My evening skincare routine

After doing a morning skincare routine a few weeks ago (you can find the post here), it’s time to show you my evening skincare routine.  I’m a big fan of double cleansing.  I take my make-up off first and than proceed with this routine.  So what I’m showing you here is what I do after I take my make-up off.

First, cleansing.  If you’ve read my morning skincare routine you know I’m a big Neutrogena fan so it should come as no surprise that you’ll find a lot of Neutrogena in this post. For my evening cleanse I use the Pore Refining exfoliating cleanser.  It contains Alpha and Beta Hydroxy acids and also contains little beads for a scrub like’effect.  The beads aren’t harsh in any way but they do make your skin feel really clean and ‚new’.  

One thing though: this really hurts when you get it into your eyes.  I know, you’re not supposed to get products in your eyes but when I rinse this off and open my eyes to grab a towel, somehow I always get some in my eyes and it really stings.  

Next up: toner.  At night I like a toner that’s not as soft as the one I use in the morning.  I’m currently using the Pore Refining Toner by Neutrogena.  You can just feel it working without drying out the skin.  It feels like it does more than just take away the leftovers from the cleanser without being aggressive.  My skin feels thoroughly cleansed after this step.

Under my eyes I use Kiehl’s Midnight Recovery Eye.  I’m a firm believer of eye creams and this one is great to use at night.  It’s a very creamy substance that really needs time to sink in but it makes my under eye area feel really hydrated at morning.  Does it do something for my wrinkles?  Well, yes and no.  If you have wrinkles around the eyes, they always seem ‚better’ when you use a good eye moisturizer.  Dry lines just seem so much worse than they really are.  So yes, it does something for the lines around my eyes but I don’t feel like this one really ‚battles’ them (if that’s even possible).  

For my face I start off with a hydrating serum, currently loving the Indeed Labs Hydraluron serum.  I’m so into the retinol and acids these days that I sometimes forget that I have a normal to dry skin.  My forehead and chin are normal and my cheeks are dry.  My day and night creams all have their purpose but they aren’t moisturizing enough for my cheeks so I use this serum at night, on my cheeks mainly.

Last step is my night cream.  This Retin-oc correction nourishing anti-wrinkle cream by ROC is a joy to put on.  It makes my skin feel really good and smells really good (according to the man sleeping next to me at night).

I also put on a really moisturizing lip balm at night like Rosebud salve or Bite Beauty’s agave lip mask.

So here you have it, my daily nighttime skincare routine.  To be honest, I think I need to do this again in a few months because I’m running out of Neutrogena products and the way things are looking now I won’t be going back to the states in the next few months so I’m going to have to do some research as to what to replace them with.  If you have any suggestions you can always leave them in the comments down below.

My morning skincare routine

A few years ago I read an article on allure.com about creams that contain retinol and a dermatologist recommended the Neutrogena Rapid Wrinkle Repair range saying it was the best drugstore buy and even better than some high end creams.  Naturally my interest was sparked, especially since you can’t find the Neutrogena skincare range in Europe (well, you’ll find some product lines in Boots in the UK but not all of them).  I only knew Neutrogean from their very moisturizing, very effective but also very no-nonsense hand creams so learning about their skincare range made me very very curious.

Back to spring 2014 when we went road tripping in the USA.  First stop as usual: Walmart, first beauty product I bought: Neutrogena Rapid Wrinkle repair night cream and eye cream.  I remember putting on the eye cream and the wrinkles around my eyes actually started to tingle. Tingle is good I thought, that means that it works.  And so it did.  After using the products for a few weeks I saw myself in an elevator and thought ‚where are my wrinkles, my skin looks good’.  Of course the lighting had a lot to do with that but nevertheless, my skin looked good.  Ever since then , Neutrogena has become a regular in my skincare routine and every time I visit the USA I bring home a new supply.

So, my morning skincare you wonder?  Well, I start by cleansing my face with the Neutrogena Pore Refining daily cleanser.  Aside from wrinkles, I don’t like big pores and for that I love to incorporate my Alpha and Beta hydroxy acids.  

This cleanser is a gentle one though, it doesn’t make my skin feel dry in any way and I feel really fresh and clean after using it.  

Next up: toner.  In the morning I try to use more gentle products than at night just in case my skin turns a little red.  I do not want to go through the day with a red face, if it turns red at night at least there are 8 hours left for it to calm down before anyone sees me.  This Alcohol free toner is very gentle, it’s a very watery solution, not at all creamy like some toners are.

Step 3: serum.  To stay true to my Neutrogena love I put on the Rapid Wrinkle Repair serum.  I put my contacts in while this sinks into my skin.  It doesn’t take long before it’s almost completely gone.

Serum is on, contacts are in, time for some eye cream.  As I mentioned before I love the Rapid Wrinkle Repair eye cream, I still have a new tube in my closet yet I’m currently using something else.  Simply because I had it, it was open and it would be a waste to not use it before it turns bad.  So I put on the Kiehl’s Eye Alert eye-cream.  Made to combat puffiness and dark circles, now dark circles I have not but puffiness is a bit of an issue.  So does this one work, not as much as a gallon of coffee does but it does freshen up the under eye area.  

I finish with my Neutrogena Rapid Wrinkle Repair moisturizer with sunscreen (spf 30).  After that I start my daily makeup routine.

I’m very strict about the steps of my morning skin care routine, the products may vary over time but the ‚system’ stays the same.  I never skip this, if I ever skip something it’s usually my evening routine.  I know, I know but hey, sometimes I feel like I’m sleepwalking to my bedroom and taking care of my face is the last thing on my mind when I’m in such a state.

So there you have it, my morning skincare routine.  Later this week you can expect my nighttime skincare routine to pop up on the blog.