Skin care is by far the most important thing when it comes to beauty. Someone once told me that makeup is who you want to be, but skin care is who you are. As of late the trend is for skin to actually look like skin…and while foundation does wonders, doesn’t it make more sense to invest the time, money, and care into your complexion? You only have one face!

Honestly, my skin care routine changes depending on the season, what’s given to me, and what my budget is…but here are the things I’ve been using over the last 3-4 months. I should note that all of these products have lasted me a minimum of 3-4 months, some even as long as a year goes by before its time to replenish!

 

 

 

 

1. La Mer The Eye Balm Intense: $165 of pure decadence. My eyes feel so smooth and moisturized with this! Tackles puffiness, lines, wrinkles, and clarity.It’s like gold (and is priced like it too!) so I only use it at night…I only have about 3 more nights left of this. Yikes!

2. Chanel Ultra Correction Lift Fluid: $150 Has SPF 15 and a great lightweight texture. Moisturizing and reparative. I use this during the day under my foundation.

3. Bobbi Brown Hydrating Eye Cream: $46 This is my daytime eye cream. The perfect level of hydration without messing with my concealer.

4. Ahava Essential Day Moisturizer: $39 Says its for normal to dry skin. I’m oily though and this feels rich to me, so I use it at night.

5.Clean and Clear Antibacterial Face Wash: $4 Gives me that squeaky clean feeling I love and kills all the nasty breakout causing yuck on my face.

6. Neutrogena Ultra Sheer Liquid Daily Sunblock: $12 Want to stave off wrinkles and pigmentation? Then be religious about using sun protection! Almost all signs of aging are due to environmental damage…remember that!!

7. Clinique All About Eyes Serum: $28 Eye puffiness is the bane of my existence. This rollerball of cool soothing depuffing goodness is my lifeline!

8. Facial Wipes: $1 I get these at the Dollar Store! They have basic ingredients and help remove my makeup so that my face wash and other skin care really gets to do its job!

9. ELF Zit Zapper: $1 Every morning and night any blemishes or pores that give me trouble get a dose of this! Salicylic acid and tea tree oil dry out and soothe the problem spots! There are a lot of more expensive blemish treatments out there, skip them! This has the same active ingredients.

10. Dermalogica Daily Microfoliant: $50 Mix this rice based powder with a little water to make a paste or add to your facewash for gentle exfoliating action! I keep mine in the shower. This product has totally changed my skin I love it!

What skin care are you crazy about right now?

Cheers to Skin that Looks Good, Feels Good, and IS GOOD!

 

 

My story with nails is a bit of a tragic one. I can still remember vividly the day that my mother, in an effort to encourage me not to grow up too fast, decided that it wasnt appropriate to have my nails painted. She told me I no longer could and that I’d have to wait until jr high to do it.  Needless to say, I was devastated! I could not understand why one day it was ok for me to paint my nails and the next it wasnt anymore…highly tragic…

on models nails: mint sorbet by sally hansen

 

So did my mom succeed in helping us not grow up to fast? I’m not sure…but what I will say is that the second I was in jr high and it was ok to paint my nails I ran to the store and spent all of my hard earned baby sitting money on nail polish…there were WAY too many shades to choose from though…pink, blue, purple, forest green (yes, that color was popular at the time!)…what is a girl to do?

So I made the most logical decision and bought as many shades as was humanly possible and changed my nail polish color just about every other day…I couldn’t get enough! I can even recall sneaking some polish into the bathroom at school to paint my nails in the stall! I mean I didnt have time to do it at home before I left…priorities people!

For those of you who have known me for any lengthy period of time know that I had my nails consistently painted black for about 7 years…as of late in an effort to change it up and not get stuck in a rut I have channeled my inner jr higher and resumed changing my nail polish color often!

 

clockwise from top left: Graphite by Chanel, my custom blend nude, Aloha by Dior, and Primrose Hill by Butter London

While I applaud my mother for encouraging me to stay young, I must say that if I become a mother and my child expresses an interest in painting their nails, I will be the first one to bust out my bottle of Chanel Vamp and paint their little paws!

 

So Cheers to jr high, recovering from childhood tragedies, and nail polish,