Here is my whole regimen. Now don't freak out on me. I don't use all these products BOTH morning & night. Some are only morning use & some are only night time use.
Skin. My skin. Goodness. I had amazing skin when I was in highschool & college. Very few breakouts. Even tone & soft texture. Small pores. It was lovely. At some point in my mid-twenties, that changed. After Josephine weaned herself at 19.5 mths, my skin went crazy! Cystic painful acne all along my jaw line & chin. Red. Swollen. Painful. Totally foreign for me. I jumped on the Proactive bandwagon & that was awful. Benzyl Peroxide fries my skin. Red, flaky, dry, peeling...So then tried Murad for like 6 months or so. No luck. Then we got pregnant with Reuben & with the extra hormones, my face cleared up! Cool. Then when Reuben was born & about when he was 5-6 weeks old, my face freaked out again. At the same time, we were dealing with some issues with Reuben as well. He was developing a rash all over his torso that I was spreading to his back. He was screaming every night after I would nurse him & lay down. This went on for a few weeks. Josh's mom suggest we take him to our chiropractor who practices applied kinesology to help pinpoint allergies. So we took him & most of the foods I was eating on a daily basis. He tested fine with everything except bread. So I stopped eating gluten the next day. And he stopped crying. His rash went away. He stopped spitting up. It was amazing! Now you are probably wondering why this is included in my skincare post.
When I went gluten free, within weeks, my face started to heal. On it's own. No additional medicine or anything. It was insane. My cystic painful acne went away & never came back. My scars were actually healing on their own. Post acne scars fading. I was shocked. Seriously shocked.
So that's cool right? I also started taking probiotics as well b/c we needed Reuben to get them through my milk since he wasn't on solids at 2 months old. That helped a LOT! I totally know that your gut health is related to your skin health! Or your skin represents your gut health. However you wanna spin it.
Over the past year, while my skin has cleared up dramatically, I was still have uneven tone & a lot of redness & rough texture. Not smooth supple skin. So I was on the search to learn about skincare a bit & ingredients. I came across this youtuber esthetician named Veronica Gorgeois. I started watching her videos & learning about skin & products you should avoid in your skin care. Most of my products included the ingredients you should avoid b/c they irritate your skin. Go figure. She had talked about Paula's Choice products in one of her videos so I decided I would look them up. I recognized the website b/c I had found some product reviews in her "Beautypedia" before. I never thought to look into her own line though for skincare. But if Veronica raved about them, they had to be good. So I emailed them & told them about my skin & what I was dealing with. They sent me a load of free samples & I got started. This was back in July I think. I started using them 2x a day & following the regimen they suggested. I am already pretty religious about washing my face anyway so it wasn't a challenge for me to have a "regimen" instead of a wash & moisturizer if I felt like this regimen was going to transform my skin. I didn't see an immediate difference in just a week of samples but definitely didn't have a bad reaction to the products so I decided to get full size products.
This was back in the summer so my regimen is different now with it being winter so I'll share my winter regimen with you!
AM Routine
Cleanser: PC Moisture Boost Cleanser. Super creamy & light cleanser! I love it!!! It's been so good to my skin for redness & removing makeup!
Toner: PC RESIST toner. It's almost like a lotiony toner. Super light & feels so lovely! It's balances out the ph of your skin after washing it with water. Super important!
AM Moisturizer + Sunscreen: PC moisture boost treatment cream & PC Super Light Daily Defense Moisturizer. My skin is super dry right now so I use the moisture boost cream b/c it's a pretty emollient moisturizer before I apply my lighter weight more matte moisturizer/sunscreen combo. The treatment cream will tackle my dry patches from this winter weather. I didn't use to use sunscreen on my face unless I was laying out. Now, I realize it's super important & it really has made a HUGE different in the appearance of my skin, even though it's winter. I know Im going to LOVE this moisturizer when I'm more combo/oily in the spring & summer.
So that is my morning routine. Super simple. I was using the BHA exfoliant in the AM but it was too drying for the winter as well as the serum.
PM Routine
Cleanser: PC Moisture Boost Cleanser. Super creamy & light cleanser! I love it!!! It's been so good to my skin for redness & removing makeup!
Toner: PC RESIST toner. It's almost like a lotiony toner. Super light & feels so lovely! It's balances out the ph of your skin after washing it with water. Super important!
BHA Exfoliant: PC 2% BHA (acne killer). This stuff is going to completely clean out your pores, keep them clean & change the way your face feels to the touch. I have been AMAZED at the transformation in the texture & feel of skin through all this!!! It can be drying so that is why I only use it at night.
Super Antioxidant Serum: PC RESIST ultra light serum. Loaded with vitamins & antioxidant. It really helps smooth my skin as well.
Moisturizer: PC moisture boost treatment cream & Tarte Maracuja Oil + YL Frankincense & YL Lavender. I put a little dollip of the PC Moisture Boost Treatment Cream all over. Then in the palm of my hand I put about 4 drops of Tarte Marcuja Oil & 1 drop of my YL Frankincense & 1 drop of my YL Lavender & massage that all over my face.
Spot Treatment for blemishes: I still get the occasional break out. I use 1 drop of YL Purification diluted with a few drops of my maracuja oil in the palm of my hand & just take my finger & dip & apply to stubborn blemishes.
I've been using the YL Frank & YL Lavender in my skincare routine for about a month or so now & I am so excited with the results. I have some stubborn post acne marks from some breakouts. The frank has faded them from a dark red/brown to a light pink. I was floored. The texture of my skin has smoothed out with this especially on my forehead. I've had tiny bumps there for a while & they are finally going away!The lavender helps with any dryness as well as healing skin from blemishes.
It may seem like a lot but honestly, it only takes me 5 mins from start to finish & I have always removed my makeup at the end of the day so why not do it with quality products that are going to be good for my skin!
It's worth it to me to have clear skin & to not be lazy with my skincare b/c I suffered with bad skin for a few years. I take extra good care of it now & it shows!
I also have a $10 off your FIRST PAULA'S CHOICE ORDER code so follow that link if you are interested in trying some of their products!
I also have a $10 off your FIRST PAULA'S CHOICE ORDER code so follow that link if you are interested in trying some of their products!
I'd love to encourage you to watch Veronica's channel! She is so knowledgeable & I have learned so much!
I would LOVE to answer any questions you have about my regimen, your regimen, product questions, ingredient questions...all that stuff!
Just shoot me an email or comment here so we can get some conversations going between readers & share stories!
