July Favorites : Fresh Soy Face Cleanser & The Body Shop Peach Body Scrub

Summer oh summer! Who loves summer? I do! Starting July, summer is here! This is a review about my two favorite things in July which are Fresh Soy Face Cleanser and The Body Shop Peach Body Scrub. Happy reading, gorgeous!

Don’t you love the feeling of clean and supple skin after a whole day of full activity? Cleaning my face while I’m taking a shower after a long day always been a refreshing part. I usually double cleanse my face by massaging my face and neck (yes, don’t forget the neck area please) with a cleansing oil. I’m still loyal with my Kose Softymo Deep Cleansing Oil for a good lather of my makeup. After rinsing it, then I would use my facial wash. If you read my previous blog post about my skincare routine, you guys must’ve known that I frequently changing my facial wash because I’m still looking for a facial wash that is gentle but can clean my face effectively, without leaving my skin too squeaky soap dish commercial clean. I heard a lot of good review about Fresh Soy Face Cleanser for quite some time and found some online shop sells them. So, when I’m running out of my Body Shop Aloe Cleanser, I decided to purchase one (the 50ml) and give it a try.

It said that it is suitable for all skin types and it is extra gentle yet effective enough to cleanse your makeup even mascara. You can see the highlights of the ingredients on the picture below. Those ingredients will deliver a radiant and healthy looking complexion. 

The texture is gel like, similar to Cetaphil cleanser, and it’s not a creamy type of cleanser. It doesn’t make bubbles or foam which means, its soap free. The cleanser is fragrance free too, so if you smell something, it comes from the natural ingredients. For me, the cleanser has cucumber and rose scent, with the cucumber scent to be more dominating than the rose. It smells so refreshing! Another treat when I’m cleansing my face hehehe

The aftermath result, my skin feels soooo smooth, supple, and not dry. It feels clean without your skin feels stripped. This soy cleanser is definitely gentle. I felt that during my usage of this cleanser, my skin texture is improved. They appear to be smoother and softer. Me likey!!

It is easily become one of my favorite cleansers, but unfortunately the price tag is a bit steep. I finish that medium tube in 7 weeks. Maybe because its gel texture, so it makes me tend to squirt more than I have to hahaha.. But seriously, if budget is not an issue, then this face cleanser is something you want to keep in your cleanser line up. I really really like this one; I squeezed it until the last drop hahaha 

The next product that I reached a lot in July is The Body Shop Peach Scrub.

In summer, a smooth luminous skin is what we want to achieve, especially when you are planning to have a holiday somewhere exotic, like going to an island or a beach. You gotta show that polished and luminous skin, girl!

One way to get it is by frequently scrubbing your skin, like once a week. Scrubbing your skin will cleanse your skin from its dead cells; helping it to regenerate better hence the new skin will grow healthier.  

I bought The Body Shop Peach Body Scrub when they had a sale some time ago, thought that Peach scent will uplift my summer mood. The texture is creamy and a bit thick, with peach seed as the scrub. It contains sweet almond oil and peach kernel oil which are great because it can retain moisture for your skin. I chose this because my skin type is normal to dry, so anything creamy should do some good for it.

I usually will rinse my body with water first before I lather the scrub all over my body, that way the scrub will not feel too harsh for my skin. Rub it in circular motion to scrub those dead cells, make sure you scrub your body really well. Finally, rinse your body with warm water (or cold, whichever fits you). Since I usually find my body still feels a bit oily after rinsing it with water, I wash myself with shower gel afterwards to really clean the scrub and my skin. If you have extremely dry skin, you might want to reverse the step by cleaning your body first then end it with scrubbing it. That way, your skin will keep the oil from the scrub and stay moist after you pat it dry.

I adore my skin after I scrubbed. It feels smooth, soft, and supple; makes you want to touch it all the time hahaha.. The peach scent will usually still linger even after I washed it with soap. What I love the most from this scrub is it doesn’t drying at all. Sometimes, when I scrub my body, the smooth soft skin will only last for one day, and then my skin will turn to be very dry afterwards. But this peach scrub does not make my skin dry at all. It stays moisturized for days, thanks to its creamy texture and the oil in the ingredients I supposed.

Last week, I went to The Body Shop counter again and saw Mango Seed Body Scrub is on sale. Buy one get one! I did not miss the chance and grab them. I wonder if this scrub will also do a great job in polishing my skin. I heard mango seed oil is also good to moisture your skin. So stay tune for another review on it.

What is your favorite body scrub? Any product that does your skin wonders? Please let me know via this blog or my IG account : @stefaniecarolina 

Cheers,

Stef

 

Daily Skincare Regime

Happy New Year Gorgeous!!
I wish you an amazing year full of joy, peace, adventure, and wisdom. May all your resolutions will come true! I am very excited with this year because I have a lot of things I want to achieve. One of them is maintaining this beauty blog and share my love for beauty products to the readers.
As my first post in 2015, I would like to share about my daily skincare regime. Lo and behold, this sharing will take you quite some time to read since there will be a quick review as well on the products that I use. 

A polished skin is necessary if you wanted your makeup to look good and sits perfectly on your face. Everybody has different skin type and condition, and it’s sure not an easy journey to find your best skincare regime or combo to get that healthy glowy skin. But nowadays, there are a lot of skincare products on the market that I believe can cater our skin’s needs and it’s a matter of trial and error until your skin get that perfect combination of products and finally can perform its best.

As for me, my skin type is normal to combination but has the tendency to get dehydrated. You can see it easily after I clean and wash my face, the skin is pretty dry and need quite moisture to make it not look dull. I don’t have a lot of problems with acne, just occasional zits that comes with my PMS period. I have big pores and some acne scars around the cheek that I wish I can photoshop in real life as well as the persistent eye bag that makes me look tired all the time.

I started to use skincare more than just facial wash since I was in senior high school. I started with using facial moisturizer. Gradually, I added toner, serum, and sunscreen. My skincare regime nowadays involves cleansing oil, facial wash, toner, essence, serum, moisturizer, sunscreen, and a frequent exfoliant. Occasionally I will slap on some facial mask when I feel my skin needs a boost up. 

Without any further due, let’s go to the details, shall we?

Cleansing

Kose Softymo Deep Cleansing Oil

La Roche Posay Physiological Cleansing Gel

The Body Shop Aloe Gentle Facial Wash

The first step is cleansing. In the morning, I would only wash my face using La Roche Posay since I do not put makeup on at night, so gentle cleansing is enough. As for night cleansing, I always do double cleansing by using Softymo cleansing oil first to remove all of my makeup and then followed by Garnier facial wash. I would lather my face with the cleansing oil first, massage it a bit to make sure that no traces of makeup left. Afterwards, I wash my face. 

Facial wash is the part of my skincare which I experiment on frequently because that’s the part which I know will least irritate my skin unlike trying on new serum or moisturizer. Unfortunately, up until now, I haven’t found my HG facial wash. I need something that I can feel that my face is squeaky clean when I wash it but without drying it after wash. You know that dry almost chalky feeling on your face after you wash it? Well, me no likey those kinds of facial wash. This is my first time using The Body Shop. I chose it because it is aimed for sensitive skin, so my thought it will not make my skin dry. It actually not, yeayyy!! When you press the pump, the foam will come out and usually I use 2 pumps for my face and my neck area.

You might ask why I dont just use LRP then? Before this variant, I tried the Toleriane line which the after wash effect is making my skin a tad dry, so I decided to get the more moisturizing one and the SA recommended me this line. I would say this cleanser is more like Cetaphil Daily Cleanser. The texture is the same and has no fragrance as well. I’m not saying that it doesn’t clean well, it’s just I don’t get that clean feeling washing my face with it, just like what I experienced with Cetaphil. Yes, it did not make my skin dry but I just don’t feel clean, if you know what I mean. So, I decided it will be best to use it in the morning for the non makeup face.

Toning and Prepping

SK II Facial Clear Lotion

SK II Facial Treatment Essence

As you can see in the picture, my skincare line consists of many SK II products. I have been using them for around 4 years and find it a trustworthy product, that’s why it’s hard for me to experiment with other skincare brands. 

I think I don’t need to explain a lot about these 2 products especially because many of you would know how it works. After cleansing my face, I would tone it with the clear lotion and continue with the Facial Treatment Essence aka The Miracle Water. I used to spritz it using an atomizer but then decided to just pour it on my palms and then pat it to my face and neck. It’s a bit plentiful but my skin feel so hydrated after I do it hence the result is better on me. Some people say that you can use it as a face mask or to compress your acne to clam it down, but I never tried those, so I cannot comment on that.

Serum and Moisturizer (See picture above)

SK II Cellumination Essence EX

SK II Stempower

SK II Cellumination Day Surge UV SPF 30+++

A line up of SK II products waiting after the skin is prepped. The Cellumination Essence EX goes first. This serum has been my HG for achieving that glowy smooth skin texture. No more dull face whne you’re friends with this serum. It brightens and evens out your skintone, giving a supple glowing from within skin. This is the previous version before they launched the Cellumination Aura Essence just a while ago. 

As for moisturizer, I use two different kind for day and night. I am very happy that SK II launched Cellumination Day Surge UV SPF 30+++ to complete its Cellumination range, so without hesitating, I changed my Cellumination Deep Surge EX moisturizer with this one. In my opinion, it is the perfect day moisturizer for it contains broad sun protection spectrum compare to the Deep Surge (it has no sun protection) yet it doesn’t feel too heavy on your skin for daytime use. The texture is just a bit stickier than the first, but its fine by me. 

Anti aging product is essential to use as soon as you feel, well.. aging. I think the ideal time to start investing on your anti aging skin care is when you’re 25. Usually you’re also in the age where budget is not so tight anymore so you definitely can afford the “advance” skin care line. If you’re now more than 25 years old, fear not, but you better start browse and googling which anti aging products that can accommodate your skin issues. Better late than never, yes? The phrase aging gracefully is not without a work you know ;)

2 years ago I discovered SK II Stempower moisturizer. Attracted to its promise that it will enhance the ability to renew itself and makes the skin look firmer, I purchased it. It also mentioned that it will tighten the pores too. I love this red jar a lot and the texture is actually pretty light so you can use it for day time moisturizer. But I use it as my night time moisturizer because it doesn’t contain any SPF and I believe that an anti aging product works better at night when we are sleeping. After application you will feel your skin smoother and it is firmer in the morning after. SK II also has the Stempower Essence, an anti aging serum to be applied before the moisturizer. Experiencing satisfaction with the moisturizer, automatically when it launched, I want to complete my anti aging line with the serum, but unfortunately the ingredients in the Stempower Essence is a bit rich for me. My usually free of zits face got visitors. Even though that the zit came one after the other one’s gone, still I felt that something was not right, so I stopped the serum application and my skin went back to normal. Considering that the serum is too rich for my skin, I gave it to my mom who is in her 50s. As it turned out, my mom loves it to bits because she found it helps with her aging skin. So you might want to try it first for at least a week to see if the serum works well for you. 

Sun Protection

Ettusais UV Block Base SPF50+ PA++++

When I am out and about, I would add more sun protection to protect my skin better. Currently, I am using Ettusais UV Block Base SPF50+ PA++++. The texture is a bit thick but it is still easy to spread on your skin and my skin absorbed it pretty well too. I love the scent of it which I would say a bit herbal-ish similar to tea tree scent even though it said that its fragrances free. I also have other sunscreen sample from Lancome and Shu Uemura, but let’s talk about it more on a different post.

Exfoliation

Paula’s Choice Skin Perfecting 2% BHA Liquid Exfoliant (Salicylic Acid)

This is my HG liquid exfoliant! Found out about it recently and I would say it’s a must have product in your skincare arsenal. This exfoliant claims to shrink enlarged pores due to its ability to exfoliate skin’s surface and the inside the pore, leaving the skin surface smooth, unclogged pores, and improving skin’s turnover rate. I love what it did to my skin, it really shrinks my pores because it cleans my pores well and my skin texture also feel smoother. The direction is to use it daily but I only use it 2 times a week. At first you may use it 3 times a week, but after you see that your skin condition improving, you might want to reduce the frequency because too much exfoliation will not give you better result. Don’t forget to use sunscreen every time you go out of the house because BHA usage leads to more sensitive skin towards the sun exposure. You only need a small amount of it so this is a good investment because one bottle will last you for quite a while.

Booster

SK II Facial Treatment Repair C

SK II Whitening Spots Specialist

Sometimes, our skin needs more that the usual regime. I call it skin booster. My go to skin booster are SK II Facial Treatment Repair C and SK II Whitening Spot Specialist. I usually put on the Repair C 2 times a week to increase my skin’s moisture level and to improve the texture. I use it before the moisturizer at night and the next morning my skin felt so supple and smooth, plumped but not puffy, ready for the day. It also claims to reduce the appearance of fine lines but that is something that I haven’t really noticed.

SK II Whitening Spots Specialist comes to the rescue when I feel my skin tone is dull. It will give me brighter complexion within a week or two. Brightening or whitening products can dry up your skin, so I usually use it before my moisturizer at night so I can slap on extra moisturizer to keep my skin hydrated, something I cannot do on daytime. Hopefully this product can also help me in reducing the appearance of skin pigmentation or spots. 

Well, that’s my skincare regime on a daily basis. Hope my sharing can help to give some insight for you in terms of picking the right skin care that suits you. So far, I’m pretty happy with my regime result. I will update you again if I decided to change it. Thank you for reading my quite lengthy post.

Toodles,

Stef