My Everyday Skin Care Routine Part 1

My everyday skin care routine!

3 years before, skin care routine wasn't a part of my everyday life. I don't really care whether it is necessary or not to put moisturizer on my face. Not until it came to the point that my face became very dry, as if cracking up my face into two.

Anyway! Here's my everyday skin care routine.

First off, I wash my face with a papaya soap. I have a oily / combination skin and papaya soap helps me to lessen the oil on my face a lot. Likas Papaya was supposed to be my first choice ever since college days but then, it became popular and very pricey. One day, my mom bought a pack of these Silka Papaya Soaps and fortunately, it works! It's much more cheaper than the Likas Papaya and I love the smell! Whenever I get a chance to go to the Philippines, I would buy tons to stock up these soaps at home because it is very expensive here in Hong Kong.

After washing my face, I use a toner to make sure that my face is extra-clean. I use the square make-up cotton pads from Muji. Why? Because I tried using a lot of cheaper ones and I really don't like them. They don't really absorb much liquid, nor take off the dirt from my face. I find this cotton pad from Muji as the most effective one for my preference.

I tone my face with an Estee Lauder Perfectly Clean Fresh Balancing Lotion. I don't really like the water-based toners and I am in love the after effect of this balancing lotion. It has a minty-like after effect after massaging your face with this toner. Also, it doesn't give me any break-outs and prevents my face from being oily.

Next off, I put on a moisturizer. At the moment, I use the Clinique Moisture Surge but I haven't really find my holy grail moisturizer. It is either too oily or too dry for my skin. I am still in the search and I will update my skin care routine as soon as I find my holy grail moisturizer!

Since the tags won’t allow me to put more, please don’t forget to look at the Part 2 of my Skin Care Routine. Thank you for reading!

My Skin Care Routine

I just want to share to you my skin care routine (as of now...). Not all of the products that are going to be shown are my "Holy Grail" product since I haven't found some of them yet. Anyway, here it goes.

1. Cleanse

The first stage of my skin care routine is cleansing. In the morning, I use Likas Papaya Soap which was bought in the Philippines to rinse whatever I put on the night before.

In the evening, after having a day out, whether from work, a date or a mommy-day-out with Lulu, I use wet wipes first before washing my face. Why? Well, it's simple. To take off those lazy, lazy make-ups that I put on for the day that cannot be taken out with just one rinsing.

Why I use Likas Papaya? Well, I have an oily-combination skin. Papaya Soaps are rumoured as "skin-whitening" but in fact, it makes your skin dry. I'm using Likas Papaya Soap for years now, in fact ever since my college days, I'm already using it. I noticed that whenever I switch to other cleansing soap, I get break-outs. Likas Papaya Soap does dry my skin without making it very dry, making it healthier than using just a normal soap nor another cleanser.

2. Prep

To prepare my skin from the moisturizers that I need to put into my face, I use a facial toner to keep my pores open before moisturizing. I haven't found my holy grail facial toner, but my favorite from the bunch that I've used is the Estee Lauder Perfectly Clean Toning Lotion. I love this because it has this good and refreshing smell, plus the after effect of this toning lotion on my face once it is rubbed onto my face is very good. It has this minty-good smell effect on my face after toning.

It's ok, but I'm looking for a toner that has a whitening formula since I need to even out my scars that I've developed last year.

*** I use toning lotion the same with day and night. ***

3. Repair

I haven't found nor tried out any good serum for the repair part of my skin care routine so, I'll give this a pass for now.

4. Moisturize

I love using Sana Uroitaishi, The Moisture Ambassador! Moisturizer for the moisturizing part. It is in gel form which makes it non-sticky and easy to dry. It didn't give any bad reaction when I tried it, which is a good thing. It has this funny smell, a little smell of alcohol, but it doesn't really bother me. I use it only for the face area, but not on the eye area. Same usage with night and day.

5. Moisturize ( Eye Area )

I have two steps when it comes to my eye area. As you know, I have dark eye circles, which is one of my big problems as of now. As a solution to this problem, I use Laneige Eye Designer Cream as my first step, same for morning and evening, after toning. I let it dry first, and then after that, I put on Benefit's EyeCon. I love its vanilla-like smell, and the fact that it's very moisturizing. I don't experience those "very dry eye area" days anymore, ever since I started using this. I can say that this is my Holy Grail eye care product. Only that, I hope I could find an eye cream that is all in one, instead of using 2 creams in one.

Whenever I use these two creams together, the results are gorgeous. It whitens my dark eye circles, moisturizes my eye area and prevent it from getting dry.

6. Extras

a. Clinique - Rescue Balm

As of the moment, I use an after-sun treatment whenever I go out and get exposed from the sun. I use Clinique's Sun Balm. It's not really that helpful, since the sun here in Hong Kong is not that hot compare to Philippines. Also, it's not that necessary, because you don't usually get "sun burn" with staying under the sun just for a few minutes.

Anyway, this was a really big help when we went to the beach without sunblock and my daughter stayed under the sun for hours. When we got home, she was all red because of sunburns and I put this on her. Magically, the following morning, there are no peelings and sunburns! Magic!

b. Laneige - Water Sleeping Pack Ex

I use this as a mask replacement since I really don't like using mask. I use this as an overnight leave on to keep my face hydrated. It really works, and I noticed that after using it, my face does feel very much hydrated the following morning. I use this twice a week, as recommended by the Sales Assistant from Laneige.

c. Scrub - Clinique - Exfoliating Scrub

I use this scrub from Clinique twice a week only, to take off those hard-to-remove dirt on my face.

Shu Uemura - High Performance Skin Purifier Cleansing Oil

I've been using this face wash for a week now. My friend who came here for a vacation from Singapore was the one who gave me this face wash from Shu Uemura. In fact, this is my first Shu Uemura stuff. I'm not really "awed" with Shu Uemura because I find Shu Uemura's packaging, "cheap." To think that it's very expensive, their products usually comes in a clear packaging which is very similar to a lower class brand named Red Earth.

Anyway, my friend said that she got it as a freebie from the saloon that she's working with at the moment.

To start off with my review, I got the one in dark orange to be precise. I found a new self realization from using this face wash. I found out that I'm not a big fan of any face wash that is not "bubbly." I am used to using anything that once you put onto your palms, it bubbles, but this one is not. It's very hard for me to spread all over my face because I've been wanting bubbles from now and then. As a result, I always use up more than the usual amount that I use with my normal face wash.

It is "ok" I guess, nothing quite special with this face wash, and also nothing bad. It didn't give me any break-outs which is a good thing, but it didn't make any good sense either.

It is quite disappointing because I heard a lot of good stuff about Shu Uemura, and since this was my very first product, I was expecting more from it.

Rica's Rating : 2 / 5