I did a full blog post last October with the products I use daily, HERE. And another post with my favorite masks HERE. If you want a full review of each product, check out those posts.

Here is a breakdown of what I use daily and weekly and what it has cost over the course of one year!

DAILY SKINCARE ROUTINE

morning

wash with water (I have found that my skin does better when I am only washing with cleanser once a day)

apply Belif Bergamot Herbal Toner

replaced 3 times

$28

apply Belif True Cream Moisturizing Bomb

replaced 3 times

$38

apply Tata Harper Illuminating Eye Creme

replaced 1 time

$95

apply Coola Mineral Sunscreen

replaced 3 times

$32

bedtime

wash with Beautycounter Rejuvenating Face Wash

replaced 3 times

$43

apply Belif Bergamot Herbal Toner

apply Belif True Cream Moisturizing Bomb

apply Tata Harper Illuminating Eye Creme

WEEKLY

1-2x a week, at bedtime, between cleanser and toner, apply BEAUTYCOUNTER – balancing + charcoal mask

replaced 2 times

$48

1x a week after toner, apply BELIF – overnight brightening mask

replaced 1 time

$34

as needed (I usually do this one during the day when I am working from home and need a pick me up) BELIF – chamomile mask

has not been replaced

$36

as needed for breakouts, at bedtime, between cleanser and toner, apply HERBIVORE – blue clay mask

replaced 2 times

$22

GRAND TOTAL FOR ONE YEAR (plus a few extra months)

$1,068

The post my skincare routine + what it costs appeared first on But First Koffee.

I wish I could say I was one of those people who has always taken skincare very seriously and approached it proactively. Unfortunately, that is not the case. I did not get serious about a skincare routine until I looked in the mirror one day and thought S***, I am looking rough. So, I overhauled my skincare routine and tried to shed a couple years off my skin.

But the one skincare routine I have stuck with since middle school is face masks! I wish I could say they were preventative/anti-aging but they were to keep my breakouts in line. They were the only thing that really helped during a bad breakout. Since middle school, my mask obsession has evolved and taken on new forms. I love being pampered. There is NO greater luxury to this mama than a day at the spa. Well, a mask is my little mini version of a trip to the spa in my own home every night. I would like to say that I use a mask each and every night, but my schedule can get so hectic and busy that it really only turns out to be about 3-4 nights a week. Sometimes I do a mask during naptime too. And I use ALL different kinds of masks. Truth, I only own about 5-10 makeup products at a time, but I always have a stockpile of masks/scrubs/and other spa-like at home treatments!

If you’re serious about taking care of your skin, masks are one of the pillars of great skin. Leaving them out of your weekly routine would be like eating healthy but never working out, or vice versa. Masks compliment other skin care routines, like night creams + sunscreen.

I have SUPER sensitive skin. I have only had two facials in my life and both times I had a terrible reaction and broke out in a rash that lasted over a week. So I approach any new skincare products with extreme caution. As a general rule, I try to stick to more natural products/less toxic products, so all of my go to masks these days are on the more natural end of the spectrum.

So here is the thing about face masks, it’s not a one size fits all kind of thing. There is a whole confusing world of face masks out there. There are face masks for breakouts, brightening, age-defying, hydrating, clarifying, balancing, purifying, soothing….the list goes on. While I would like to use a mask for each and every category, my face mask budget is not endless, so I am going to boil it down to the essentials. This list could easily have been a ten mask list, but ten masks seemed excessive ;). In my opinion, these are the four types of masks every 20 and 30 something girl should know about and my picks for each category…

(1) Blemish/spot treatment

HERBIVORE – blue clay mask

$22

For the majority of my life, my lifesaving breakout mask was the Clinique clay mask. It was the ONLY thing that helped with breakouts and left my skin feeling baby smooth and fresh. I did not think I could ever find a more natural mask to replace it…but after a couple years of searching, this one actually works for breakouts. AND, it’s relatively inexpensive.  In full disclosure, when I ordered this for the first time and opened the jar, I was not expecting a powder. You add a little water to form a paste, and then apply. But Herbivore is amazing and makes heavenly skincare products. I have never used one I didn’t like. They also make a pink clay mask and tansy mask, which I have also tried. They’re both amazing, but not as great for breakouts.

(2) Charcoal mask

BEAUTYCOUNTER – balancing + charcoal mask

$48

So, we all know the wonders of charcoal. It is one of those crazy things made by mother nature that just leave me amazed. It can literally absorb oil out of water, suck toxins out of air, pull poison from out bodies, its benefits are endless. It only makes sense that we should be using this on our skin too. Our skin is our biggest organ and takes it’s fair share of mistreatment throughout the day. It’s constantly encountering environmental toxins and toxins from the not so natural products we use. If you’re not sold on the toxins angle, it draws all kinds of impurities from your pores like old makeup and buildup too. So a detoxifying mask is ESSENTIAL. This mask leaves my skin feeling SO smooth and refreshed. I use it at least once a week, but try to do 2 times a week when I can.

(3) Brightening overnight mask

BELIF – overnight brightening mask

$34

We all have those blah skin days. After a week of not enough sleep, a weekend of too much fun, or just a week of stress weighing down on me, sometimes my skin just needs a pick me up. I used to be very skeptical of overnight masks. I don’t want to ruin my sheets and I cannot sleep when it feels like I have a heavy mask on my face. This Belif mask is lightweight and goes on like a moisturizer. My obsession with Belif products is real. It’s Korean skincare meets natural skincare and it is heaven. I am beyond obsessed with my Belif daily moisturizer. If you want to read more about my daily skincare routine, see HERE. This face mask does not disappoint. I wake up feeling like I got 12 hours of sleep and SO refreshed.

(4) Anti-inflammatory + soothing mask

BELIF – chamomile mask

$36

Like I said, I have really sensitive skin. Anything can set it off, a bad beauty product, harsh weather, unhealthy or super salty foods, a virus, literally anything. I even get a rash on my face when Blake’s face is freshly shaven (with that tiny stubble) and he comes in for a smooch. So sometimes I need a mask that just soothes my tired or inflamed skin. This mask is so good. It smells + feels like a spa treatment. It has this amazing cooling sensation as soon as it hits your skin. You know that feeling when you wake up and your face just feels puffy and swollen? This mask = the cure. If you ever get a puffy/swollen face, rashes, skin irritation, or too much sun, this is the mask for you!

The post Why you should be using face masks… appeared first on But First Koffee.

But one thing I do know is lipstick. I NEVER leave the house without lipstick on and a spare tube in my purse. I actually put it on as soon as I wash my face every morning. My lips seem to be perpetually dry (even though I drink literally a gallon of water a day), so I am constantly applying lipsticks and balms. The feeling of naked, dry lips is my ultimate pet peeve. I keep my nighttime lip balm on my nightstand because I sometimes have to reapply in the middle of the night. BB watches me put lipstick on so much that one of her first words was “stick” and she makes me (pretend) apply lipstick for her every day.

I have tried every name brand lipstick in existence, both natural and conventional. I have tried every hydrating balm, chapstick and lubricant on the market. And I am obsessed with finding that perfect “everyday” color that can be worn from 8am until midnight, to brunch and date night and everything in between.

While I try to stick to more “natural” brands with less harsh chemicals, I do still love more conventional lipstick brands like YSL and Chanel. I have been obsessed with the Think Dirty app since I got pregnant with BB. If you don’t have it yet and you try to fall on the more natural end of the spectrum, it is definitely worth a download! Sadly, YSL and Chanel are at the toxic end of the spectrum. And most of the natural lipsticks clump easily, wear off in an instant, or feel like they do nothing to hydrate my lips.

ENTER BITE. If you frequent Sephora or any other large beauty store, you have surely seen the growing Bite display. It is a more natural (some of the Bite products still register as a 4 or 5 on the Think Dirty app) line of lipstick turned mainstream. And it is actually great lipstick with a wide range of color, texture, and sheen choices. So here are my top three Bite lipstick colors everyone should try this fall:

1

Bite Beauty Multistick – Mochi

This is my ultimate go-to color this fall. It is this season’s take on berry.

2

Bite Beauty Amuse Bouche Lipstick – Tannin

We all need a good date night burnt red in our lipstick rotation. But this one is just subtle enough that it can be rocked during the day too.

3

Bite Beauty Multistick – Biscotti

Mauve is very in this year, but it is a hard color for me to wear. Some mauve colors can be harsh and make me feel like a corpse. This has the perfect pop of purple with undertones of blush.

The post 3 lipstick colors you need for fall & winter appeared first on But First Koffee.

I spent the past weekend laughing a little too hard, staying up way too late and drinking way too much wine with my best friends in Montreal. My soul came back refreshed and ready but my skin definitely did NOT. After a weekend of over indulging, my skin is in dire need of some TLC. My skincare routine always seems to be evolving. But as of late, I feel like I have the best skincare routine I have ever had and I actually feel like I can see results in my complexion.

There are a couple things I consider when I am choosing my skincare products: (1) ease, (2) price, (3) toxicity and (4) results (obviously). I am not going to claim that these products are the least toxic on the market or that they are the least expensive, because they definitely are not. But I can tell you that they were all chosen because they are less toxic than most, the price is worth the quality and I have actually seen results. And this easy skincare routine can be squeezed into even the busiest schedules. Sure, I would love to apply a face scrub laced with fairy tears, followed by a face mask which must be peeled off by unicorns and then a litany of 27 skincare products every night, but that is just unrealistic for me. If my daily routine required a bazillion products, I would never stick to it. So a requirement for my products is to be able to use them in the morning and at night (as opposed to a specific night cream and day cream). Usually, I get really excited about my skincare routine, spend gobs of money on miracle products then stay excited about applying it every morning and night for exactly 15 minutes. I am going on four months with this skincare routine and I have not fallen off the wagon, yet! If I can stick to it, so can you.

So here are my five skincare products I am LOVING right now:

Belif True Cream Moisturizing Bomb

$38

I have combination skin, which until recently I thought meant you are basically screwed. My skin can be SUPER dry at times and then very oily with breakouts at others. Really heavy moisturizers can intensify my breakouts and oily skin but the oil free moisturizers do not help the dryness. This lotion is my savior. The brand is a Korean beauty line that totally changed Korean skincare. Until a couple years ago when people actually started to care about what kinds of chemicals they were putting on their bodies, there were no “natural” Korean beauty products. Enter belif. It is Korean Beauty meets natural skincare and it is heaven. It feels like silk, it is light and delicate but its’ claim to fame is 26 hours of moisture, guaranteed.

Tata Harper Illuminating Eye Creme

$95

Until BB, I did not pay much attention to my eyes. I should have tended to them before I started to see signs of aging, but coulda shoulda woulda…As soon as I started to notice some fine lines, I went on the hunt for the best eye cream. I have tried sooooo many eye creams trying to find the right one for me. I was not crazy about French Girl Under Eye Oil ($34 and too oily) or Drunk Elephant Shaba Complex Eye Cream ($60 and I did not notice any results). I was previously using Goop Perfecting Eye Cream ($90 but keep your eye out for deals, I got mine 20% off) I actually liked this brand too and I was planning on replacing it but went into Sephora to get my belif products and there was a deal on Tata’s eye cream so I gave it a shot and LOVED it. Honestly, the only reason I did not try this brand sooner was the price tag. At a whopping $95, this stuff is not messing around. But it is liquid gold and worth every.single.penny. I am not kidding that I saw results the first time I used it.

Drunk Elephant Lip Balm

$18

I am a little bit psychotic about my lips and keeping them moisturized. I have chapsticks in every single purse I own, in both bathrooms, in my car, in my diaper bags and even on my night stand. My version of hell is walking around with chapped lips. I used to use straight up vaseline every night before I went to bed until I found this gem. Vaseline makes your lips feel moisturized temporarily but it isn’t actually moisturizing under the surface. This balm locks in moisture and actually helps with chapped lips. It is silky soft, never clumps, and LASTS.

Belif Bergamot Herbal Toner

$28

Toner is actually the last thing I added to my skincare routine. I used to use it in middle school and high school when I was really prone to breakouts, but ditched it somewhere along the way when I felt it was drying out my skin. After I did a skincare consultation a couple months back, they stressed how important toning is for skincare and your complexion. I am not an aesthetician so I am not going to try to explain why, but I will tell you that I have noticed a huge difference in my complexion since I started using toner again. This toner is REALLY gentle and doesn’t dry out my skin at all.

Beauty Counter Body Lotion

$24

We all need a good lotion. I have loved the Beauty Counter products since I found out I was pregnant with BB, downloaded the Think Dirty app and threw out everything toxic in my house. Beauty Counter does natural skincare right. This lotion is non-toxic but actually moisturizes your skin. For optimal benefits, apply directly after you shower. I pat dry, then apply while I am still in the steam from the shower.

Apparently, the order you apply your skincare products is almost as important as the products you use (I was doing it all wrong). So, here is the order I do it… toner immediately after I wash my face, moisturizer, eye cream, lip balm. I apply in that order to my face first thing in the morning and before bed. Then I apply body lotion whenever I shower.

xx, happy Monday!

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