So as many of you know I'm a full time Beauty Therapist and been working as a qualified Decleor Specialist for 4 and a half years now (alongside many other amazing brands I'm going to blog about too, so watch out.) But for some reason, I think it's cause I'm doing it all day every day, I take my beauty knowledge for granted and don't blog about it.
So I've decided to share with you an incite of my knowledge, which clients pay a lot for my advice and also share with you my personal skin care routine.
So if you use any type of facial wipe what so ever either BIN them NOW or exit this page immediately cause alongside soap and water they are my absolute HELL, BUG BARE and the number one reason why young girls have crap skin.
To explain it a little better, would you get home from a night out, pour a little bit of vodka on a cotton pad and proceed to take your makeup off with it? No? Then why are you using these chemically alcohol wipes to cleanse your face? You're spending all this money on expensive makeup so why aren't you looking after the canvas underneath?
I'm going to try and not get to technical here as I can go off on one with this subject. But your skin is basically made up of an acid (your acid mantle) which is your natural protection barrier for all outside elements (free radials) and pollution.
Face wipes and soaps are an alkaline and like a chemical reaction back in school, when an alkaline and an acid combine they turn your pH scale to neutral meaning bye bye natural protection layer, bye bye acid mantle. Your skins now fully exposed to free radicals and pollution to eat away at all your natural goodness and if you're not putting a good moisturiser on too, all the chemicals in your makeup are now free to soak deep into your skin. YUMMY!
So I can now hear you saying you don't have enough time.. worst excuse in the world.
Sometimes in a not so perfect world I forget my cleansers and toners and end up borrowing face wipes when I'm drunk off friends (who refuse to listen) and I'm literally scrubbing and scrubbing and scrubbing. My eye makeup will NOT budge, my skins getting red and sore and I'm on my 3rd wipe cause my makeup won't come off in one go.
One blob of cleanser into my hands, rubbed together and applied all over my face. One hot muslin cloth or cotton pad. Rub a dub dub.. off in one go and your skins feeling fresh and silky smooth. A little blob of toner onto a cotton pad to close your pores and you're feeling completely refreshed in less than two minutes.
So now I've got THE most important point (alongside moisturising which is self explanatory) off my chest, heres my personal skin care routine, featuring my little Polyvore collage *smug emoji face*
1. Decleor Cleansing Milk - (large white bottle) massively important to use day and night to cleanse and refresh the skin leaving it hydrated and nourished.
2. Decleor Eye Makeup Remover - (smaller blue bottle) such a luxurious oily textured product, not 100% necessary as a lot of the time the cleansing milk removes all my eye makeup too. But for when I've got more stubborn eye makeup on or eyelash glue entwined into my lashes this takes it all away in one sweep without upsetting my extremely sensitive eyes as it's all natural.
3. Decleor Tonifying Lotion - (large pink bottle) after cleansing comes toning to refresh the skin and close all those open pours so no nasties can get inside.. Did you know the pours take up to 8hours to close on their own naturally? So get toning before applying ANYTHING else to your skin.
4. Decleor Neroli Serum - (small serum top left) a serum is a POWER product that you apply before your moisturiser. Basically the molecules of a moisturiser sit on top of the skin, nourish your surface layer and protect your skin from nasties. A serum has much smaller molecules meaning it can travel through every layer of your skin treating skin before it's even surfaced meaning your treating the skin as it's being produced, rather than when it's to late. A serum also makes your moisturiser 63% more efficient when rain dropped on to the skin before hand.
5. Decleor BB Cream - (tall slim tube) I use this is my daily moisturiser as it has all the properties of the Hydra Floral moisturiser, with an SPF 15 and it's tinted to make me look more glowing on makeup free days and provides a good base for my makeup too.
6. Decleor Hydra Floral Eye Cream - (small yellow tube) your eyes are so so important as they're the area that shows your age. The skin around the eyes is so so delicate so needs extra special attention to help hydrate and nourish. Applying thick creams directly onto the delicate skin creates puffiness as the cream has nowhere to go. A light eye cream is to be applied along the eye bones and will expand to where it needs to go as it soaks into your skin.
7. Decleor Neroli Night Balm - (middle jar) made up of the same properties of the serum, the balm is a much more intense version that you apply after cleansing before you go to sleep. The balm is very luxurious and feels thick when applying. The balm sits on the skin and cleverly drip feeds its goodness into your skin over 8 hours whilst you sleep. Leaving you waking up with it completely soaked in and your skin looking amazing and rejuvenated. (fave product)
8. Decleor Hydra Floral Mask - (bottom right tube) an amazing hydrating mask for when your skins feeling a little dull and dehydrated. Massage the creamy formula into the skin until left with a fine oil, leave on for 10minutes and instantly fine lines are smoothed out and skin is feeling plumped and refreshed.
So there we have it, my skin care routine.
Hope you've all found this interesting, BINNED your face wipes and learnt a little more about the importance of looking after your skin.
You might look a million dollars now whilst you're in you're in your twenties but it's not going to last forever. If you're spending decent money on makeup, why aren't you spending decent money on its canvas? Cause thats the thing you're gonna have to live in for another 60+ years!
Let me know if you found this useful and if you'd like more beauty specific posts?
Heather xxx
