I wish my cabinet looked this well-organized and -stocked.
I am naturally pasty, not helped one bit by living in the pacific northwest, which runs wet and rainy most of the year.
This last winter, however, I turned into a skin care disaster not once, but twice. We had a pretty cold, dry and snowy winter here (snowiest since god knows when). I thought I'd help my dried out complexion by doing weekly facials.
In the past, I've stuck with just a few steps, using mainly Skoah products. My typical routine goes:
- Cleanse with whatever cleanser I have at the sink. This winter I've been loving Kream Kleanser.
- AHA Mask
- Biore Pore Strips (don't judge! It's grossly satisfying!)
- Back to Skoah Kalm Down Mask.
- Moisture Induce Mask
Note: If you're interested in Skoah, they have detailed listing of their ingredients on the site.
My uber puffy reactive reddened face was caused by my overzealous application of samples that I got from Kielh's. Not once. Na uh. Because I'm such a genius, I did it to myself TWICE.
1st time this occurred was in December. After the Moisture Induce Mask, which, normally I'd just leave on as an overnight moisturizer, I kept going with:
So, I'm not new to Kielh's. I have throughly loved their Creme de Corps products, to name but one. And based on the online reviews, their products are of good quality and somewhat effective.
Problem was, with my overly enthusiastic near-dozen step facial, I must have combined a bunch of ingredients that my skin just did not take to. At all.
The next morning when I woke up, my face was so puffy that my eyes were almost shut. I had to take an anti-allergy pill, patted my face down with ice water, and scrounge around my cabinet for something (something, anything!!) calming to pat on, and head to work.
So, the 2nd time happened about a month and a half later, when I repeated the whole shebang, and got the same result. *So maybe my inner scientist wanted to test if it's the products I was reacting to, vs. my thinking at the time that it was the super dry and cold winter air?? Duh.
In any case, I had to march over to the drugstore, and managed to find products that were not going to irritate my skin any further.
Thank goodness for Shoppers Drug Mart (check out their online cosmetics boutique). Not at all glam like Sephora, but pretty fancy for a neighbourhood drugstore. SDM carries a number of French pharmacy lines, and OMG, was I ever grateful.
What ended up working, for the last month or 2, to 1) calm the initial irritation 2) repair the skin, especially around the eyes and 3) cause no further exacerbation is this regime:
- Bioderma Sensibio H2O Micellar Water
- La Roche Posay Toleriane Ultra Eye Contour
- La Roche Posay Toleriane Ultra
- Bioderma Sensibio Light Soothing Cream
If you haven't tried micellar water yet, it's awesome. Takes all sorts of make up off, and for those of us who don't, it's still a super gentle cleanser you just apply with cotton pads.
The La Roche Posay products are so worth the $$. They come in this neat packaging that prevents air from getting into the containers. Both the eye and face products are light, almost serum light. I can feel both products soothing my heated, sensitive skin. Pretty damn amazing.
The Bioderma cream is my last step. Seals the whole thing in. Skin feels light and cool. Makes a great base for primer and make up.
I'll do a post later on, to review some other SDM finds. I've gone back once a week for the last few weeks to snag one or 2 items when they go on sale, all reactive-calming products.
Thanks for reading. Feel free to leave your skin care disasters or tips in the comment section.
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