My Skin Care Regimen

This post turned out a bit longer than I anticipated, but I’m glad you guys wanted to read it! This is another one that I decided on after running a poll in my Instagram stories, and your wish is my command. I take my skincare very seriously because a) I love makeup and I want to have a good palette to start working on and b) I spent a long time with a fair amount of acne. To be fair, it was never as bad as you see in Proactiv commercials, but decades of acne runs in my family. I’ve known for a long time that I shouldn’t expect my acne to stop when I became an adult, so I tried to adopt good skin care from a young age.

As I share my regimen, please keep in mind that I’m not a dermatologist or an esthetician. I’m sharing what I personally do and what I’ve heard from others, but I’m not telling you what you personally should do for your skin. If you’re struggling, see a professional! And make sure it’s someone with a license.

Last note before we get into my skincare regimen: if you shop online, use Ebates (affiliate). This is an awesome program that goes on your browser and gets you some cash back. When you go to a participating store’s website, you’ll get a notification including how much you can get in cash back, ranging from 1% to 10%. Every couple of months, you’ll get a deposit into your PayPal or a check. And that’s it!

This post contains affiliate links that (other than the one above) will not be marked as such. Thank you for supporting Kate the (Almost) Great!

First things first – this is what I look like without makeup! I wanted to share this so that you guys know what I look like after doing all of these things. And since my glasses are large and block some of my face, I took this picture without them so you can get a better idea of what’s hiding behind them. (I don’t wear contacts anymore because of inflammation around my eyes, but that’s a story for another day.)

What I Put in My Body

It’s super important to take care of your skin from the inside as well as from the outside. And since I strongly believe that these impact the quality of my skin, it’s necessary for me to be honest (and transparent) about what I put in my body that affects my skin. I don’t want to lie to you and say that only the things I put on top of my skin affect it, but you should also know that if I don’t do everything else in this post, my skin looks dull, it gets textured, and I break out.

Water – I drink SO much water. I mean, bottles and bottles of water. I mostly do this because my medications give me dry mouth and because my POTS is affected by how hydrated I am, but it has the added benefit of improving my skin. I see the standard 8 glasses of water a day as a suggestion and drink probably 6 bottles of water. This isn’t to say that you should be drinking as much as I do – I’m supposed to drink 2-3 liters of water due to POTS – but (again) just being transparent.

Fruits and veggies – I also eat a lot of produce. This is partially because I can’t eat gluten, dairy, corn, soy, or eggs, so I kind of have to eat very healthy. But it definitely helps my skin! If you’re not sure how good this can be for you, the Cleveland Clinic says, “Fruit, vegetables and dark chocolate supply antioxidants and vitamins that help protect your skin from free radicals and sun damage, which keeps the skin looking younger and more radiant” (x). So, basically the doctor says you should eat fruits and veggies and (most importantly) dark chocolate.

Hormonal birth control – I can’t lie: I’m on a medication that affects your hormones which affects your skin. For those of you who don’t know, I have endometriosis, which is a condition in which tissue like that in your uterus grows outside of the uterus. Because this is connected to the reproductive organs, one of the big treatments for it is birth control. I’m currently on an injection once every 3 months, and it has done wonders for my endometriosis. And it has the added benefit of helping my skin! My acne had already been calming down a bit in the previous years, and it got even better once I started this. BUT it has not eradicated my acne and it hasn’t done anything else for my skin. In fact, in order to keep my skin at the quality that I enjoy, I have to do alllll of the things that I’m about to tell you.

My Skin Care Regimen: Daily

Facial Scrub – I like to use a mild exfoliant scrub every morning because I have mostly oily skin. My favorite of all time is by L’Oreal, but I haven’t seen it much in recent years and couldn’t even find a link to it for this post, which makes me sad. When I can’t find that, I like the ones by Garnier and Bioré. Something you should know is that an esthetician friend of mine has said that the St. Ives scrubs are really terrible for your skin because they strip it way too much, so don’t use those!

Moisturizer with SPF – SPF is SO important! You need to wear sunscreen (or something with it) even on cloudy days. In recent years, one of my grandmothers has had to have skin care removed from her nose three times, so I’m super vigilant about SPF. I like to use a moisturizer with SPF in it, and really like the one from Neutrogena. Because I have mostly oily skin like I mentioned, I use their oil-free one.

Regular Moisturizer – While sunscreen is super important, you shouldn’t use it too much because it can clog up your pores. This is why I use a moisturizer without SPF at night. I’m currently using this one from the Sephora Collection and sometimes this one by First Aid Beauty, but I’ve also loved the Clinique one.

Toner – Between oily skin and a penchant for blackheads, there’s so much going on with my skin. This is why I like to use toner 1 to 2 times a day. (Today.com has a great list of reasons why you should use one.) I’m a big fan of the Pixi Beauty Glow Tonic! When I started using it, I saw an improvement in my skin within a week.

Makeup Remover – Don’t. Sleep. In. Your. Makeup. Every now and then is fine, but not regularly. It can super clog your skin! I’ve been using the Neutrogena wipes for years because they’re so easy and they work so well, but if you’re a bit better about saving Earth than I am, you might want to try another form of makeup remover and use reusable “wipes.”

Cleanser – And, of course, you need to use cleanser. I use one at night to get clean my skin and get rid of any lingering makeup. Once again, my all-time favorite is from L’Oreal and rarely found, but others that I like are the charcoal beauty one from Boscia and First Aid Beauty. The classic Cetaphil is also good, but it’s not as good in my experience as the others.

My Skin Care Regimen: Weekly

Face Mask – I try to do a face mask at least once a week to give my skin a little extra oomf and to help whatever is irritating it that week. I’ve accumulated a little stash of face masks that help with clogged pores, dull skin, and dry skin. This winter was actually the first time in my life that I started having problems with dry skin, which is why I said above that my skin is mostly oily. Recently, I’ve been loving the Origins mask for clogged pores, Sephora Collection sheet masks for brightening and nourishing, and the Boscia charcoal mask for clogged pores. | My Favorite Face Masks

Peel – Last year, Influenster sent me a Vitamin C peel to try and review. I enjoyed it, but kind of ignored it – until recently! A few weeks ago, my skin started to feel off. I can’t really explain it other than to see it was kind of a texture thing. On a hunch, I did the peel again and afterwards my skin was so soft that I couldn’t stop touching it. (Which, you know, isn’t the best thing for it, but it was also kind of involuntary.) It also started looking brighter! I’m going to keep doing this peel weekly, and I’ll get back to you in the next currently post if it does something even better.

Pore Stripes – Ah, pore strips. The most necessary tool for people with oily skin and regularly clogged pores like myself. I’ve been doing these weekly for what feels like years. The pores on my nose is almost always clogged with gunk and I feel like I’m never not pulling stuff out if it (gross, I know, but it’s true). In my years of using these, I’ve actually discovered that you need to keep these on longer than the box says. The Bioré box, at least, to keep them on for 15 minutes. I keep them on until more like 1-1.5 hours. This is because you’re supposed to wait for the strip to become firm and dry, and that takes a lot longer than 15 minutes. 2 hours is so long that not much is pulled out, but 1 hour is often too short. It might take a while to find what works for your skin. And who knows, maybe your skin only needs 15 minutes. Like I mentioned, I use the Bioré ones. I’ve tried others, including higher-end and K-beauty ones, but the Bioré ones are the best.

My Skin Care Regimen: Less Often

Facial – Okay, so I’ve only done this two or so times before, but it should be included. Again, I’m not an esthetician, let alone a licensed one, so everything I do to my skin is amateur hour. Sometimes, you just need to have a professional take a gander at your face.

Spot Treatment – This Clean & Clear spot treatment has been my saving grace for probably a decade now. Whenever I start to feel pimples coming, I put this on them. Sometimes, it prevents them from becoming a full-blown pimple. Sometimes, it just helps me weather the pimple storm. Either way, I can’t recommend it enough!

What’s your skin care regimen?

Like this post? Share it and check out:

Everyday Summer Makeup, The Best Fair Skin Makeup, Top Drugstore Makeup, Why You Should Be Buying ColourPop Makeup