Hello everybody, welcome back to my channel where skincare is all about
progression over perfection. Because, perfection doesn't exist. I always
describe my channel and myself as a skin care reviewer,
a product reviewer, a skincare review channel because that's,
that's all it is, right. I'm a consumer, and I feel like my job here is to test
everything so you don't have to. So you kind of know what is worth your
money. However, skincare and doing your skin and looking after your skin
isn't all about spending money. And with that in mind, I want to share some free
ways that you can improve your skincare routine,
hack your routine, as the kids say. No, no one calls it hacks anymore. I don't know,
do people still watch hacks? I don't know. Tips and tricks that will help you
improve your skin, and your skincare routine.
Let's start off with the first tip, and the sponsor actually of today's video,
and that is One Thing but more about them in a
second. I want to talk about toners. You know how much I love toners, I put toner
everywhere, all over my face, hands, neck, everywhere. But I want to share a few
masking tips I do with my toners, just to kind of keep my skin hydrated whatever I'm
using, that kind of give the mask that we use a boost of
hydration. The sponsor of this segment of the video is One Thing, and you may
recognize them from my video way back called, 'Skincare you'll actually want'. One
Thing create this amazing single ingredient... hang on, I like some
single-ingredient brands. Single-ingredient toners, and essences,
mixing liquids, whatever you want them to be. They're very versatile.
Using all naturally derived ingredients, and eliminating any unnecessary costs.
The whole brand gives me like English apothecary, apothecary vibes, and I love
to have them just like sitting out on my vanity.
But I use their products as a toner, I use them as an essence, I use them
sometimes as a serum but one thing I do like to do, as I showed you last week, is
turn cotton pads whether they're reusable,
biodegradable, I like to turn them into a mini sheet mask. So I soak them in toner,
then put them on areas of like irritation. For example, I will use
Centella where my cheeks are getting flushed, when I have areas of
like itchy irritation in order to calm those areas down. But I also
like to mix these into masks that you leave on to dry. So, a clay mask, I would
mix this in. It stops it first of all, from drying out
fully, kind of adds hydration into that clay mask so it doesn't dry out, and
overly strip your skin. If you are familiar with Korean skincare and
K-beauty, you may have heard of modeling masks. If
you haven't heard of a modeling mask you're missing out. Modeling masks are
like a powder that you mix with a liquid, and then you
kind of put it on your face and let it dry out. Despite how they look and sound,
they actually calm and can help hydrate the skin,
whilst also eliminating excess sebum and oils. Which is why I personally use them,
because you don't get that drying effect that you can often get from a clay mask.
So the One Thing modelling mask actually contains Hyaluronic Acid, so you're
getting that level of hydration. Collagen, which is really just there for
moisture and nutrition in the skin. It gives you that bouncy feel to your skin.
It's not putting collagen in your skin but it's keeping it nicely moisturized.
There's something called Houttuynia Cordata. Obviously, I pronounced that
wrong but this helps calm irritated and
inflamed skin. As I mentioned, on top of this you
mix in your favorite toner, essence, mixing liquid extract to really
boost those benefits. As I mentioned, I use Centella Asiatica to help calm
down the redness from rosacea, flushness, irritation.
So really most of the time. And we also have Niacinamide as well, which also
helps calm the redness on the skin but obviously gives you that brighter,
more even tone to your skin. So super easy to use.
After you wash your face, you mix it all together, the ratio is 30 grams or two
spoons with a one to one ratio mixed with water.
I swap out the water for an extract. You mix it together, and quickly apply a
thick layer all over your skin. You wait about 15 to 20 minutes, and then
you remove this from your skin. It comes off really, really easily, and any little
bits of modelling mask you have left on your skin,
you can just wipe away. But yes, adding that dose of hydration to products that
you allow to dry on your skin, then wash away,
really, really prevents any of that kind of... so yes, adding those extracts,
toners, essences, to modeling masks, clay masks, to cotton
pads, really, really can give your skin that
extra dose of hydration. The next tip is to use SPF lip balm
around your eyes. Now, this is a bit of an odd one because I know a lot of people
hate wearing sunscreen because it can, amongst other things, it can make you
look sweaty, greasy, if you haven't found the right one for you, and it can sting
your eyes really bad. There are chemical sunscreens that I
love that don't sting my eyes, and all of a sudden
a week later they might sting my eyes, and I don't know why. Maybe I got it too
close to my eyes, because product can travel around. So one thing I
started to do, is actually use an SPF lip balm around my eyes
instead. In my personal experience these don't sting for a few reasons,
one, usually because they're Zinc Oxide Titanium Dioxide based
but two, the formulas are different. They're usually less fluid, they're in
that stick form and kind of, I find with the fluid
sunscreens is that, as I mentioned, like eye creams if you
put them around here, they can travel if you put them around here you can
sweat, and it all goes into your eyes. With lip balms they're a lot thicker,
they tend to stick into place. Now, it is difficult to find a sheer lip
balm that is an SPF 50. I've, I've got one but it's quite easy to find
lip balms that are an SPF 30, so I usually use them around the eyes.
This means I can comfortably go about my day, if I'm being a little bit more
active outside, without crying, without stinging and
streaming. Team these with sunglasses and you're very, very well protected.
Listen, I used to hate wearing sunglasses inside,
or seeing people wear sunglasses because I used to think like, oh, they think
they're famous, like walking around all like, oh don't
look at me. But it's the best sun protection you're gonna get for the eye
area. So just wear them, you know. So this is actually an old video that
I'm redoing. The old video had a sponsor that I didn't like, so I put it on
private. So, you may have heard the next two
before but brushing your teeth before you wash your face, and washing your hair
before you wash your body are two things that I do, to avoid
breakouts and irritation. And I did mention this again a few months back but
a lot of people are kind of confused, because I didn't really explain it but both of
these have some potential to break you out. So,
toothpaste contains some ingredients that are obviously formulated for your
teeth, that when left on your face can potentially cause some irritation. We
have things like Fluoride. In a lot of American toothpastes you
actually have like Cinnamon or Cinnamol, and also SLS, which is in our skincare
but obviously in a different formulation, a different
percent. So for me, personally, I found toothpaste left on the skin to be
incredibly drying. It will get to the point where it will dry out my skin,
and I get like a, like down here, I get like a redy itch kind of thing.
So it's important to brush your teeth first, and then wash your face and
cleanse away all that foamy toothpaste dribble,
that could be getting down here. Especially if you have facial hair, you
need to get it all out of there as well, because that can settle in and really
cause some dryness, and itchiness, and flakiness under the beard. The same goes
for shampoos and conditioners, they contain some oils, some ingredients that
your skin may find a bit too heavy and cloggy. They can also break you out
around the hairline. Again, like any foam suds that get down here, in the beard,
down the back of the head, on your shoulders, neck, on your bum cheeks.
If you don't wash these away, and cleanse these away they can lead to breakouts. I
had really bad breakouts on my shoulders, on
my shoulders, lower neck, down here as well, and the moment I changed the order
that I did stuff in the shower. Which, it seems crazy to me now, to leave
washing your hair until last. It sounds really weird. The moment I did
that, the mystery breakout stopped. The next tip, is that I want you to
overuse your skincare products. Bear with me, this sounds really, really
awful, and wasteful. But, something I started doing right at the
beginning of the pandemic is over using skincare products, and then
putting them on my hands, like a hand cream. So, I'd put
enough on my face and there'd be plenty left on my hands I could then rub into
my hands. They say that your hands and neck are
like the first places that you can see the real signs of aging. You know when
people get a facelift, and people like, like look at the hands and the neck
to see their true age. Now, I'm not bothered about the aging side of things
but what this tells me is, that those areas need
a little bit more attention. Obviously we know that we should be putting
everything on our face down to our neck, right down here but now anything I put
on my face, and neck goes straight onto my hands as well.
Toners, essences, serums, moisturizers, not chemical exfoliants. And I do have a
separate SPF hand cream that I absolutely love. But I have been
finding that in the long run, after constantly doing this for about...
how long has it been now? Like six months? I'm having to reach for hand cream
less. I'm washing and sanitizing as much as usual but I'm reaching for the hand
cream less. But on that note, like I do with my face,
I leave everything kind of damp and then lock it in with a big heavy occlusive
moisturizer, a big occlusive hand cream, a nice thick one.
And this really, really has been helping in the long run as well. Your hands are
your skin too. What? Yeah, yeah. no. I'm just repeating
myself here for the one millionth time. I do everything on damp skin,
especially your moisturizers and toners, anything with hydrating ingredients in,
do it on damp skin. Not actives though. The idea is that
putting products onto damp skin helps the product penetrate the skin
better, and of course helps your hydrating and moisturizing products
hydrate and moisturize better. Obviously, they usually are packed with humectants.
So putting water on your skin, or applying to damp skin
allows those humectants to really hold onto that water, and retain your
hydration. And in turn, that hydrated skin looks
plump, it looks healthy, it feels healthy. And I do this
especially when my skin is irritated, because when my skin is irritated it's
usually lacking hydration. So, adding that hydration back to my skin
stops any itchiness, irritation, inflammation. It really calms everything
down. But the main reason I do this, is for the
look that it gives my skin. It gives my skin this constant plump
look without being greasy all throughout the day. If your skin is
dull, tired, and matte looking, that's not necessarily bad, I just don't like matte
looking skin. Applying products onto damp skin is
gonna make your skin look alive, and dewy, and bright,
and healthy but then you must use an occlusive moisturizer over the top to
help lock everything in. This is a great thing for
us oily people, if you want that dewy glowy look without having to,
you know, apply any kind of like heavy, greasy, oily kind of products,
this is a great way to do that, in light layers. Let me know if you have any more
kind of like free ways to hack your skincare routine, improve your
skincare routine thus improving your skin. Leave those in
the comments down below. You can watch some more skincare routines, I'll put
here, there's some general light entertainment
here as well. Again, thank you to One Thing for sponsoring today's video,
please check out their products and all the links in the description box down
below, I absolutely love them. But that is it for me, I will see you next time.