I don’t know about you but I love beauty products of late– perhaps it’s also because I’m not exactly a spring chicken anymore and it’s high time I pay more attention to my skin. During my teenage years, apart from the usual acne treatments (hello Benzoyl Peroxide), I hardly applied anything else on my skin. Sunscreens were very alien to me. I knew about tanning oils and lotions– only because I have always been a frustrated tanner– my skin never really tans nor does it turn into a nice, even shade of olive after prolonged sun exposure. What happens to my skin is this– it turns beet red. I walk away from the poolside (I was not a beach person then) like a cooked lobster, mocked by family members because I am just not able to tan 🙁
Now that I am a wee bit older, I have begun paying a lot more attention to my skin. I don’t fear aging. Not at all, actually. But I fear entertaining the thought of going through some cosmetic procedures one day (should my face become too unbearable to look at LOL). I have not seen my dermatologist in a very loooong time, and had only recently begun to see a new one (Dr. Aileen Montero– who happens to have practiced in Dubai and in Iloilo). Even then, it’s not like I have the time to pop over her clinic every week (even if I want to haha). So here’s where all the beauty products come in.
The Body Shop has been very generous and had sent over these goodies for me to try and I cannot wait to start playing around with them.
They have BB Creams too now (it’s all the rage in skincare of late, and I really am in search of the perfect BB cream for my skin). I am also very excited to play with the different blush palettes– I think my skin gets a little too sappy and gray if I hardly get enough sleep, so a little blush on the cheeks will go a long way. The best product of The Body Shop which I swear by is their Tea Tree Oil range. I have acne- prone combination skin (and there I thought acne goes away after those teenage years. Wrong!) and breakouts in my chin area have become a normal occurrence and it gets really frustrating. But I am able to keep the breakouts in control when I The Body Shop tea tree oils. So this pore minimizer will definitely come in handy. Thank you The Body Shop!
Shu Uemura’s latest product, the Tsuya line, is the best. I cannot get enough of the Tsuya youthful generator and UV under base (by the way, the Tsuya line will already be available in Shu Uemura counters and boutiques this week). I use them in the morning before I apply my BB cream, and I have seen the results– it has without a doubt made my skin a lot softer with use. I highly recommend them!
There are more products I want to try– like their eyebrow manicure (sounds really interesting, right?) but I will have to bring some of these products to Shu’s makeup artist Cindy Pineda so she can teach me how to apply them on my own. Yes, I really don’t know how to put on makeup on my own. Even something as simple as eyeliner, I can’t apply myself– I end up looking like a raccoon! 🙂
My friends swear by Kiehls products and this week, I will be trying 2 of their best sellers.
First of all, I need to get enough sleep. Second, these 2 Kiehls bottles are supposed to be skin lifesavers for when skin is very tired. I cannot wait to try this. When I try on products, I usually stay with the same product for a whole month to see if they work or not. Both the Midnight Recovery Concentrate and the Powerful- Strength- Line- Reducing Concentrate came very highly recommended by my 3 girl friends (who are serious beauty product junkies). I think the line- reducing concentrate would be very useful to me. I find myself arching my eyebrows often and lines on my forehead have since formed and become permanent. Whoa?! I know I’m quite dense. I don’t spend hours in front of the mirror dissecting each line that I have “earned” over the years so I never really noticed them until my friend pointed them out. I freaked out of course LOL. So these 2 products will come in handy. I don’t want to be self- conscious about those forehead lines anymore LOL.
And then there is Lancome, a brand that is already synonymous with beauty and is a brand that so many women the world over have trusted all throughout. The latest Visionnaire line is very promising. I have begun using the cream at night and also use the polishing stick to remove dead skin cells without irritating my skin.
One of my skin problems is pigmentation. Over the years, one side of my face has fallen prey to spots and pigmentation. I first thought they were freckles (hah!) because as a child I’d bask in the sun with hopes that I’d get darker. I thought that these spots I had on my face were a result of that– a delayed result (because as a child I never had freckles). After I had consulted with Dr. Montero, I found out that my skin pigmentation is actually genetic (waaaaah mooooom!!! hahaha). The “roots” are deep and it would take a very long time to lighten these spots again. And there are no guarantees that they will cease to reappear. Laser treatment was one option (over the course of 2 years– eeps.. so no). So now I am in search of beauty products that would at least help lighten those spots.
For now though, I have all these products above to “play” with and hopefully my skin can only get better 🙂 I also have to remember to drink more water and get enough rest and sleep apart from having a healthier lifestyle (better diet, exercise). After all, the older one gets, the more one should care 🙂 LOL. Either that or make sure you have a lot of money to buy drop-dead-gorgeous earrings so people will focus less on your face and more on your earrings hahaha 😀
x
TheBagHag