My Evening Ritual

You guys know that you should always get your makeup off, tone and moisturize your face before going to sleep, but in my opinion, it's equally important to take good care of your hands, cuticles and lips, too.

I actually started doing this because I have some products that I don't really like, but want to use up though (we all have those products!). So I sort of developed this little ritual that I do every night before switching out my bedside lamp and diving into the land of dreams.

First of all, I use my Body Shop Cranberry Joy Lip Balm and apply a good layer of this on to my lips. I bought this last year around christmas time because I totally fell for the smell. Plus you can never have to many lipbalms, right? The downside was that I hated how it looked on my lips. It's sort of a milky, lavender pink color that washes me out badly.
I rediscovered this last month in the depths of my makeup container and now I love it because it's such a good moisturizing lipbalm! Ever since using it, my lips have gotten a lot smoother and healthier.

I then go in with my Body Shop Chocomania Body Butter which I use as a hand cream. I got this free with purchase last month but oh Lord, the smell blows me away! I've never experienced such a strong scent in any beauty product before (and I'm actually one of those girls who prefer lighter scents). I could never bring myself to use it on my entire body :) But as you know, body butter is an extremely moisturizing product which makes it perfect for an intensive overnight hand treatment. Gotta love my soft hands now!

Last but not least, I pull out my Figs & Rouge Balm in Rambling Rose and pop a little bit of this on to my cuticles. So many british beauty bloggers rave about this and so I wanted to try it as well. You can read my full review here.
But bad news alert: I left this in the sun once and that somehow caused the smell to change a lot; but definitely not for the better! It still works brilliant as an extra cuticle treatment although, I do have to say that the natural oils help to nourish my dry cuticles a lot.

Do you have such an evening ritual, too? What products do you use?

Love,
Nathalie x

My Evening Skincare Routine

Hey guys!
I really have been in love with my evening skincare routine lately. I have found products that work well for my skin and I've done this routine for about a month, so I got really quick at it and I can proudly announce that it doesn't take me more than 10 minutes to get my basic routine done! I decided to divide this post into what I do everyday and what I do just once or twice a week.
Disclaimer: I'm using products for combination/oily skin.

The Basics

Step 1: Makeup Wipes

Picture is from here 

I used to remove my eye makeup with a 2-phase eye makeup remover, but I discovered that makeup wipes remove my entire makeup way better! I love Nivea's Facial Cleansing Wipes for normal to combination skin, they leave my skin refreshed and not too oily.
What I do: I take one wipe and remove my foundation and concealer with it at first, after that I remove my eye makeup (I don't like having removed mascara/eyeliner smeared all over my face).


Step 2: Wash Gel

Picture is from here

So now that my skin is clean, I'm moving into step 2. I have been using Nivea's Facial Wash Gel for a good 3 or 4 months and it didn't break my skin out. It also smells really amazing and moisturizes my skin.
What I do: I wet my face a little bit. Then I get a normal facial brush (you can get it at any drugstore OR check out the Clarisonic System), wet it and apply an amount of wash gel on it (just the size of a hazelnut). I work the wash gel on to my skin in circular motions, concentrating on my T-Zone. I make sure not to rubb my cheeks to much because they're way more sensitive than my T-Zone. All in all, I exfoliate my skin about 60 seconds.

Step 3: Toner

Picture is from here

I actually haven't planned to feature so many Nivea products in here, but obviously I use lots of them ;) I bought Nivea's Refreshing Toner when my other one ran out and I thought I just give it try because the wash gel had deeply satisfied me. I really like the smell of it (Nivea products smell SO good!). It's alcohol-free and leaves my skin refreshed and moisturized.
What I do: I get a clean cotton pad and drizzle a little toner on it. I gently put the toner on my face and on my neck.

Step 4: Moisturizer

Picture is from here

Surprise: It's not a Nivea product! I just got this moisturizer yesterday but I already fell in love with it. It's a creamy texture, almost like a rich cream (which I love in winter!) and it absorbs very quickly. It evens out my skin leaving it perfectly moisturized. I also used it this morning and I can say that it controls the oils on my skin amazingly!

What I do: I get a pea-size amount on my finger and gently work it into my skin.

The Specials

Face Masks

• Purifying: I swear by masks that contain dead sea mud, they deeply clean my skin. Whenever I notice that my skin gets worse, I put on this mask and after 1 or 2 days, everything's fine again.

• Moisturizing: I love moisturizing sheet masks in fall/winter! My skin is soft and refreshed after use. I usually cuddle up under my blanket, turn on my iPod, apply the mask and relax. After about 20 minutes, I take it off and gently massage the rests into my skin.

• Peel-Off: I sometimes use those masks instead of an exfoliator. They soften my skin and deeply clean it.

Scrubs

No, NOT the TV series (that I love), it's about exfoliating my skin. I usually get dead skin particles off with my facial brush, but sometimes I feel like I need to do MORE. I grab a warming scrub, apply this to my clean skin and leave it there for about 5 minutes. Then I wash it off and use toner and moisturizer,

Vapor Bath (for my face, of course!)

I like to do that because -guess what- it cleans my skin and on top of that, I think it's relaxing.

How I do it: I fill hot water into a big bowl and add two bags of camomile tea (calms my skin). I put my skin over the bowl and then I grab a towel and put it over my head (the vapor is not supposed to go anywhere but in my face!). I set a timer on 10 minutes and just relax.

I hope you liked this blog post! Please leave a comment below and tell me about your routine! I'd love to read how you do it :)

Love,
Nathalie x