My Skincare Routine.

Happy Saturday my lovelies! I can’t believe we’re already half way through September! Everyone keeps saying how they can’t believe shops are already putting out Christmas decorations and presents but for me, I love it! Plus, the seasons are changing so you can’t blame shops for prepping early.

And speaking of seasons changing, two things that I change with the seasons are my hair routine and my skin routine. As for today, I’m going to be taking you through my skincare routine!

Here’s the products in my routine:

My morning routine:

Step 1: Face wash. First up I wash my face with my face wash and warm water, rinsing it off with cold water.

Step 2: Cleanser. I put cleanser on a cotton pad and use circular motions all over my face.

Step 3: Toner. I put toner on a cotton pad and swipe it all over my face, and let it absorb for a few minutes before my next step!

Step 4: Eye gel. I dab a small blob of eye gel under each eye and eye lid to help with puffiness and dry eyes.

Step 5: Serum. After letting my toner sit and applying my eye gel, I apply two pumps of my serum onto my face and gently rub it in.

Step 6 : Moisturiser. I then add moisturiser to my entire face, especially because I tend to get dry skin.

Step 7: Suncream. Finally I add a little sunscream to top it all off because you can never be too careful with those uv rays.

So that’s my AM routine! And as for my PM routine, it’s very similar but it goes like this:

(Potential Step 0: Micellar water. I only use this to take off my makeup at the end of the day if I’ve been wearing it, it’s much gentler than makeup wipes and is a quick way to take off makeup.)

Step 1: Cleanser. I first cleanser my face of everything my skin has been in touch with during the day.

Step 2: Toner. Next up I tone my face and let it sit for a minute of two like in the morning.

Step 3: Eye Gel. I then refresh my eyes with my eye gel, after staring at screens all day this is a must.

Step 4: Serum. Two pumps of serum is then swiped over my face and left to sink in for a minute.

Step 5: Retinol. After my serum has sunk in I use a small amount of my retinol cream (the retinol cream I use is my Adapaline acne cream) on the zones of my face that need it, and with retinol less is more rather than more is more trust me.

Step 6: Moisturiser. After I’ve let my retinol cream sink into my skin I add my moisturiser. And that’s it! All done and ready for bed.

So that is my entire skincare routine from waking up – to going to bed to get my beauty sleep haha.

Whenever I try anything new for skin I always get a bit worried because I’ve suffered with adult acne for a few years and I get worried that new things will set it off again. Medication seemed to be the only thing that helped my skin clear up for the last two years, and I’ve recently tried to come off of all of my medications except my retinol cream.

Since starting this new routine my skin hasn’t yet exploded with spots other than the first week adjusting to it so so far so good! I like to use any time that I spend on my hair and skin and just general appearance as some selfcare/me-time.

All of the products I use for my skin are from Superdrug’s own brand and Wake Skincare; I like trying to use products from the same brand and line because I find they always work better together, but it takes time to see what works out for you.

What’s your favourite skincare staple? Have you got a specific skincare routine or are you more of a wash and go kinda person? Let me know in the comments if there’s any skincare brands you’d like me to try!

Have a great weekend lovelies!

Love,

10 Ways To Make Your Mornings More Productive

You ever see those people who look so perfect, polished and wide awake first thing in the morning? Does a little bit of you hate them for it? Yeah, me too. It’s not that they are bad people or are mean, I think it’s just that I wish I were more like them.

So.. This week I decided to try out 10 tips that will hopefully make my mornings even more productive. Especially since at the moment all I manage to get done before I leave for work is just about slump out of bed, have a coffee, eat some breakfast and spend 30 minutes deciding what to wear for the day.

Let’s get started!

1. Wake up as soon as your alarm goes off and don’t hit snooze. Or if you struggle to get out of bed even after hitting snooze, put your alarm clock on the other side of the room, this way you’ll have to get up to shut it up!!
2. Pick out your outfit for the day the previous evening.
3. Create a morning ritual to keep your morning organised, for me this is getting dressed, having a wash, doing my hair, making a daily to do list, having a coffee and then eating breakfast whilst watching Gilmore Girls. If you have a morning ritual then you’re less likely to forget stuff this way too!
4. Drink some water. I’m rubbish at doing this but this week I tried to drink at least 1 pint of water first thing.
5. Do the task you’re dreading doing the most, first. Maybe it’s having to iron a shirt or make a not or appointment before you head out. Get it out of the way and you’ll feel loads better.
6. Don’t spend all your time on your phone. This one’s a given since it’s pretty much said to help everything nowadays.
7. Take some time to make yourself breakfast. They always say it’s the most important meal of the day!! (I don’t exactly know who ‘they’ are.. but hey, it’s a good thing to start doing!)
8. Wake up to the sun. This is something I started doing a long time ago, partly because my room has slanted ceilings and is generally dark and partly because I’m too lazy to put my blinds up and down every day.. But anyway, I found waking up to natural sunlight very helpful in starting my day.
9. Have goals set for the day.
10. Fit in some ‘me time’ before you head off to work, or start work if you work at home. What I mean by ‘me time’ is spending time for yourself. This can be anything from sitting down and meditating for a few minutes, playing with a pet to painting your nails; all that matters is that you do something for you.

With any tips and tricks to try out, some will work for you, and others won’t. That’s just life so I completely understand that. With that being said, what worked more me was definitely fitting in a bit of ‘me time’ – which for me was simply writing down one great thing about myself to boost my confidence and picking my outfit for the following day the night before. This saved me at least 30 minutes of time that I can use to either sleep some more or make myself a really good lunch, setting myself up for the day.

What do you do first thing in the morning? I found these tips helpful in fitting more stuff into my mornings and helping me to wake up and get going! What’s your favourite thing to make for breakfast? Let me know and I’ll do a post trying them all out!! Have a great weekend!!

Love,