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!

My Makeup Brushes

These are my brushes. The cups are from Daiso. So cute right?! Starting with the eyebrow spoolie near the top and going clockwise the brushes are:

Sonia Kashuk spoolie brush #127
Real Techniques duo-finer contour brush
The Body Shop eyeshadow brush
Real Techniques stippling brush
ELF concealer brush
The Body Shop blusher brush
Real Techniques duo-fiber eye brush
Real Techniques blush brush
Quo liner/brow brush
Real Techniques duo-fiber face brush
Quo all over shadow brush
Only Minerals foundation brush
The Body Shop eyeshadow blender brush

Bath Time: Bombs, Salts, and Tablets

It's this picture again! Hurray!!!

If you're not into bubbles I've got a few bath fizzy things that will make your skin soft and smell nice. One I will definitely be repurchasing is the Butterball. It's a vanilla scented bomb with chunks of cocoa butter. I recommend this if you suffer from dry skin, especially in the winter! With the Christmas season approaching, there's a lovely assortment of holiday scented things. The Bombardino is a lemon pie scented bomb, full of cocoa butter bits. I used this one last night and it was amazing! It smells great and made my skin feel so nice! The Melting Snowman, and regular Snowman are in my stockpile.

Muji bath tablets only promise to make your bath smell nice, not to benefit your skin, but they're much cheaper than Lush or the Body Shop. When I bought them I saw that Muji has a selection of bath salts. On further inspection, they all seem to be advertised at 'medicated bath salts'. I find this concerning. If anyone knows what they actually do, leave me a comment.

I know bath products are luxury items, and can be expensive. You can get two baths out of some bath bomb or bubble bar.

How do you like to enjoy your baths? Let me know what bath-time things you're loving! (A particular book, magazine, podcast, wine, tea, or Hot Toddy recipe can count as bath accessories, too). Lately I've been listening to the Savage Lovecast or Throwing Shade podcast while I soak. I highly recommend both!

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.

Christmas Times at Lush and The Body Shop

Christmas time at Lush!

Melty snowmen are the cutest!

One of the many things I love about the Christmas season is all the special holiday scents and characters. Every year I pick up the Cranberry Joy body wash from the Body Shop. I picked up a couple regular items, too: grapeseed glossing serum for hair, and the All-in-One BB Cream. I will post a separate review for the BB cream soon. Tyler picked up a travel shampoo and conditioner set for dry hair.

I'm not sure what the names of all the bath products I got from Lush are, so I'll just describe them. First, bought two more of the little tea tree fizzing discs. I tried one in October and liked it. There are two melty snowmen which were too cute to resist! They smell like warm spices! I think the spots on them are made of cinnamon and nutmeg. I used one and got two baths out of it, and probably could have used it one more time if I really wanted to. The other snowman, wearing a red scarf has cocoa butter in it, I think. The last bath bomb looks like a little round head wearing a hat. It smells sweet, warm, and happy! Finally, I picked up the candy mountain bubble bath. I LOVE the Lush bubble baths. This one smells really sweet, which is not something I normally go for, but I really like it.

I'm a sucker for holiday bath and body stuff! I just love it! 

What do you look forward to getting around the holidays?

Lipstick Challenge: Day 8

The Body Shop colour crush in 110. 

I could not resist adding another coral shade to my collection. I've been obsessed since April with all things in this colour family. However, it's time to get down to brass tacks. 

 My first complaint is that there is no name for this colour on the tube. I love reading the names of shades different make up. After doing a little online searching I found the name for this shade is coral blush. It also says that this is supposed to be a matte lipstick, which it clearly is not.

This was not part of my original batch of makeup when I started this challenge but having picked it up this weekend in Hiroshima, I had to wear it right away. 

This lipstick smells like honey or maybe nectar. It's so sweet and pretty! These lipsticks are new  to the body shop so I don't know much about them. They claim to have 'high-impact colour' and be very moisturizing with a rose scent. I don't know exactly what this scent is, but I have never smelled a rose like that. 

This product applies smoothly but can leave my lips feeling a little grainy. I find it lasts a little longer if I give it time to soak in before drinking or doing something else that might cause it to wear off. I don't love this formula but I'm willing to give it some time.

In conclusion, I love the colour, the packaging, and the smell. The rest is passable.