Morning Skin Routine

by blondewithcoffeeNovember 26, 2021December 18, 2021

Sorry for the three week hiatus, between the Thanksgiving holiday, working Black Friday, and finishing my university career, things have been crazy, but I’m back! So I’ve covered in a previous post all about my night skin routine (if you haven’t checked that out, I’ll link it here), but my morning routine is a little bit different. Where at night my products are more geared towards repairing the skin from damage after a long hard day, my morning routine is all about trying to prevent the damage to begin with. So the first big difference between the two are that there are a couple of more steps and definitely a few more products than in the evening.

Cleansing and Essence

A good place to start is at the beginning, and both morning and night starts in the same place: a good wash. I love using Fresh’s Soy cleanser on my face brush (the same every night), though I do now follow it with a new product, Fresh’s Kombucha essence. If you’re unfamiliar with an essence, it’s whole primary role is to help with better absorption of other products such as serums and moisturizers. What I love about Fresh’s is that by being based in kombucha means it’s high in probiotics that also help with skins luminosity as well as pollution protection.

Serums

When it comes down to serums, Peach and Lily’s glass skin serum has been a long time favorite of mine; with ingredients like niacinamide, hyaluronic acid, and peach extract, it helps to brighten the skin, gives beautiful luminosity, and reduces pore size and redness. It’s just an all in one serum that fits so many different skin types and needs. I personally also love using a vitamin c serum in the morning; it helps give the skin a beautiful glow as well as helps in the longterm in reducing the appearance of dark spots. I normally love experimenting with different ones just since every vitamin c is formulated a bit differently (vitamin c is notoriously unstable so quite a bit goes into formulating it). Currently, I’m using Tula’s which is a triple vitamin c complex, meaning that the vitamin c actually comes from three different sources.

Moisturizer

Winter is beginning to set in here in Texas, that means my already dry skin is entering drastic drought territory. So I’ve decided to switch it up and go back to one of my old favorites that I haven’t used in quite a while: Drunk Elephant’s Protini Polypeptide Cream. It gives me amazing hydration, and I love the fact that the pump means that I don’t have to put my fingers in the jar (which low-key grosses me out.)

Eye Care

I love a good eye cream, but there are mornings when my eyes just need a little bit more (i.e. the dark circles and puffiness is more than my concealer is going to be able to cover). So depending on how much time I have in the mornings, I do try to put eye patches on after I cleanse to let them sit while I apply serums and let them skin in. Skyn Iceland’s have been a long time favorite of mine, however I have been also enjoying Tinted’s new Copper Rays which have copper peptides in them. I also love a good eye balm (i.e. please refer to my previous reference of hating putting my fingers in jars), and Tula’s new 24/7 swipe is basically eye cream in a stick and is so quick in the mornings to use.

Protection

The final step to any morning skin routine is SPF. There are so many people under the impression that sunscreen is something that you only use in summer and they are dead wrong. The fact of the matter is that you’re exposed to UV radiation every single day n o matter the season so you need to protect yourself every single day. I personally use Tula’s glow sunscreen; I love that it’s a gel so it’s super lightweight and wears really well under my makeup, and as well as offering UV protection, it also offers blue light protection (aka protection against the light from screens like your phone, laptop, and tv).

So those are all of the products in my current morning skincare routine. Again, keep in mind, that these are the products that work for me and my skin type. They may or may not work for you depending on your skin type and the concerns or issues that you are wanting to address. I hope you enjoyed this post, all of my socials are linked if you want to give me a follow. See you next week!

Worth the Hype:The Ordinary

by blondewithcoffeeNovember 19, 2021November 15, 2021

If you have been anywhere on Tiktok over the last year and a half, you know that skincare gurus have become the new top of the beauty chain so to speak (hello, skincare by Hyrmn). With the rise of the skincare influencer has also come an increasing awareness by the public of skincare brands and ingredients, which I fully embrace. While I am so glad to see people not just settle for Neutrogena wipes and calling it a day, this has produced a new thorn in the side of beauty retail workers everywhere: enter The Ordinary. I wish I was kidding when I say that this brand is the entire reason that I got Tiktok; it got real annoying real quick to be asked about the red mask from Tiktok five times a day and have no clue what they were talking about (which btw wasn’t even a mask at all, it’s a chemical peel). There are definitely good and bad parts to the Ordinary, and I feel like this is a good space to explore them all.

The Ordinary is what we have come to refer to as a beginner skincare brand. It’s a really good place to get to feel out and explore and see what your skin likes and needs without breaking the bank. To be completely honest, I know that I have rather expensive taste when it comes to my beauty products (but also in my defense, I also have extremely sensitive skin and it seems like the pricier stuff breaks me out less often), and I am lucky enough that I have a job that makes getting my hands on expensive skincare a lot less of a hit on my bank account. That’s not the case though for most people in their early twenties, and so it’s a great opportunity to explore ingredients without committing to $60 serums that may or may not work for you. By breaking down the serums where each ingredient is it’s own serum so you can make your own kind of concoction that works, and then find those same ingredients in a higher end serum. For example, if you love the nicinamide, hyaluronic acid, and buffet (peptide) serums from the Ordinary, give Peach and Lily’s Glass Skin Serum a try: it has all of those ingredients at a higher quality plus peach extract to help brighten the skin. While the serum is slightly more than the three combined, it also switches you from three to one (and that one bottle normally lasts four plus months), which also frees you up to try other serums and products.

This leads us to one of the problems that the Ordinary does have. A lot of people are unaware that you’re only suppose to use around three serums and oils on your face at a time; the reasoning is that three is the magic number for your skin to absorb, after that it’s just over saturation and you’re just pouring product (and money) down the drain. By separating out the ingredients, it takes more of the Ordinary’s serums to get the same results that you would get with one serum that’s all of those ingredients combined, so while yes it’s a great beginner thing to have the ingredients separated out, it’s also a money grab since you have to buy more. Speaking of money grabbing, let’s talk about the quality of ingredients that you’re getting. You’ll notice that near the top of most Ordinary serums is an ingredient called glycerin. Just as a bit skin ingredient knowledge, glycerin in a small amount is good for your skin, it’ll draw moisture into your skin. However, in large amount after long term use, it will dry out your skin and exasperate any issues that you’re having (so you then buy more skincare hence the term money grab). Glycerin is derived from vegetables, so it’s super cheap to make and is a great filler ingredient. The point is that $6 you’re paying for the serum is mostly filler and not actually that much active ingredient.

I think that I’ve made my feelings on the Ordinary pretty clear, but let’s be clear, I don’t think you have to spend hundreds of dollars to get quality skincare. There are plenty of amazing skincare products in the drugstore; two of my favorite examples of this are Good Molecules and Peach Slices (which is the drugstore brand of Peach and Lily!). They have amazing quality products that aren’t going to break the bank. But that’s the post for this week, and I hope you enjoyed. Feel free to leave a comment letting my know what your favorite drugstore brand is. I post every Friday, so make sure you subscribe to see updates and my socials are linked if you want to stay up to date on my day to day. Hope you have a great week!

Current Night Skin

by blondewithcoffeeOctober 22, 2021October 15, 2021

We can all agree that getting home at the end of an extremely long day is a sigh of relief, and just like how you want to kick your shoes off at the end of the day, so does your skin (theoretically speaking). Night is the time when your skin is at it’s most relaxed, after a long stressful day of being exposed to different kinds of stressors, whether those are outside aggressors like environmental (like pollution) or internal (example: consuming six cups of coffee and not one ounce of water). Your nighttime routine should be as be as different from your morning as well night and day; where in the morning the concern is about protecting your skin, at night you should be concerned with repairing your skin. The order in which you would use your products also changes depending on the products in your routine. For example: if you use toners or essences (which I haven’t been lately), then they would go after your cleanser but before your serums. I’ve actually been downgrading my routine lately in an attempt to be more efficient with my time so it’s pretty simple: a double cleanse, followed my two serums then my moisturizer and eye cream.

Step 1: Cleansing

Just as with any skincare routine, the first thing you need to do is cleanse your skin to get all the dirt and gunk out of your pores as well as any makeup from that day. To begin, I go in with Juice Beauty’s Stem Cellular Cleansing Oil to melt off any makeup from earlier before doing a light rinse and using Fresh’s Soy Cleanser on my PMD brush.

Step 2: Serum

After cleansing, it’s time to attempt to repair some of the damage from the day. Retinol has always been a popular night serum, though unfortunately with my sensitive skin it has always been a struggle to find just the right one that’s going to give me results while not breaking me out in. Enter in the chat the new retinol from Kiehl’s: it’s a microdose serum which means that it’s gentle and safe enough for everyday use. I am honestly obsessed with this serum and pair it with Fresh’s Rose Oil-in-Serum. Rose is well known for it’s ability to help with cell turnover, so it’s just an obvious choice to pair to help with night repair.

Step 3: Moisturize

And finally, moisturizing and sealing in those amazing serums that I used. Currently I’ve still been rocking the Tula Dew Your Thing oil-free gel cream, which is giving me the hydration that I need while still being lightweight in all of this persistent humidity. As hopefully it starts to cool down soon, I will probably transition into a heavier cream but for now this works like a charm.

So that is my current night time skincare routine. A big thing to take from this post is while this routine and these products work for me, they may or may not work for depending at your skin type and needs. It’s really important to listen to your skin and it’s needs rather than trying a product because it’s trendy. I hope you enjoyed this post and learned a few different things. My socials are all linked if you want to keep up with me, and I post here every Friday. Until next time, have a great week!

Worth the Hype: Fresh Skincare

by blondewithcoffeeOctober 8, 2021October 2, 2021

One of the exciting things that happened during my hiatus was Fresh Skincare coming to Ulta. Once a Sephora exclusive, you can now find this clean skin love at your local Ulta (and it’s not the only once Sephora exclusive that’s found it’s way into Ulta recently). Founded in 1991 by Russian immigrants living in Boston, Fresh is all about natural, sustainable ingredients inspired by the food bazaars found across Europe. An amazing aspect that Fresh has brought to the game is that they’ve partnered with the UEBT (Union for Ethical BioTrade) to ensure that all of their ingredients can be traced back to their source. They are also working towards having net-zero carbon emissions by 2030 and 100% of packaging either made of recycled material or being recyclable by 2025. All of these things are absolutely amazing, but of course comes the question: are the products worth the price tag?

From experience so far, I say, absolutely! There is not a single item that I have tried that I haven’t loved, and as someone with extremely sensitive skin that is a miracle. There are very few brands out there that I can say that about (even my introduction to natural skin, Origins has given me a few reactions). While some of the ingredients are very typical for skincare, they’ve added some unique ones that certainly work (like kombucha, great for the gut and your face lol).

Soy Face Cleanser

As a combo-dry skin person, I am constantly on the lookout for a cleanser that is going to get me clean, but not leave my skin dry and tight feeling. This cleanser is it. Like hands down, one of the best that I’ve ever tried. One of my friends shared with me that she’s not the biggest fan of the scent (think soy and cucumbers), but honestly I don’t mind it. I just love how clean my skin feels after using this.

2. Rose Deep Hydration Oil-Infused Serum

On principal, I’m not the biggest fan of rose scented things. Don’t get me wrong, I love what rose does to my skin, I love receiving roses, however anything that’s artificially scented rose or most things with rose essence just immediately bring to mind elderly ladies (I think it’s a direct correlation to my paternal grandmother and her love of rose lotion). Fresh’s rose line is something else however. It might be the fact that in several of the items I can actually SEE the rose petals (like the toner and mask), but I really just enjoy it. This serum has become one of my nighttime routine, going directly after my retinol serum, and I just love how it makes my skin feel.

3. Sugar Lemon Body Wash and Lotion

So lemon has always been one of my favorite scents/flavors (like lemon Luna bars and Lemonades from the Girl Scouts are my weakness), so the first time I smelt this scent, I was done for. My skin is SO soft after using this shower gel, and the lotion *chef’s kiss*. Together, I just look and smell amazing. With ingredients like mango seed extract and actual sugar, Vitamins C&E, and nourishing shea butter, it’s doing good for your skin while leaving you feeling nice and refreshed.

4. Lip Treatments

So with the return of the masks, unfortunately means that my lips are back to being as dry as the Sahara. Never in a million years would I have imagined myself paying almost $20 for a lip balm, but these have become an actual favorite of mine. To be totally honest, I have two just because I hate going between bags and forgetting it in the other when I need it. So the mint flavored one lives in my work purse, meanwhile the tinted Rose one lives in my just regular purse (so that way there’s a bit of color on my lips when I’m going out to eat). I’m honestly probably way too obsessed, but with winter coming at least I know crusty lips aren’t in my forecast.

Thank you so much for joining me this week, and if you want to check out Fresh for yourself, I’ll have their website linked here. As always, if you want to keep up with me, all of my socials are linked in the bar. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your week, and see you next Friday!

A Beginner’s Guide to Self Tanner

by blondewithcoffeeJune 20, 2021

With the beginning of summer, there seems to come a sudden desire to be as tan as possible as fast as possible. For some people (like the younger version of me), this isn’t a problem. They walk outside and are immediately bronze. But for others, myself included, this just isn’t a reasonable option anymore. Whether it’s worries about skin cancer or just no time to lay out due to responsibilities (like a job), and that’s where self tanner comes in. Now, I think we’ve all known who’s gone in for a spray, and come out looking like a cheese puff. It’s not a look we like to see, so here’s my tips and tricks, as well as a few of my favorite self tanners, to give a try.

Exfoliate First!

So before you even put on self tanner, you need to prep your skin first, so shave and exfoliate. Personally, I have two forms of exfoliation I do: the St Tropez remover mitt and a sugar scrub. Now there’s two main reasons to do this: 1. Getting off all of the dead skin so you get the closest shave possible and super soft skin, but also 2. if you self tan regularly, you want to get off all of the excess or build up from the old so your new is as even as possible. As an example, my tan tends to wear down fastest around my elbows and armpits, while the rest of my body fades pretty evenly. Since I don’t want those spots to be way lighter, I need the rest of my body to match that particular shade when I apply new. Make sense?

2. Hydrate, Hydrate, Hydrate

One of the biggest mistakes most people make when self tanning is moisturizing AFTER they self tan instead of BEFORE. The fact is that the oils from your lotions are going to break down your self tanner faster so make sure that you apply lotion before, let that sink in, and then apply self tanner. I personally love Sol de Janero’s Bum Bum Cream or (a more affordable option) is Tree Hut’s Firming body cream (they almost smell the same!).

3. Choosing the Right Self Tanner for You

Let’s be clear: not all self tanners may be right for you, and not all self tanners are right for all occasions. On a personal level, I rotate between three different tanners, and sometimes I mix them to find my perfect color. If you’re worried about transferring color onto sheets or clothing, then a water mousse is going to be the best fit for you (give Tan Luxe’s Hydro Mousse or Tanologist’s Mousse a try.) Need to be tan by that night for a special event? Express Tans are going to be your friend (B. Tan’s Tan AF or Loving Tan’s Dark Express are my favs). Have no one to help you with your back, that’s what spray tans are for (the two best are St Moriz and St Tropez). The concoction I’m currently using is the St Moriz spray with the B. Tan mousse. I usually do the spray, rub that in with my mitt, let that sit for an hour, then top with the mousse. I sleep in baggy clothes to try and prevent as much transfer as possible, and then rinse in the morning. If I want to be a little darker, I will repeat the tan again the next night. After I’m to the level I want, I usually only have to touch up once a week.

4. The Art of Face Tanning

Applying self tanner to your face is a little different than applying to your body. For one thing, you basically have to tan your face every other day since the ingredients in your skincare tend to break the tan down faster. Me personally, I don’t like using mousse on my face; I just always think it looks streaky. Instead, I love using tanning drops and serums for my face with both of my favorites coming from Tan Luxe. When I use “The Face” drops, I only use one or two drops, then mix it with my moisturizer and apply (there is definitely some color, so you’ll know it’s nice and even). Compare that to “The Glow” serum (which is more along the lines of skincare), I use a full dropper full and then apply moisturizer. Both are amazing and the bottles last forever, I just like switching things up.

Thank you so much for tuning in, and I hope that these tips and tricks help you avoid a self tanning mishaps this summer. My socials are all linked if you want to give them a follow, and tune in next week to see what’s new!

Tula: Is It Worth the Hype?

by blondewithcoffeeMay 14, 2021May 13, 2021

It seems all over every influencer’s page nowadays, you can see the tell-tale teal package. Tula is a modern day success story of how to grow a brand by using social media. Constantly, you will see them pop up on feeds, limited edition skincare sets curated by different bloggers from all walks of life. But just like any brand you see being constantly promoted by sponsored posts, there’s a very big question mark. Does this stuff really work?

The first time I ever saw a Tula product was on instagram, and I remember it being the eye balm, and I was just completely surprised. I can remember it being one of the first times a skincare product ever caught my eye, but I was also a little skeptical and cautious. I have super sensitive skin, so trying anything that the dermatologist hadn’t suggested to me, I wasn’t something that I was jumping to try. That being said, I am also one of those people who love to chase down internet rabbit trails. So here’s what you need to know about Tula: it was founded by Dr. Roshini Raj, a gastroenterologist who for fifteen years has been studying the effects of probiotics and probiotics in beauty and wellness, it’s a clean brand that’s free of all harsh chemicals and sulfates, certified cruelty-free, with moves towards more sustainable packaging, and once you try them, you are going to be hooked for life.

My Tula Favorites

24/7 Moisturizer

With my eczema, my skin can be very dry (which honestly is kinda an understatement), but especially in the winter months. Enter stage right 24/7 moisturizer. This was the first Tula product I’ve ever tried, and honestly is one of the best moisturizers I’ve ever used. It contains probiotics and superfoods like shea butter, squalene, and vitamin c, and just leaves the skin feeling amazingly soft and hydrated.

2. Face Filter Primer

I have to be honest here, I don’t use this as a makeup primer. Instead, I think of face filter kind of as something that I can just throw on my face and head out the door while still looking put together. I guess I treat it like a tinted moisturizer (which now that there are shades of it, even better!), but at the same time, it’s even lighter than my tinted moisturizer. It is literally like I am just wearing the blurring insta filter around on my face all day. I have the original which is now sunrise in the shades.

3. Protect and Glow Sunscreen

An absolute for everyday, I’m absolutely obsessed. This sunscreen is lightweight, non greasy, and instead of a white cast, leaves you with a stunning glow. Pineapple and papaya (two of my favorite skincare ingredients) help with even skin tone, while the butterfly ginger root means not only are you protected from UV rays, you’re also protected from blue light (aka your phone and laptop screen)! Tula just announced that they’re making this in a supersize, so hopefully that means it takes longer for me to go through a tube.

4. Glycolic Acid Toner

Glycolic Toners are all the rage right now (I’m looking at you the Ordinary), but this one by far the best one I’ve tried. Not only do you get the resurfacing power of the glycolic acid, but you also get prebiotics and hydration factors being added back to your skin so that you’re not dying out your skin.

5. Dew Your Thing Moisturizer

Look, I know, I know. At the beginning of this post I said 24/7 was the best moisturizer I had ever tried, and I still stand by that. But just like how the seasons change so too does my skin, and living in Texas means 100 degree summers and a lot of sweat. I was needing something a little lighter on my skin, and dew your thing was just perfect. It’s oil free, more of a gel, and has prickly pear extract which is great, if like me, your skin tends to be more on the irritated and red side of things.

Linked below is the Tula page, as well as to Terracycle, an amazing program that Tula’s teamed up with to recycle their packaging. Make sure to keep an eye out for next Friday’s post and I hope you have a great week!

https://www.tula.com

https://www.terracycle.com/en-US/brigades/tula#rewards