My Skin Care Routine

In the past few months I've really amped up my skin care routine. I decided that I'm a big girl now, and I should be cleansing, toning, and moisturizing REGULARLY! Along with using face masks, serums, eye creams, night creams, day creams, and all those good things. I have always been good about cleansing nightly, and haven't been one of those people who are tempted to sleep in their makeup. No judgement! It's just not me. Cleansing in the morning, that's a different story.

In the morning, I cleanse with the Cetaphil Gentle Skin Cleanser, tone with whatever I have around, lately it's been the Muji Toning Water, and moisturize with the Vitamin C Daily Moisturizer SPF 30 from The Body Shop. I was using a different cleanser for a while but I wanted to go back to Cetaphil. I used that cleanser for years and had great skin. I've mentioned in my videos that my skin is reacting badly to the change in climate. Canada is very dry, and Japan is very humid. I'm hoping that using it again will help my stressed skin.

At night, when I need to take off my makeup, sometimes I just use the Cetaphil cleanser, but if I have eyeliner or heavy duty mascara on, I use the Shiseido TISS Deep Off Cleansing Oil (this stuff is amazing!) first, and then go in with the Cetaphil. I put a pump or two of the oil in my hand, massage it into my dry face. Then I apply the Cetaphil with wet hands and use a wet facecloth (if I have one around) to wipe everything off. I use the same toner at night. Lately, I've been using the Mineral Flowers Moisturizing Night Cream in chamomile wax and mud. It's really thick and designed for sensitive skin. Every other night I will use the Skin Food Black Sugar Perfect First Serum Gold on an exfoliating cotton pad and then pat into my skin. This serum is brightening and anti-wrinkle, and comes in the most beautiful bottle!

For spot treatment, I always keep a little bottle of tea tree oil from The Body Shop around. In Korea, I bought the Bee Venom Pink Spot which is a spot treatment specially designed for sensitive skin and soothes redness and irritation. I really notice a difference in the redness of my spots when I use this.

So that's my skin care routine! What skin care bits are you loving lately?

Thanks for reading!

Bath Time: Bubbles

So many happy baths!

On my youtube channel I've mentioned once or twice that I quite like my bathtub here, in Japan. Actually, I really like it. Okay, I totally love that thing! Now you know. Just to put everyone on the same page, Japanese-style bathtubs are a little different than Western-style tubs. In general, tubs in Japan are deeper and shorter. It's more for sitting up than lying down. Japanese people shower first, and then get in the bath to soak. A few people have told me that they have a bath every day. Although I am still definitely a shower girl (I don't have time for a bath every time I wash myself!), I have been having a lot of baths since meeting my new tub. In Canada, I would have a bath maybe three times a year. Bath covers are really common here, too. It keeps the heat in, and you can put things on it while you're in the bath, like a candle, or a book......or a glass of wine. Enough about the logistics! Time to get into the products!

My go-to bath product has been the shower gel from The Body Shop. It doubles as bubble bath and always smells amazing! Recently I've been using the Gold Fun bubble bath/shampoo/body wash from Lush. It smells like honey and toffee and makes the best bubbles that last for days! Another great thing is that you don't need very much to get a lot of bubbles. On a recent trip to Lush I picked up the vanilla scented Candy Mountain bubble bar. I've also tried and loved the Comforter bubble bar, which smells like black current. If sweet smells are not your thing I wouldn't recommend any of these, but if you are on the fence give these a sniff next time you find yourself in Lush.