bill) and ended rough (having to replace a major appliance in my home, a shattered windshield, buying a new set of tires and getting a flat tire 2 hours later, and tons of tiny inconveniences)... but I made it! I'm here!

So when Danny came home on April 14 with my Ipsy bag, I was beyond ecstatic. After all the money I spent, I needed something little to get me excited and make me feel better. Plus, I had been so excited about the products in my bag. 

Without further ado, let's jump into what I got, how I like everything, and the total value of this bag! 

(To read my past Ipsy bag reviews, click here.) 

1. Feel Restored Warming Clay Mask, $7.60 Value

You know I love a mask, so I was really excited to see this mask. Here's what it promises: 

This magical mask is infused with white charcoal powder which warms up upon contact with your skin to open up pores and clear out all the icky stuff that’s hiding deep down.

And you know what? It absolutely does warm up when you start to apply it! It's really soothing and lovely to put on, because it does get so warm. This little sample pack only has enough for about 2 uses; it had 20ml. The full size costs $38 and has 100ml, so 5-times the size. You'd get about 10 uses. That equals out to about $3-4 per use (or "per mask"). Is that worth it? I usually pay about $2-3 per sheet masks, so it's a little more expensive than usual. However, it's a really nice mask and my face did feel really great afterwards (if a little dry). 

2. Purlisse Coconut Oil + Coffee Sugar Scrub, $10 

I love the brand Purlisse--their Lotus Seed mask that I got in my January bag is one of my favorites--so I was excited to get this coffee scrub. I love a body exfoliator as I recently stopped using plastic loofas (to reduce the amount of shedded plastic I put into waterways). Here's what it promises: 

Coffee grounds are great exfoliators, and they’re rich in antioxidants. They also help improve circulation to firm and tone your skin.

Lovely! This scrub smells amazing, almost energizing (the coffee smell, really), and left my skin feeling so, so soft. I definitely needed to moisturize well afterwards, but it was worth it! I also found it helped remove the eczema I get on my upper arms, so there is that benefit too. 

3. NYX Soft Matte Lip Cream in Ibiza, $6.50 

Soft Matte Lip Cream is one of my favorite lip formulas. I like this shade a lot; I was worried I would receive a shade I already own (I own about 10 of them!). This is descriped as a "deep rosy-pink", but that's actually not correct. It's quite bright, not a melon or coral, but closer to a watermelon shade. 

I know some struggle with the formula of the Soft Matte Lip Creams, but I find them very long lasting. This lasted me through a trip to Target, a Starbucks, lunch, and even dinner. When I went to take an After shot for my teeth whitening later, I had stains on my lips from it! I will say, the price on these has gone up in the last few years; they were definitely closer to $4 when I bought my first tube of Stockholm. 

4. Luna by Luna Cosmetics Eyeshadow in Spiced Pumpkin, $15

I was hoping I would get this shade and, surprise, I did! Spiced Pumpkin is a lovely warm bronze shade. I was not impressed by my first Luna Cosmetics item (a baby pink lipstick way back in my October ipsy bag). However, I was ready to give this eyeshadow a shot and I'm so glad I did. 

I've come to accept that I don't look great in warm pink tones (I write as I sob over my Too Faced peach palettes), but I do look good in more orange or bronze tones. This one is absolutely lovely and looks great on its own. I've been playing with single-shadow eye looks and trying to find ways to add dimension without a ton of effort... I love this eyeshadow for that! 

5. Steve Laurant Beauty Blush in Rose All Day, $22

You know I love blushes, so I was beyond excited to receive a new one. This shade from Steve Laurant is a soft, medium-toned pink that would look good on probably every skin tone. It's really, really pretty. At first, I thought it wasn't very pigmented; I used a brush and put some on my arm. Nothing. The next morning, I started doing my make up and loaded up a brush with it and... it was so much blush! Oops! I wiped it off, redid my foundation, and tried again. 

You know how when you go out in the spring and it's a little chilly out, so you get really pink-cheeked and lovely? This is the perfect blush to replicate that look! It's really gorgeous and has the perfect finish for a daily look. 

Final Thoughts

The final total value of this ipsy bag is $61.10! That's pretty good for a bag where I love every single item. That never happens. I don't have one single dud in this bag. Amazing? Genius? The best? I'm obsessed with every item here. It's not my highest valued bag, but it's one of my favorites ever. If you'd like to try Ipsy, use my referral link here.