This product is not marketed as a lip product, and one of its selling points is, in fact, its versatility. I have used this on my lips as well as my hands and any dry patches. But for the sake of this post, I will keep my thoughts strictly lip related. 

 

It has taken me lots or trial and error, appointments with dermatologists, lots of money spent, and sometimes being lazy to figure out a skincare routine that works for my skin. While these products work for me, they may not work for you. I have oily skins (sometimes it decides to be combination). I hate having oily skin. It makes me feel gross by the end of the day and some days I want to wash my face every other hour. 

These products have been effective mostly in clearing my acne. 

In the morning I use my Clinique Facial Soap for combination oily to oily skin. It's very gentle on my skin and cleanses it just enough since not much happens from the time I wash my face at night to the time I wake up (i.e. sleeping). Some mornings, if I'm feeling particularly lazy, I will wash my face with this soap and head out the door. I don't feel that I need the additional products in the morning. However, it would most likely help my skin long term.

On the mornings I'm not feeling particularly lazy, I will also use the Clinique Clarifying Lotion 4 after cleansing my skin. I'll finish my morning skin routine off by moisturizing with the  Clinique Dramatically Diffferent Moisturizing Gel. I enjoy gel moisturizers more because I have oily skin. The gel doesn't make my skin feel oily like some lotions do and it absorbs easily into my skin. 

During the work week I rarely wear makeup. I value my sleep in the morning too much. On the few days that I do wear make up, I use the Aveeno Ultra-Calming Makeup Removing Wipes (not pictured) to take off my makeup. These are the most effective makeup removing wipes I have tried thus far. However, as we all know, makeup removing wipes do not always remove all of our makeup. Therefore, following using these wipes, I use the new Garnier Micellar Cleansing Water. Every time I use this product, I can't believe how much makeup was still left on my skin. I had ordered the Garnier Micellar Cleansing Water off of feelunique.com. It was a product I had seen people raving about, but it was only available in the UK. Shortly after ordering the product, it was brought out in the US. There are a few differences in the US product. They make two different kinds - one for waterproof makeup. The one I had ordered did have a second type but it was just dependent on skin type, not makeup type. Next time I may try out the waterproof one - that pesky waterproof mascara still gives me trouble.

When it is time to wash my skin in the evening, I reach for my Neutrogena Deep Clean Gentle Scrub. I prefer using a scrub at night to get rid of all of the impurities from the day. This scrub is gentle enough for me to use daily. If my skin ever feels to sensitive for this on a particular day, I just follow my morning routine. As with my morning routine, after using the scrub, I use my Clinique Clarifying Lotion 4 and Clinique Dramatically Different Moisturizing Gel. 

If I have a breakout or blemish, I use the Glam Glow Supermud Clearing Treatment. Depending on the severity of my breakout, I alter between using this product as a full face mask or as a spot treatment. This is my holy grail product. It even eradicates my cyst acne in just a day or two. You can check out my full review of this product here. It is a pricey product, but it lasts a long time. I have been using it for two months and it doesn't look live I have used any.

And there you have it, my morning and night skincare routines! If you have any product suggestions, let me know! I love trying out new products. Hey, you might see a review on here too.

XOXO

- K

So while today is the twelfth of January, this is my first post of the new year. I sincerely apologize for the delay in posts. Although I had said I would post every week, I clearly haven't. I have been handling some things recently and at least the first quarter of 2016 is going to be exciting. But guess what?! You get two posts this week! Count 'em, TWO! One to make up for January 3rd, and one to make up for this past Sunday, January 10th. Now Back to business.

I don't know about you, but I have a resolution to not use the word "resolution" this year. Instead I'm making myself a list of goals to accomplish.

1. Write more - I was significantly lacking motivation to write once I graduated in 2015. This year is dedicated to writing as much as I can. I'll write here, in a journal, write fiction, write whenever and whatever I want.

2. Focus on overall health - For too long I have been going through the highs and lows of trying to lose weight and look like a Victoria's Secret Angel (I'm not saying there's anything wrong with wanting to look like them or actually looking like them). But for too long I was not focusing on doing that in a healthy way. I would beat myself up for eating too much that day. Or I would not let myself eat sweets and foods that I wanted and I would be miserable. Gone are those days. From now on, if I want to eat something, I'll eat it in moderation. Being so strict with myself was setting myself up for failure. This year I'm going to focus on making myself feel good: physically, mentally, emotionally. To help me on this journey, I purchased the 2016 Blogilates Fit Planner. I already had a planner for my life, but this is dedicated to health. You track your food (I just track what I eat, not count calories), your workouts, and any other notes - here I track my steps and sleep (with the help of my fitbit), my water intake, and if I drank any soda that day (trying to kick my diet coke habit is a struggle).