Skin Care Routines

Dedicated to Jillian

I've been recently asked about tips for dry skin, which is especially common during these winter months. I have a handful of tips, and the response is a little long for a facebook comment so I'm making a post just for my new friend Jillian :)

Ladies, it's recommended that we have a daily skin care routine. Everybody's skin is different so everyone's skin care needs will be different. Typically everyone's routine should contain steps to cleanse, exfoliate, moisturize, and protect their skin and should be preferably performed in the morning and again at night.

Step 1: Cleanse

It's hard to shop around for skin care products, their so many different kinds and their usually so expensive.

I use a homemade cleanser daily and you can find the recipe here. For dry skin, I would recommend that you use 2 parts coconut oil with 1 part castor oil, rather than equal parts like the recipe suggests. For example use 2/3 cups coconut oil with 1/3 cup castor oil and you've just made about a 6 month supply. This recipe is great for removing make up and free radicals, works to keep your skin moisturized, and even made my eyelashes longer (check out my follow up report after I'd used it for a few weeks here)

Some other options for finding a good cleanser, without buying the whole pharmacy, would be to contact some direct sales consultants (for example: Avon, Mary Kay, or Amway). They'll let you try products before you make a purchase and even help you find which of their products will work best for your skin. Be careful, though, some of these consultants can be pushy sales representatives.

Step 2: Exfoliate

Face scrubs and microdermabrasion are good examples of facial exfoliation.

My home made recipe can be found here under 'Daily Face Scrub'. If you don't have all the products needed for this particular recipe you can literally use baking soda and water (there's a recipe on the Arm & Hammer box!).

When you exfoliate you knock of all the dry skin cells and reveal the healthy skin underneath. Which sounds awesome when your fighting winter dryness, right? Just be careful, over exfoliation can have a reverse effect. I would recommend exfoliating 3-4 times a week, rather than daily, and then you can increase to daily if it seems necessary.

Step 3: Moisturize

This one is probably most important when your fighting off dry patches. If you're using a brand from the pharmacy for your cleanser that brand probably has a recommended moisturizer it should be paired with.

To do things the more economical way you can also use whipped coconut oil, just use a mixer to whip a cup of coconut oil. If you don't like the way that makes your skin feel you can also try Aloe Vera gel, or unscented baby lotion. You might have to try a few different things to find the moisturizer that works best for your skin.

Step 4: Protect

It's recommended to use a SPF that's sensitive enough for your face every day. It's less expensive to just avoid the sun or wear a hat :)

You can protect your skin during the day with a foundation, SPF lotion, or even a translucent face powder. I've just begun making my own translucent face powder, see my recipe here. You ca use it alone or wear it over your make up.

How to HAC

Back in our day Jamie and I had a short career in the direct sales of cosmetics. We went to weekly meetings learning about the products, how to use them, and how to sell them. One of my favorite lessons from that experience is how to HAC. Highlight and contour. The basic idea is to use varying shades of cosmetics  to 'sculpt' your face into a more flattering shape. This isn't something I do every day because, let's face it, I'm beautiful. Since you're beautiful too you probably don't need to HAC daily either. But, it is a nice tid-bit to know when you're going to have your picture taken or if you're going somewhere fancy.

Start step 1 after you've completed a good healthy skin care routine. Cleanse, exfoliate, moisturize, and protect.

Step 1: Conceal

I use a green concealer for red blemishes. Dab it on and rub it in.

Optional Step 2: Foundation

If you're skin tone is uneven and needs a little extra help to conceal discoloration and/or blemishes you may choose to use a foundation. Make sure you're foundation matches your skin tone and is applied evenly. I'm not going to provide tips on that process right now, I'm going to focus on HACing here.

Step 3: Highlight

See my tutorial for making your own highlight and contour creams with products you probably already have in your bathroom.

Here's a HAC map of my face as an example

Add a highlighter to your T zone, the top of your cheek bones, and on your brow bone then blend it in. Your highlighter should be a shade lighter than your foundation or your natural skin tone.

Step 4: Contour

Add contour under the apples of your cheeks, in your temple area, under your jaw line, and (optionally) on the sides of your nose. Your contour cream/powder should be a shade darker than your foundation or your natural skin tone. 

I would advise you to use contour lightly. If you have dry patches I would skip adding contour completely, the pigment can collect in dry patches and make them stand out, giving you a blotchy look. You also have to watch out for areas where you have more fine hair than in other areas (sideburns, upper lip) these areas will also collect more pigment and I know you don't want a mustache in your holiday pictures!

Step 5: Translucent Finishing Powder

See my tutorial for making your own translucent finishing powder. You can make it for pennies out of products you probably already have in your cabinets.

A translucent powder will help blend your look, dull your shine, decrease visible pours and fine lines, and just plain make you 'HAC job' look finished.

I highlight and contour in a subtle way, I want to accent my best features while still looking natural rather than looking 'all made up'. It's okay if you have a different preference, Carlibybel has a nice vlog on this same topic. She's beautiful too and uses alot more product than I do. You might find her methods useful, check her out here.

Feel free to share your own tips or opinions by leaving a comment :)

DIY Highlight and Contour Creams

You guys have these right? Beat up eye shadows that spent too much time getting knocked around in your purse or cosmetic bag. I'm going to show you an easy-peasy way to turn them into highlight and contour creams.

DIY Translucent Finishing Powder

I use this now on a regular basis and have been making it for pennies with ingredients that were already in my home. It's so easy!

Surprise benefits of coconut oil cleanser

I've been using my homemade coconut oil cleanser once to twice a day for about 6 weeks now (click here for the recipe) . I quickly got past the initial flushing of the pores (which led to a few pimples), and have been enjoying smoother-clearer skin. In the past few weeks I've noticed a change that I wasn't quit expecting.... Longer fuller eye lashes. This is not at all a bad surprise!

4 ingredients = SUPER shiny hair!

This is Kelly's head. Isn't it beautiful? Kelly volunteered to be a victim in another homemade beauty remedy experiment. I'm going to show you how to use these 4 ingredients to get super shiny, super soft hair!

DIY Shaving Solution

I'm not done yet! My goal is to make pretty much every cosmetic product I use as cheaply and easily as I can. And of course, to share it with you :)


What you need:
5 Tbs of your every day lotion
5 Tbs baby oil 
1 Cup shampoo
1 Cup conditioner
* optional* 1 tsp Vitamin E oil (Most pharmacies carry this- find it near the oral vitamin supplements)

Coconut Oil Face Cleanser

Another Visit to Carly's Beauty Shop

Logan spent the morning playing in the moon sand with his friend Zachary (almost 3yrs old). I do say Zachary rather enjoyed the moon sand experience as much as Logan always does. Great sensory play! All the extreme playing has led to a wonderful morning nap. Which means yet another nap time experiment.

Nap time at our house is turning into an everyday adventure. Pinterest is inspiring project after project!

Today I made and used a Coconut Face Cleanser, inspired by a pin that led me to a LiveStrong.com article on How to Use Coconut Oil on the Face. I include my own secret ingredient in my recipe below.

Making Lip Balm

Carly's Beauty Shop Part 2

Today, while Logan slumbered peacefully, I created my own lip balm. To my surprise it turned out!

My recipe is a collaboration of several other recipes I've seen in the past.

DIY Beauty Solutions

I've embarked on an exploratory adventure into the realm of home made beauty products. I've made several of these concoctions a handful of times and have nearly perfected my formulas. GOOD BYE EXPENSIVE SKIN CARE PRODUCTS! And pleasant greetings to very inexpensive, easy to make, and extremely effective home made mixtures.