Skin Care Routine – Update! – Magnolias & Crystals

Updates for All!

Hello, friends,

I’m slowly getting back into my routine with blogging, and it’s starting to come a little easier.

Today’s post is going to walk through where we are on the skin care routine. I know that at the end of last year I did post my review of The Ordinary which is what I have been using for my skin care recently. However, I have added some things into the regimen that were not covered in my review and that is what we’re going to chat about today.

Original Regimen Products

So before we deep dive into the two new products and the one old one that is still in the rotation, I wanted to review what the regimen was from The Ordinary. It is as follows:

- Squalane Cleanser
- Ascorbyl Tetraisopalmitate Solution 20% in Vitamin F
- 100% Plant-Derived Squalane- Skin & Hair Hydrator
- Natural Moisturizing Factors + HA Daily Moisturizer

New/Old Products

Now, as I said before there are two new products and one old one that I am now using in my routine.

- The Ordinary’s Retinol 0.2% in Squalane Serum
- Exuviance’s 20% Pure Vitamin C Serum Face Capsules
- Philosophy’s The Microdelivery Exfoliating Facial Wash

Retinol 0.2 % in Squalane Serum

You may be asking why I’ve added retinol into the routine when I’ve done pretty well with keeping my skin clear for a while. Well, that is a two fold answer to some things that my skin/body have decided to throw at me.

The first one is that I have weirdly been having the occasional cystic acne on my chin. The reason I am saying I think it is cystic is because I continue to have pimples in the same spot with a pretty decent under the skin reach. Plus they’re extremely painful. I’ve found that retinol in conjunction with using acne patches have helped to reduce how painful they are for me as well as get them to disappear from my skin quicker.

The second reason is because your girl here has this thing called stress eczema. Now that’s not the medical definition but it is definitely stress related because it happened during a time when I was going through a lot of stress. It also happened to decide to crop up under my right eye back in December and has taken until now for it to really start disappearing.

For anyone who is reading this that sees issue with that, please feel free to scream into the void about how I’m not supposed to be using retinol on eczema. I swear it’s not going to stop me because the retinol I’m using is in squalane which hydrates your skin. It hasn’t been irritating my skin when I do this. You can tell me to stop all day but I’m not going to quit.

I typically use this on the weekends in the skin care routine where I’m going to be home more often than not.

20% Pure Vitamin C Serum Face Capsules

I was recommended this product by a lovely Ulta employee who is also an esthetician because your girl here is a pinky girl who for years did not do sunscreen on her face. It’s done some invisible damage to my skin, which is to be expected.

The best part about these is that I do Vitamin C in my regimen three times a week (Monday/Wednesday/Friday). One capsule for my face can do three days which makes the price of a 60 count bottle worth it because one bottle will essentially last me a little over a year.

I have noticed a huge difference in my skin with this, especially when it comes to the brightness. My esthetician also enjoys it because I come in and she isn’t concerned with clogged pores on my end. Like I’m getting A+ grading from my esthetician and it makes me happy.

The Microdelivery Exfoliating Facial Wash

This is the old tried and true product that I use to exfoliate my skin. So on the days when I’m not using retinol or my Vitamin C, this cleanser is coming in clutch to get all that dead skin off my face with a special guest appearance of my Clarisonic Mia 2 for the help. It’s still the only thing that really makes my face feel less clogged alongside the Vitamin C. Keeping this in my regimen was the best choice ever and I refuse to be told otherwise. Typically this product finds itself sitting squarely on the Tuesday/Thursday part of my weekly regimen.

The Results

The results of creating this variation in the routine has really helped me get a lot of my acne issues under control as well as prevent any acne flairs from my newly cut bangs – which was why I got rid of them originally back in 2017.

It’s also helped minimize scarring on my chin from any acne that I do end up popping either because I can’t stop picking at it or because I happened to accidentally scratch it.

I am considering doing a joint Twitch stream with my esthetician if she feels up for it where we do talk about some of the things I do for my skin that she approves of as well as take questions live and all that jazz. So if that sounds like something you’d be interested in, let me know in the comments!

All my love,