My Evening Skincare Routine (Cruelty Free)

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I LOVE skincare. I’m crap at make up and often find it a bit of a hassle but I could lather lotions and potions all over my face (and neck, you don’t want a wrinkly spotty neck!!!) all day long. I shared my morning skincare and beauty routine a while back but I’ve been waiting to share my evening skincare routine on the blog until I got it down to a tee. I wouldn’t say I’m 100% there yet but I’ve definitely found some products I love and that work that I want to share with you. Sometimes I do all of this routine and sometimes I literally just take my make up off if that’s all I can be bothered with. But I think that’s why I love it so much, even if it’s just taking my make-up off, it ensures that there’s a little bit of me time every day!

I have oily-ish skin and used to suffer with acne throughout my teens but it’s not as bad nowadays. I still get spots during my time of the month and my skin is by no means clear. So I tend to focus on products that are aimed at people with oily skin and ‘detoxifying’ products, as that’s what I think my skin needs. But I’m not as strict nowadays and my skin can handle a little more oil than it used to be able to. Also, no I do not use a moisturiser in the evening. My morning routine is fairly focussed on hydrating so I like to allow my skincare one to deal with the oil and the spots and I just don’t feel as though using a moisturiser is helpful or necessary in dealing with that!

FYI: Everything in this skincare routine is cruelty free apart from the Garner Micellar Water, which I bought by accident thinking it was. I have still put a * next to all the products which are cruelty free just for confirmation.

I always start with a micellar water to take my make-up off, if I’m wearing it. At the moment I’m just using the Garnier Micellar Water as it’s cheap and the bottle is huge but my favourite micellar water is the Yes To Tomatoes Cleansing Water*, as it’s targeted towards breakout-prone skin. I’ll definitely be repurchasing this when the Garner runs out as not only is it effective in keeping my oily skin at bay but the applicator is just SO good.

Next, I move on to cleanser, to make sure all of my make up is off and to remove any dirt and oils that my skin has collected throughout the day. I’ve been using the Mario Badescu Enzyme Cleansing Gel* for about a year, which I like but I don’t LOVE. In the last month I’ve switched to using the Dermalogica Special Cleansing Gel*, which I think I prefer. They’re both super simple cleansers but the Dermalogica one just feels as though its doing a bit more, although the Mario Badescu smells better, so it depends what you’re after really! I’ll use one of these cleansers if I’m feeling a bit lazy or if I’m going to put a face mask on. If not, I’ve been using Lixirskin’s Electrogel Cleanser* which is a 2in1 cleanser/mask. After wetting your skin you apply it and leave it on for a couple of minutes- I leave it whilst brushing my teeth- then wash it off. It stings a little at first but I like that as it suggests it’s actually doing something and the appearance of my skin is slightly improved after taking it off. Plus, the packaging is v. cute.

This is the point in my skincare routine where I’ll use a face mask if I’m going to do so, although I only do this around once or twice a week as I’m usually too lazy. My current favourite is The Body Shop’s Himalayan Charcoal Purifying Glow Mask*. Again, it stings a little but I notice an immediate difference in my skin every time after using it- it really does help to detoxify your skin and add a little bit of glow. It’s GREAT if you have an event coming up the next day.

If I’m not using a face mask, which is the case most nights, after cleansing I’ll use a toner. Again, I’ve been using Mario Badescu’s Special Cucumber Lotion* for about a year but I’m not besotted with it. I’ve recently been trying the cult classic, Pixi Glow Tonic*, which I’ve used before and wasn’t fussed on. But that was when my acne and oily-skin levels were much worse and my skincare priorities were very different so I’m open-minded. I think I feel least secure in this part of my skincare routine but I do like using a toner so if anyone can recommend a really good one that would be great!

Finally, I use my no.1, can’t-live-without-it product which is The Ordinary’s Salicylic Acid*. This has SAVED my skin. I apply it all over my face, just with my fingers, every night, without fail. Or, if I have a spot I’ll apply it straight on to that and it’s appearance has reduced by at least 70% by the next day. If you suffer with mild acne, I can’t recommend this enough! It’s my skin saviour and I always break out even if I forget to use it for only a few days. Plus, it’s cheap as chips!

PSA: THIS IS ME APPLYING MICELLAR WATER TO MY EYES, NOT ACID. PLEASE DO NOT MISINTERPRET THIS AND TRY AND RECREATE WHAT I AM DOING. DO NOT PUT ACID IN YOUR EYES!!!

I hope you’ve enjoyed this post! I’d love to hear all about your skincare routine in the comments? Do you even have one? Some of the people with the best skin I know use nothing more than a face wipe so I’m always really interested! I put my skincare routine into place to improve my skin obviously, but what I have really loved about it is that it provides some sense of routine for me every night, at university, at home, wherever I am! In next week’s post, I’m going to be talking about the other ways I wind down in the evenings. So I’ll see you back here, same time, same place, next Sunday for that! Oh and there might be a cheeky extra birthday-themed blog post as I turn 20 mid-week too…

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My Morning Skincare and Beauty Routine (Cruelty Free)

Happy Friday! Today I'm going to be sharing with you my morning skincare and make-up routine. As I've mentioned before, I'm really crappy at make-up so I always go for something natural and simple but I thought I'd share it anyway as I feel like I'm using some products that I love at the moment. I love skincare and find it super interesting but my morning skincare routine is also pretty simple, both for time purposes and because that's what my skin seems to like. My evening skincare routine is much more complicated but I'm sure I'll do a blog post on that soon. In case you're wondering, I have oily, blemish-prone skin but it's in the best condition it's been in in a long time at the moment. Anyway here it is...

1. To start, I'll wet my face with a flannel before using the Glossier Milky Jelly Cleanser- my holy grail product. I've talked about this in detail in my blog post I wrote on the Glossier products that I own but it really is the perfect morning cleanser- so refreshing. If I'm going to be washing my hair that morning, I'll use this in the shower but if not I just wash it off with a flannel, which works fine.

2.  Next, I spray my face with the Mario Badescu rosewater. I'm really not sure if this does anything but I love the smell and the feeling of it on my skin. It's so refreshing in the morning and, because my evening skincare routine is quite de-hydrating, it's a good way to really hydrate my skin at the beginning of the day.

3. The final step of my morning skincare routine (I told you it was basic) is this moisturiser from Lush called 'Enzymion'. I've used it for years and, despite trying various other moisturisers, I always come back to it. It's formulated for oily skin which makes it perfect for me and it smells of lemons which makes it really refreshing. It moisturises the skin without making you feel like you've got a heavy moisturiser on, which I like as I hate feeling like I have anything on my face.

4. Moving on to make-up, I've just started using The Ordinary Serum foundation in the shade 1.2N and I'm loving it. It's similar to the Glossier 'Perfecting Skin Tint' but it's a quarter of the price and has much better coverage. I like my coverage to be really light because, as mentioned, I don't like feeling as though I have anything on my face, so on some days when I'm not really doing anything I do prefer the Glossier one. But overall, this is far better priced and covers up any imperfections, unlike the Glossier product. I usually just blend it in with an ELF blending brush.

5. The next step is bronzer although if I have any breakouts I'll use the ELF concealer before this. I use the Urban Decay 'Beached Bronzer' which is buildable and so easy to apply. It's not too dark or too light which means applying it is effortless and it never leaves any brown splodges on the top of my cheekbones.

6. After this I'll either go in with a highlighter or with this Charlotte Tilbury blush stick- more often than not I use this as it's much easier to apply than highlighter and makes for a more natural look. This one is in the shade 'Moon Beach' and it's a kind of coral-y shade that definitely comes with a glow once applied. Super easy to use (can you see a theme here within my routine...) and something I actually get complimented on fairly often, which is always nice! Plus, it smells really good.

7. For someone who is lazy with their make-up, I wear eyeshadow disproportionately often, pretty much every day. I've never been able to do liquid eyeliner and so eyeshadow is the something interesting and varied that I like to add to my make-up routine. My favourite palette for every day is the 'Sweet Peach' palette by Too Faced. It has a variety of different shades but I usually stick to the lighter ones, although I am partial to some glitter. My favourite and most worn shade is 'Bellini', which I'm wearing in these photos, which is a shimmery dark pink shade that I think brings out the blue in my eyes.

8. Another holy grail product for me is the Anastasia Beverly Hills 'Brow Wizz' in soft brown. For some reason that is completely unknown to me, I have random holes in my eyebrows and this brow pencil allows me to fill them in quickly and seamlessly. I also have bushy eyebrows that grow back quicker than I care to pluck them so an eyebrow brush is necessary for me everyday, even when I'm not wearing make-up. The only annoying thing about the 'Brow Wiz' is that the packaging breaks so easily (as you can see here) which means the spoolie brush that comes with it always disappears within the first week of me owning it.

9. For mascara, I *usually* use the Urban Decay 'Perversion' which is cruelty free however I didn't have it with me when I was taking these photos so I'm just using a random tester- sorry about that! I really don't have much to say about it as a mascara anyway apart from that it works and it's cruelty free and vegan, which is enough for me! I honestly don't know what makes a good mascara and usually can't tell one from another.

10. Finally, I use what is perhaps my favourite beauty product, the Glossier 'Balm Dot Com' in the shade/flavour (?) Birthday. It adds a slight shimmer and tastes incredible and is so soothing for my perennially dry lips. I don't usually wear lipstick day-to-day so I just slap a bit of this on and I'm good to go.

I hope you've enjoyed this post despite the fact that I am very apparently not that knowledgable about make-up! I do enjoy doing it and I especially enjoy doing skincare, so expect an evening skincare routine very soon where I can go a bit more into depth about my skin and what works for it. Let me know if you use any of the products I've mentioned and what your holy grail products are in the comments! Also if you are interested in any of the Glossier products I mentioned, you can click here to get 10% off your order!

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