Dysfunctional Planner

In preparation for our wedding I realised how unhappy I was in myself. The things I disliked were all changeable. My weight (mainly the belly wobble) and my skin. I don’t know a lot about skincare just that you cleanse, tone and moisturise. My skin has never been great so I started looking at my routine.

I didn’t have one.

I don’t wear a lot of makeup. Tinted moisturiser, eyeliner, mascara and a bit of blusher. That’s it. And most of the time, I don’t wear that.

I am sporadic at best with my skincare routines, a soap and water kind of girl. I thought a toner was a makeup remover, Whoops!

I started listening to a few influences online….which was a mistake. I forgot their point of view was that they are trying to sell me products. I wish I hadn’t rushed into my skincare before doing my research, this was a huge mistake and truly needed to understand the products I was putting on my skin.

I needed to learn about what I was applying to my skin.

My mum has always bought me Elemis which is so lovely and luxurious.

Just a few of my Elemis products ( I love them all)

I did use the moisturiser I will be honest and say I didn’t realise exactly what the other bits where for, although I would occasionally use them. My very expensive cleansers would sit on the side gathering dust.

Skin care shame.

When I started focusing on my skin, I started gathering my products and realised I had a ton of them: Elemis, Decleor, Lancome. I went through them and figured out what I like and what I didn’t. I moved them around the bathroom and separated them into holiday supplies, use now and started my own routine.

The simple 3 step programme.

Cleanse, Tone and Moisturise.

Although my skin looked healthier it didn’t improve as much as I had hoped. After talking to my mum, she said that I needed an exfoliator in my routine as well.  I went out and bought a Neutrogena one which had tough, scratchy grains in it that seemed to strip my face but not leave it looking good.

This has been moved to my shower as a body scrub.

I kept making mistakes. I needed more advice and needed to know how to use the products.

So I returned to YouTube.

All these influencers where always talking about misters to hydrate their skin during the day. I was like, hell yes I need a £18 mister in my life!

Gavin changed lotion to potions can you spot it?

I am easily influenced as you can see

They had an offer on in boots for Elizabeth Arden and you get some cute products if you buy another item and my barely their eyebrows needed a new brow pencil. Hey presto I ended up spending over £30 and getting lots of odd samples. So I followed the instructions for Prevage, liked the cleanser (holiday size and lovely) booster ( not sure what that did), eye serum that felt scratchy on my eyes (pretty sure that is not good) and the face serum.

This is not just any face serum this was heaven in a tube.

I loved it, people commented on my skin looking good (no one ever does this)

I googled the price and have started buying lottery tickets so I can afford it. But at £170 it is way out of my price range although if I am being honest I think it is totally worth it. 5ml gave me two weeks’ worth of serum. My skin was happy and glowy.

So maybe as a treat for my birthday who knows!

This is when I went a little crazy… as in shopping like someone who has a lot of money when I don’t. I needed a night moisturiser and the only brand I trusted was Elemis.  I called my mum for advice again and she said to go on QVC and see if they had a deal. They didn’t but I could get a large pot 100ml for £100 and pay off in interest free instalments. Now this sounds crazy. I know I am but I love this night cream.

The only way I can describe it is that my skin sings when I put it on, like in a halleluiah type of way.

I bought it, it arrived and then the next week, QVC did an offer on it, of course they did! And I could have waited but I was so impatient that I bought it.

It is lovely- and I love it. So tough.

So I watched a lot of you tube influencers and I started buying products that they recommended without doing any research on them. My shelves are now filled with beauty products of potions as my Fiance likes to call them. I have to rotate them to get the use out of them. Some of them aren’t suitable and cost a lot of money. I was making financial mistakes.

Money that I could have saved for my wedding.

I wish my mum lived closer so we could have gone shopping together instead of me listening to every Youtuber out their but in the end,  I found two who I really like and now trust their advice as they talk about a lot of products not just their favourites.

https://www.gothamista.com/

Renee is like a Skincare goddess she really knows the science behind products and her skin is flawless! She doesn’t really sell products just discusses what each of them does. She also isn’t biased by price and often talks about cheaper brands that do the same job. I love her. Trust her.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcjxyzWCYXGstZeUfHfM6Hg

Then there is Stephanie Nicole who refers to herself as Dragon Lady because of her nails, she has a husky voice, fillers and Botox. It is her self-deprecating nature, honesty and frankness that I like. She is happy to say she doesn’t like a product and again she talks about the actual science that goes into the ingredients. She knows her stuff and I find her totally refreshing.

I never cared about skin care before ever.

Now I do

Now I have a routine. I love it. With my night time routine I like to take my time with it and I look forward to it, even when I am drunk or just exhausted, I make time to cleanse my skin.

It is improving, I can see the difference, fewer break outs. Less dry patches.

It is getting there.

I will have gorgeous skin by the time I get married, I just don’t have to hit my wedding budget to get there.

So make sure you do your research and don’t make the mistakes that i did. Skin care is so important, I am still learning.

Dana