A big part of being a beauty blogger is the process of trial and error. This is how we learn what works and what doesn’t right? It’s basically my job to try out beauty products and tell you how they work. But even at 6 years in the game, I’m not a beauty saint. Even though I know better, I still find myself committing all kinds of skincare sins. Here are my worst.
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— I’ve used eye serum all over my face. More than once.—Even though I know that there are specific places and specific ways to apply serum, my immediate reaction is to just slather it all over my face and neck because it feels like decadence. I’ve done this with fancy eye serums, even though I’ve been to enough skincare seminars and read more than enough about pore size and absorption and the reason face serums are formulated like they are versus eye serums for the thin skin of a specific area…and still I’ve found myself slathering Estee Lauder’s Advanced Night Repair Eye all over my face. Because it feels like heaven.
— My first instinct is to go off-label. It drives my husband crazy. I get a new product (this could be anything, from skincare to technology) and before I do anything so sensible as read the instructions, I’m trying to use it in the wrong way. It’s my inner five year old. I just want it to HAPPEN. I don’t want to read the fine print! Well, in hair products and skin care, you could be doing yourself a major disservice by not reading the instructions first. They’re there for a reason. It made such a huge difference when I used Belle Butters Neutralizing Butter for Oily Skin as recommended, as versus how I wanted to. I’m trying to do better, here. But that brings me to my next skincare sin….
— I get frustrated when it isn’t the product’s fault. I wind up in the awesome position of having too many products to review. It can be fun when it comes to makeup. When it comes to skin care, things can get tricky. Most skin care items come in a regimen, involving steps and an expected wait time before results are evident. And this is where I most often fall down. I am the one who doesn’t use the product consistently for the recommended length of time and then gets annoyed that the product isn’t working. That is me. Also, if the product seems to call for more time and preparation than I’m ready to give, it will most likely take me forever and a day to actually try it out the right way. Because, see skin care sin above.
— I touch my face way too much. This is a problem and it’s been ongoing since high school. I’ve gotten MUCH better about popping my pimples, and as I’m now in my thirties I am happy to say I get far fewer than I used to. There’s a direct correlation between my teen skincare (which involved eating unhealthy crap, not taking great care of my skin and using dirty fingers to pop my zits) to my early-thirties skin – now I try to eat right (most of the time), I take great care to keep my skin clean and moisturized (most of the time). But when I DO get a pimple? It’s so hard not to touch it. Even though I know I might be causing myself more stubborn hyperpigmentation, it’s hard to stop myself. At least now I’m more likely to use a Q-tip than my dirty fingers.
— I don’t wash my makeup brushes often enough. I don’t even want to go into detail. It’s just embarrassing and shameful. Moving on.
— I don’t always take off my makeup at night. I have a battalion of cleansing wipes and makeup removing liquids by my bedside just for this reason. But if I went out and had a REALLY good time, I am likely to just fall into bed and forget about the makeup until the morning light. There are times where I’ve woken up with the wipes right next to my hand, and a pillow case smeared with eyeliner. Makeup removal FAIL. That’s when you use an extra deep cleanser and your Clarisonic brush the next morning.
— Sometimes I really don’t care about skincare as much as I should. I can’t be the only one, right? When I see a wrinkle in my forehead, or notice the skin under my eyes looks less than brand new, I freak out and go into skincare overkill mode. But if everything more or less looks alright, I can get lax about taking care of my skin and sometimes having a set skincare regimen feels like a pain. I know it’s wrong. But it happens. I’m a work in progress and I’m trying to be better to my body’s largest organ.
These are my skincare confessions! What are yours? What skin care resolutions do you need to make for the new year?
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