01.06.11 SJP and her cool watches.. and my face

I'm excited to get to try something I got a hold of that is Sarah Jessica Parker's NYC fragrance. I'm really excited because my mom got it at the dept store she works at on clearance for 50% off. Not only that but it came with this watch with interchangeable bands. Very cute! I'm excited because it's a gold watch.. Although the bands are multicolored, it's still very cute. I must say though, that the bands look a bit cheap.. However, the NYC scent smells really nice. It's a soft, sweet, powdery smell. Packaging's plastic, but it's still cute.

My mom's hilarious. She bought two of the fragrance sets but only got one of the free watch set. So she's going to try and get the other one tomorrow. No picture of the fragrance set. It's pretty generic. It comes with palm sized spray perfume, lotion, and shower gel. I feel like I've been using enough stock photos so I'm going to get back in the habit of taking pictures again.

Ugh.. on a whole other side note. I messed up big time. This winter weather has dried my face so much that it hurts. And the other day I thought maybe I can peel off the dry skin by using a peel off masque. Bad idea. Not only that, but I decided to do it after taking a shower. If anything, I was thinking it'll freshen my face. As though I've given myself a chemical peel, I thought. Except, I've never had a chemical peel... Wtf was I thinking? So the last few days have been dedicated to getting my face back to hydration. Although it's made my bangs look greasy while walking into work, my face is slowly, but surely getting back to normal.

It's hard to tell, but my face looks like I'm having a rash in this one.

My face today. I didn't even use mascara. I was attempting to use as little makeup as possible without looking scary.

My raw routine: After cleaning the makeup off my face and washing with a face wash once at night, apply my Clean & Clear moisturizer, then Philosophy's Hope in a Jar, Carmex tub slathered on my lips, and ooh (new product), just got a Vitamin E stick from Bed, Bath, and Beyond, and applied that onto the driest parts which are underneath my nose (that sadly, the dry skin flakes tend to resemble boogers), and underneath my bottom lip. I also try to remember to use my Garnier eye ball roller thingy every morning and every night.. Sometimes I forget though. When I take a shower, I'll immediately moisturize now and do my routine and every morning I'm currently just splashing water on my face and then do my moisturizer routine.

11.13.10 Operation: Take Better Care of my Face

(from l to r: amazing tool to pull my hair back, Lancome Creme Mousse Comfort for Dry skin, Clean & Clear Advantage Acne Control Moisturizer, Carmex, Nicole Miller Hydrating Facial Cleanser Normal to Dry, Dove Deep Moisture Facial Lotion, St. Ives Apricot Scrub, Philosophy Hope in a Jar, Clearasil Oil Free Daily Face Wash, Aquaphor Healing Ointment, and Philosophy Purity)

I feel like I'm not the best spokeswoman for skin advice, but I'm realizing that I need to take better care of myself and my skin. My friend that got me into beauty showed me a youtube video that I absolutely cannot remember. But I remember one of the main things she said that I'm taking into consideration. It's the amount of water you drink in a day. I haven't been keeping that a routine and am realizing the effects it's taking on my skin. So from this day forward, I am going to attempt this advice she gave. Which is taking your body weight/2 = # oz of water to drink in a day. Although she seemed a little hesitant when she was talking about those who weigh like a 100 lbs. or less. hah. But I'm really going to try this out. I'm also going to attempt to give my face a break at least one day out of the week, a la ChefCaffy's youtube videos. She takes a day out of the week of not using any makeup products on your face and just giving it a break.

So I've been noticing my face wash routine. Which is kind of slim because I forget that my face is sensitive and dry and I try to wash my face as fast as I can without thinking of ways to improve it. When it comes to my face washes, it changes. When I feel or have a pimple, I'll use my Clearasil face wash. When I feel the need to exfoliate, I'll use St. Ives. Lately I've been using my Philosophy Purity face wash to clean my makeup off. Then I'll sort of switch off between my Lancome and Nicole Miller face washes. They smell so, soo good. My moisturizing routine is pretty accurate though. After washing my face, I'll always use my Clean & Clear Advantage as a base. And because I tend to have more dry than normal skin, I've been using Philosophy's Hope in a Jar on my dry patches. But I've only recently discovered that. My go to on the dry parts of my face esp. underneath my nose, I'll tend to use Aquaphor there, but that's been kind of irritating me lately. I've been scratching underneath my nose every time I use it. This is so bad, but I'm also rediscovering SPF which is something that shouldn't be rediscovered at all! I've had my Dove moisturizer with an SPF of 15. Until that's done, I'm planning on getting a higher SPF. Hmm, I also used to use this Blistex medicated ointment for my lips but found that Carmex heals and feels a lot better. I think I even got used to the smell. Also I've heard good things on the Garnier eye roller thingy and will soon use it as soon as I'm done with what I'm already using on my eyes. I've been using this sample of Amore Pacific Moisture Bound Intensive Vitalizing Eye Complex but I think this is really expensive so I'm looking for cheaper alternatives. I think the Garnier will be good because I'm really looking into an eye product that will help with undereye circles and puffiness.

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