what do you do for your skin?

[bookselves]

Hi. This year, I have wrinkles for the first time ever. And more pimples than ever! What the shit, everybody? I want to be cute when I am an old lady! Help me take care of my face now, please.

At this point my skincare routine involves washing off yesterday's eyeliner in the morning with a bar of clay soap from the health food store. I... could do better, I think.

I don't want to be having one of those "omg must stop wrinkles!" freakouts, and the feminist in me wants me to just relax. But if my face could be better if I took care of it, I would like to do that.

So what do you do for your face? I especially hope you will post if you use more natural stuff, including stuff you make yourself. What's your routine?
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"My power doesn't come from other people's lust for my awesome vagina, thanks." - Enzyme

So, I have a blog now.

[sofie]

I hear you on the wrinkles + pimples phenomenon. It is not awesome. I don't use all natural stuff (cetaphil, lush, and kiehls mostly) but I will say that as I've gotten older and my pores have gotten larger I find that I need to exfoliate more often to prevent breakouts. I've been thinking about switching from cetaphil to an olive oil cleanser, but I'm kind of terrified of rocking the boat right now.

[lozenge]

even though i do buy superficial products for my skin i think my skin has never been better since i made an effort to exercise regularly, eat healthy food and drink (enough) water. i also started using sun cream pretty much religiously (even on cloudy days) and i always where sunglasses in the sun (which is meant to help with eye wrinkles cause of the squinting - dont know if that is BS or not though).

my daily realisitc regime is basically

morning: wash, moisterise, suncream
evening: wash, moisterise, eye cream

i will normally scrub once a week and put on a face mask every two weeks.

i would love to hear about scrubs or products that people make if they have any? i currently use an australia brand that is basically plant based ingredients. i think it does what it is meant to but i know i could use less of it and incorporate with something homemade that would be awesome.

[creativecat]

I like more gentle cleansers. Dr Bronners is great so is this Befine exfoliating cleanser. Right now I'm using Clinique but it's a little too harsh for me. I also make my own body scrub out of olive oil, salt and a little Dr Bronners.

My biggest MUST in terms of skin care is sunscreen. I burn very quickly so I wear it every day just in case. I like the spray-on with aloe mixed in. Makes me skin feel so soft! Plus, you can tell your inner feminist to relax because it's cancer-prevention--not vanity!

[weezil]

I'm with you! I'm trying to do better!

In the summer, I switched to Lush's Coalface for a cleanser. My pores look smaller and blackheads seem to be disappearing. Wash when I shower or in the morning, but sometimes I'm extremely lazy and don't do it every day (shhh).

Haven't switched my moisturizer yet. Currently using some Biore thing but want to use it up before I move on to something else. I realized I have normal/dry skin (after years of assuming I had oily skin) and I tend to only put it on the dry areas, unless I'm going to be outside for more than the walk to my car (SPF!). I want to switch to something from Lush or another ingredients-I-can-pronounce company. I'm not ready to just start putting straight up olive oil on, though.

Began changing and washing my pillowcases way more frequently.. I try to sleep on my back, too. I wash my hair every other day or longer - it's not that I have oily skin, it's oily hair! - so I've been trying to reduce the contact where possible.

Makeup is not a part of my daily routine but when I do wear it, I've been using stuff that's (supposedly) better, like things Sephora puts their eco-stamp on (does that really mean anything, I don't know).
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etsy shop! recent works! Linus in Hats!

[bookselves]

my PILLOWCASES?






...whoa.
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"My power doesn't come from other people's lust for my awesome vagina, thanks." - Enzyme

So, I have a blog now.

[midnightsky1686]

I use a clarasonic on my face- helps with the breakouts but isn't as harsh for me as scrubbing my face with a scrubbie soap/cleanser is. Special sunscreen without as many chemicals and scent, lotion at night, and vitamin C, which is supposed to help minimized and get rid of the scarring I have and calm my face down.
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Midnightsky Fibers- great knitting patterns!
knitting blog

[tinyrock]

I almost posted about this yesterday! I look tired all the time. I don't want makeup, but are there other things that would help me look perkier? I also went looking for an eye cream but they were all like $20 for a half ounce and had anti-wrinkle chemicals and spf chemicals and plumping chemicals. Are eye creams that much different from regular moisturizers? [/hijack]

Currently, I use generic Cetaphil twice a day and put on moisturizer with spf when I think I need it. Moving to gentler products helped with pimples for me. And washing pillowcases/hair. I also had really good luck with Neutrogena's retinol serum for both pimples and general skin condition (it's marketed as anti-wrinkle).

[Figwit]

I too freak out about my pillowcase and change them every 3 days or so.

For the past 4 or so months, I've had the WORST acne of my life - all over my chin, neck, cheeks, and a little bit on my forehead. I tried so so many different things - apple cider vinegar, apricot kernel scrub, tea tree and lavender oil, steam baths every day, etc. I'm adament about not using chemical products (even "natural" stuff like burts bees or things I could buy at the co-op bother me morally for some reason), and I felt like I was running out of options.

I tried the oil-cleansing method with 3/4 castor oil, 1/4 jojoba oil and then a HOT washcloth afterwards. My skin improved noticeably, but it dried out way too much from the castor oil, and I was doing it too frequently. I finally figured out that my skin thrives on being washed maybe once every other day - it doesn't turn into an oily mess like it used to because I'm not stripping it of its own natural oils anymore, and I don't have to add moisturizer like I used to. Now my routine is to wash my face only when I take a shower (which is every 2-4 days), and I use baking soda / apple cider vinegar on my hair. I use natural soaps made from beef tallow from a local butcher that's sustainable/humane/organic or from etsy sellers. My moisturizer/lotion is generally a mix I created of shea butter, cocoa butter, jojoba oil, mandarin essential oil, and a tiny bit of apricot kernel oil. I use maybe a teaspoon on my face after I wash it when my skin is still hot and slightly damp, then I rub some all over the rest of me, too. My deodorant is based on some of the same ingredients: cocoa butter, shea butter, some baking soda, a tiny bit of cornstarch, and mandarin essential oil (although for the next batch I want to use bergamot or my homemade vanilla).

I am so happy to switch over from all industrial stuff to either homemade by me or homemade by others (my toothsoap is from a local naturopath and it's AMAZING, and the soaps we get are great).
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good, clean, fair.

small is possible.

[madgeylou]

[linty*prickles]

I have stupidly sensitive skin -- like, red, itchy, hive-y if I hug someone for too long who washed with regular soap or washed their clothes with Gain. I can't use most soaps, so I don't. I wash my face with water and a cloth once a day, and wash it with sheep's fat soap about once every week and a half or so. I don't wear make-up very often. I wear Aveeno sunscreen in the summer, and use it as a moisturizer if I am drying out in the winter. I don't have the world's most radiant skin, but it looks pretty good. If I break out it is usually because of something I have been doing to my skin, not because of neglect.
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I'm a sass-quatch.

[ruggedchick]

My routine isn't natural, but I'll pipe in anyway..

I use Mario Badescu Enzyme Facial Cleanser once a day, sometimes twice, if I'm not too lazy.

In the morning I use Oil of Olay moisturizer with SPF 15, and at night I use Mario Badescu Seaweed Night Cream.

Haven't had a zit since April.
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beefy and confused.

[scarymonster]

Oh goodness, what is it with the breaking out? My skin has been rocketing back and forth between meh and terrible. Right now it's terrible.

I wash 1 time a day with the target brand apricot scrub. It's got salicylic acid in it, too. I change my pillowcases once a week but I need to way more often.

I hate hate hate my face.

Anyone have acne scars? My right cheek is pretty awful looking, and I have no idea how to make it better.

[happyhats]

I've been using oatmeal on my face, and my pores have cleaned up tremendously. I use that baby cereal they used to always give Scarlet on wic, mixed with a bit of olive oil just to make it spreadable. My face has gotten so much smoother and cleaner, seriously.
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keep it simple

[BlueJedi]