Hello, everyone. Welcome back. Today I'm going to be talking to about my skin care routine. Now this is been heavily requested so here we are. I'm actually going to split this into 3 videos, just so I can do mini reviews along the way and it's not a complete snooze fest. So the first video which is today's video is going to be about my morning staples and some sunscreens. The second video is going to be about make-up removal and my evening routine. And the final video would be about exfoliants and other miscellaneous topics. I'll stop by quickly describing my skin so that you can have some perspective. I would say my skin is normal so to speak so it's not oily and it's not dry. I would also consider it to be quite thin. Now this is not to be confused with sensitive. I can tolerate chemical peels but anything that involves abrasion or scrubbing is a no go for me.

I break out rarely, perhaps a few times a year but my main skin concerns are localized redness, mostly around the cheeks and around nose probably due to the fact that my skin is paper thin and unfortunately there isn't much that can be done to remedy that. My philosophy when it comes to skin care is keep it minimal. I try to omit any steps that are not crucial to my routine and it's so tempting nowadays to go and try everything on the market. But when you have 20 steps to your routine, it becomes almost impossible to determine what's actually working for you or conversely what's breaking you out or what's irritating you. Ok let's get on to the good stuff. I'm going to show you the products that I use in the morning. I have using this for years. I rarely switch it up and it works for me.

Okay, in the morning I stumbled out of bed and I cleanse my face. Now I don't necessarily want my cleanser to brighten or anti-age or do high dishes. I just want something that thoroughy removes grime without irritating my skin. And for this, I love the La Roche Posay Lipikar Syndet. I'm Australian and I mispronounce everything. But this is a French Pharmacy brand and it's actually a body wash formulated for hyper sensitive skins but it turns also a fantastic cleanser. It has a gel like consistency and lathers nicely. So I massage the lather on to my face for a solid minute and then I rinse thoroughly. I think the key with this product and most cleansers is to use sparingly, half a pea size at most.

And I think that lipikar syndet will be suitable for most skin types. It cleanses my skin fantastically. It's gentle. It doesn't dry me out and it doesn't leave a fume of any description which is my peak hate and I love it. So now if someone is going to ask me about Clarisonic and have I tried it and did I like it. I have tried it and I think I'm delaying the center on this one. I didn't really like it. Now as I said earlier, I have very thin skin that doesn't benefit for any form of abrasion and the Clarisonic in essence is a mild form of abrasion. So currently, I cleanse really thoroughly and I exfoliate regularly. So I didn't perceive any improvements in clarity or skin texture cleanliness but if your skin tolerates manual exfoliation quite well then you may very well like the Clarisonic.

So after I've cleansed, I will moisturize. Actually I used a serum. This is the Chantecaille Vital Essence. Now, well, this claims to do a lot of things - regulate serum production, seaweed extract, offers stable vitamin C to brighten the skin, blah, blah, blah. I don't subscribe to that. Maybe I'm a cynic but working cosmetics really taught me that marketing is such a powerful tool and frequently those claims are just not founded. I'm not hating on Chantecaille though because this is a fantastic hydrator, more hydrating than of some the heavier in emollient creams I've tried. I apply 2 pumps to a damp face and it has a like gel consistency. Now if I apply to a dry face, it always remains kind of a sticky and tacky on the skin so damp face is the way go with this one.

It works beautifully on the make up and bonus, if I am having a flaky situation that would otherwise completely ruin my foundation or my concealer, this seems to smooth out the texture of the skin somewhat. And flaky people out there, you know what I'm talking about. I think that this would be suitable for most skin types whether you'd be oily to slightly dry but the dry skin types may opt to use this as a conventional serum with a cream over the top because I'm not sure that it would be enough alone. Third and final step in my morning routine, if I anticipate anything more than incidental sun exposure, I will apply a sunscreen. Now this is the most important factor when preventing premature aging and considering that I live in Australia, I really should be more diligent about it.

Now I'm a fan of Japanese sunscreens. They are far superior protection and they tend to be more cosmetically elegant. So what I mean by that is less greasy on the skin, less white cast and so on. Currently, I'm using Sofina sunscreens. I believe this has both chemical and physical filters to protect the skin from the sun. It has a running texture and it sits beautifully under makeup but it's important remove this really well preferably with an oil cleanser because they were like iron, sweat proof, water proof, you name it. A lot of Japanese sunscreens dry down to a super matte finish, so much so that if you're oily you may opt to use it in place of a primer to control that oil.

For that reason, they tend not to be well suited to dry skin types. If you're quite dry and you're looking for a really high protection sunscreen, I would recommend La Roche Posay because they're super hydrating but they don't compromise any of that protection. So that is my morning routine. Although it sounded a little bit long, there was 3 steps: cleanse, moisturize and possibly apply make up and sunscreen. Tune in for my next video which would be all about make up removal and my evening routine. I hope to see you guys then. B-bye.