MORNING SKINCARE ROUTINE FOR SENSITIVE SKIN

I reckoned it was about time to dive into skincare. I have extremely sensitive skin. My face will burn if I put the wrong thing on it. So it’s taken a long time to even start to figure out what to put on my finicky bastard of a face. I’ve bought so many skincare bits over the years that I really wanted to try because everyone talked about how great they were, but I just can’t use so many of them without reacting. So the solution that I’ve come to for now is to be realistic about what my skin can take and keep it super simple. I stick to skincare brands tailored to sensitive skin – mostly French pharmacy brands.

One of the newer additions to the routine is La Roche Posay Toleriane Dermo Cleanser. I don’t hear much about it in the blog world, but I think that’s because it’s a very weird cleanser. It’s definitely not one that I love the feeling of, but it is extremely calming. It’s kind of a gel texture, but a bit more slippery (probably all the glycerine in it). I wouldn’t use to remove makeup; it’s much more suited to a morning refresher. The thing that takes some getting used to with this cleanser is it leaves a distinct moisturizing film behind. It’s nice that it really isn’t stripping, but I can see how it might weird some people out to have that left behind by your cleanser. At any rate, a flannel helps to remove some of the film.

I follow that up with one of two products (some days I skip these steps if I feel like my skin just needs a breather). If I’m feeling a bit spotty I throw on a light layer of La Roche Posay Effaclar Duo. I’m sure most of you have heard of this product by now, but it’s just a moisturizer with a small amount of salicylic acid in it. It isn’t one of those products that’s worked miracles for me, like it has for some people, but it’s good to have in the arsenal because it’s lot more mild than a lot of other salicylic acid products.

If I’m not using the Effaclar Duo, I use the Avene Antirougeurs Fort. It’s a thick cream intended to sooth skin and protect my skin from getting too irritated during the day. Lisa Eldridge recommended this for irritated, red skin in her Beauty Nightmere Solutions video, and I would do pretty much anything that woman tells me to do. Seriously, if she told me that setting fire to my face would fix it... I'm not saying that I would do it... but yeah I'd definitely do it. Sadly, I’m still not totally sure how much of a difference the Avene is making to be honest. I’ll have to keep you posted.

Now it's time to moisturize. Getting real nice and moist. If my skin isn’t too dried out from a treatment I use in the evening (which I’ll talk about in my next post) then I use a bit of a lighter moisturizer. Eucerin Replenishing Face Cream is excellent for this. It still is very moisturizing, but it feels light weight. It’s also really easily accessible and affordable in almost any drugstore. However, if my skin has been ravished the night before I go in with the big guns. That. Sounded. Cool. Anyways, the big guns refer to La Roche Posay Toleriane Riche. It’s much thicker and creamier than the Eucerin and it doesn’t absorb as quickly, but if my skin is really parched I quite like that. My only grip with this product is the packaging sucks. Once you use up the first bit of the product it’s so damn hard to get the rest out of the tube.
 
Finally, I throw on a lip balm and I gone get. I’m using the infamous Nuxe Reve de Miel lip balm at the mo’ only because I wanted to see what all the fuss was about and, well, it smells yummy.