My Beauty Tips & Tricks
A few tricks I’ve learned when it comes to skin care & beauty!
Full face of makeup? Try a triple cleanse! First, cleanse with an oil or micellar water to dissolve makeup, then follow up with a gel cleanser - either the same one twice or two different ones. The first gel cleanse will remove any leftover makeup and surface grime and the second will whisk your pores clean. I like my first gel cleanse to be relatively simple in formula and then my second gel cleanse will contain active ingredients to penetrate the surface of my skin, such as salicylic or glycolic acid. I also let the second one sit on my skin for about 15-20 seconds before I rinse it off!
Steam, then scrub: While were on the topic of face cleansing, I like to employ a few tools to feel fully cleansed and refreshed. On the first round of cleansing (either oil or gel, depending on how much or how little makeup I’m wearing), I use a slightly rough-textured face cloth to steam my face several times before gently scrubbing it clean. Always reach for a fresh face cloth each night! I keep a stack of inexpensive ones in my bathroom and just wash them with laundry every Sunday. TIP ON TIP: Turn the cloth sideways to be diamond-shaped when steaming, it contours your face more naturally! Then, for the second cleanse (always gel), I use a Foreo Play Plus to work the cleanser into my skin further and massage my face. I like to pretend I’m redefining the contours of my face with this tool, if only for the satisfying lift & glow I have post-cleanse.
Feeling dehydrated? Make hyaluronic acid your new BFF. Hyaluronic acid naturally draws water from the environment to your skin to increase moisture and make your skin look plump and juicy. Find a micellar water that contains hyaluronic acid and give your face a light cleanse by pouring the micellar directly into your palm and pressing it into your skin. Before it fully dries down, follow up with a hyaluronic serum gently pressed into skin (I’ve linked my personal fave here but it’s only available through a stockist so I’ve also included some other options in the pics below!). Lastly, seal it all in with a moisturizer that also contains hyaluronic acid (look for a gel formula if you have oily skin) and then do any activity that gets you near steamy water - have a quick 20 min tub soak or run the hot water while you clear up some dishes in the sink. NOTE: follow the above steps on a rainy day to take advantage of all that extra moisture in the air!
Do not skip toner!! Some people find toner to be an excessive step in a skin care routine, a product that doesn’t really “do anything”, and to that I say GASPPPP!! Toner not only gets rid of any traces of cleanser/makeup/surface bacteria from your skin, it also gently exfoliates and preps your skin for the steps that will follow while giving you a chance to retain moisture post-cleanse. And the absolute best thing toning does? It rids any fine lines and wrinkles of the dead skin causing them to look worse than they really are. Yup, that’s right, dead skin collects in our fine line areas and increases the definition of them if they’re not swept out on the daily. I have a horizontal forehead line that drives me crazy some days so I am diligent about carefully pulling that skin tight after cleansing and swiping it with toner. Sometimes I soak a cotton pad or sometimes I apply it straight from the bottle to my palms to my face. Look for a rosewater toner with a high rose oil content to combat inflammation and reduce UV damage or a salicylic acid toner to combat congestion and keep pores clear. Save exfoliating acids like glycolic, lactic, carbolic, azelaic or retinoic for using every few days/once a week.
Don't forget about your NECK! It should go without saying that you should be bringing your skin care routine right down to your neck as well (some even include the top of their chest) from cleansing right through to moisturizing so, if you feel like you have “neck lines” that bother you, see if a regular toning routine helps minimize them! I personally swear by toning the hell out of my neck and my facialist says I have the neck of a teenager so… there’s my humble brag for this post, lol!
Vit C + SPF = a happy face. It’s true! Your Vitamin C products will work better when combined with your daily SPF so make them a staple in your morning routine vs. your evening routine for optimal brightening results. Find a stellar Vitamin C serum, like Drunk Elephant C-Firma or isClinical Super Serum Advance, and make sure you keep the formula stable by ensuring the lid is tightly closed after each use and storing the bottle safe from direct light/heat (preferably in a dark corner in your cabinet). Follow up with your regular moisturizer and then your choice SPF. Never ever skip your daily sunscreen and aim for an SPF of 25 or higher! My personal fave is the Celazome Water-Resistant Sunscreen SPF 29 that works for face and body.
A new way to apply your moisturizer: I hate the feeling of overly-greased skin and find it a tricky balance when applying moisturizer to A) not overdo it and B) not irritate my freshly-cleansed skin with the rubbing motion. Now I take a small amount of moisturizer on my fingertips, spread it across my fingers and lightly press & pat them into my face. I move quickly so my fingers don’t soak up the moisturizer my face needs and I only do the rubbing motion in the area(s) that dry easily and cause makeup to look cake-y (for me, that’s the creases of my nose). You can always pat more moisturizer onto areas that need it so it’s become my fail-proof application method for fresh skin and the perfect base for makeup.
Raise your highlight! For the most part I reserve full-coverage foundation for fancy occasions and photo shoots. I like my every day skin to look like skin. I don’t mind a few imperfections that keep things looking real, but I also don’t want to draw attention to them either. Looking bright-eyed is a must so I keep things light with Glosser Perfecting Skin Tint all over my face, including eyelids and under-eyes, and then I use a liquid highlighter in a strategic way: instead of going over my cheekbones, I use my ring finger to press the highlighter along the area where the outer edge of my under-eye circles connect with my cheeks and up to the tail of my eyebrow. This places light-diffusing particles higher up on your cheek and fades out any dark circles in a more natural way.
But a tiny bit higher…
Wash your tools! And by “tools”, I certainly mean your makeup brushes, but more importantly - your hands! Wash your hands before you cleanse your face and wash your hands before you apply any makeup. Also, if you’re like me when you’re getting ready for a night out and you tend to work on both hair and face at the same (i.e. working in hair product while letting your serums soak in), DEF-IN-ITE-LY wash your hands in between steps so you’re not transferring hair product from your hands to your skin. This one took me a LONG TIME (and many breakouts) to figure out haha!!
Make your skin care products work double-time. I keep at least one eye cream (okay, 3) in the fridge, as well as one moisturizer (a Vit C gel moisturizer), a face mask (Summer Fridays Jet Lag mask) and a face roller. It feels SO GOOD to apply chilled products to a puffy morning face and rolllll it all out. If I’m going to do a sheet mask, depending on what my skin needs (nourishment vs. detox), I’ll either pop the sheet mask in the fridge for 30-45 mins beforehand to chill it or run the package under hot water to heat it up.
Quick time savers:
For super dramatic lashes, put a business card behind your lashes while you’re applying mascara so you can really coat them up well without smudging onto your eyelid.
Clean up shadow or brow powder fallout from your face without smearing it and ruining your makeup! Instead, use a flesh-toned or light pink pencil to gently dab the fallout off. Rub the end of the pencil on your hand first to warm it up and create a bit of tackiness so that the fallout will just stick to the end as you dab. Use your hand or tissue to swipe the fallout off before you dab another spot.
Pressed-for-time face: When you need to look put together in a pinch, use stick concealers in 2 different shades and literally color your face up with lines and squiggles. Apply the lighter shade underneath your eyes, sides/folds of your nose and the centre of your forehead & chin and apply the darker shade to your forehead (closer to your hairline) and lower cheek area. Dampen a BeautyBlender and blend your face out well, working from the T-zone out and ensuring a mix of the light/dark reaches your eyelids and underneath your nose. Dust a bronzer across your forehead, cheeks, nose, eyelids and chin and then swirl a blush over your cheeks and nose and temples. Fill in and/or groom brows, add a swipe of mascara and lip gloss and you’re done.
If you’ve got a beauty tip or trick to share, leave it in the comments!! I’d love to hear them!
xoxo
M.
