Hey, everyone! Happy Friday eve and I hope you all are having an awesome week. Today I posted a video about my morning skin care routine. I have learned so much about skin care when I started watching Dr. Dray's YouTube channel.

I used to have a very complicated skin care routine with a facial serum, eye creams or gels, toners, and face scrubs that I got separately from my normal facial cleanser.  I found Dr. Dray's YouTube channel when I was looking up Differin Gel tips and tricks. I knew this gel would really dry out my skin since it has Adapalene 0.1% which is a Vitamin A derivative. I use this gel nightly to treat my mild adult acne (I will post a night time routine soon).

My skin type is combination oily and I do get adult acne and frequently break out. You will notice that I did not use a serum or an eye cream. I learned that a serum is really just a more watered down version of a moisturizer. I also learned that eye cream is a basic facial moisturizer but in different packaging and at a higher price. I feel like I have saved so much money because I am not buying anymore extra products and am keeping my skin care fairly cheep.

Dr. Dray stated that skin care is something that you need to maintain and that it is hard to maintain something when you are shelling out over a hundred dollars every three months. I also personally have noticed that higher end skincare usually has some sort of fragrance in it. Keep reading if you would like to see my daily skin care routine products that are simple and cost effective with a bonus mask for my Mask Mondays that I do.

For my morning skin care routine on a daily basis, I use a cleanser that has 0.2% salicylic acid, one humectant, two sunscreens and one lip balm. On Mondays I do like to treat myself to a mask.  The cleanser I used in this video is the Clean and Clear acne triple clear cleanser. I chose this cleanser because the brand, in my opinion, is very cost effective. I also chose it for the 0.2% salicylic acid. Even though the salicylic acid is in a face wash form and is only left on the skin for a short amount of time Dr. Dray stated that it does not need to be left on the skin for a long period of time in order to be effective. Salicylic acid works quickly by getting into the oil barring surface areas and gently sloughs off dead skin cells with no harsh scrubbing. I do enjoy this product but unfortunately is does have fragrance in it which can be irritating to the skin. The fragrance has not really bothered me at this point but I know that fragrance is really not good for the skin and I could potentially develop an allergy to what is in this cleanser.  Visit the Clean and Clear website so that you are able to see the list of ingredients of the product and to look at a few of the other things they offer.




The humectant I use is the Cetaphil Daily Hydrating Lotion for dry, extra dry skin with Hyaluronic Acid. I mentioned in the video that this was not one of my favorite moisturizers. At times it did burn my skin but not all the time which I found strange since I pretty much do the same routine every morning with a few exceptions. This moisturizer was more of a watery gel base and I would not recommend it for extra dry skin as I personally do not think it would moisturize enough for an extra dry skin type. On the other hand, a very oily skin type might really enjoy using this product.  This product claims to provide immediate and lasting hydration and is non-comedogenic and fragrance free. I did run out of this product during the video and did not repurchase it. The one humectant that I can recommend at this time would be the Neutrogena Hydro Boost gel-cream. This product is fragrance free and is a bit more moisturizing then the Cetaphil lotion becuase it is gel-cream based. The Neutrogena Hydro Boost gel-cream does have hyluronic acid in it and I have never had a problem with this moisturizer and get really good results from it. Check out the Cetaphil website so that you can decide if this brand is for you.




The fist sunscreen that I used in this video was the Neutrogena Hydro Boost Water Gel lotion broad spectrum SPF 30. This sunscreen is relatively new to me but I was so excited to see it in stores and to try it out. Asian, Korean, and Japanese sunscreens are gel based and very light weight, perfect for combo oily skin types. I feel that American sunscreens are a little behind the times in the consistency and SPF protection.  I really do enjoy using this sunscreen as my first base layer. The consistency is like a gel cream but is very light weight, it is almost like water on the face. This product does unfortunately have fragrance in it. If you have used other products from the Neutrogena Hydro Boost line, aside from the gel-cream, this product smells just like the rest of that line. The smell is not offensive at all and I do like the smell, but again skin care should not have fragrance in it for the health of your skin. Even though this does have fragrance in it I will keep using it unless I develop and allergy to it, because I just love the way it feels on the skin. Again, visit the Neutrogena website so that you can check out the Hydro boost gel-cream, this sunscreen and any other products you are interested in.




The next sunscreen I used in my video was the CeraVe Am Facial Moisturizing lotion with Broad Spectrum SPF 30. I truly love all the CeraVa products I have tried. They really are very simple with out fragrance and no harsh ingredients. There is not one product that I have tried from this line that I have not liked. The products I have tried are the Foaming Facial Cleanser and the Pm Facial Moisturizing Lotion. I really enjoy this Am moisturizer because it does have added sun protection and I use it to seal in all my hydrating humectens on my face to prevent transepidermal water loss.   This product does feel a little greasy at first but once I let it dry it almost feels like a powder finish. I did recently see that they made this same sunscreen specifically for an oily skin type and has a matte finish. That will be the next product I try since I really trust the CeraVe's brand to be gentle on my skin and I feel confident in trying the other products they offer. But if they did not have that product available then I would be repurchasing the regular Am lotion. I really do recommend this brand if you are doing any acne treatments, have sensitive skin, or just have normal skin in general.  Check out CeraVe's website so that you are able to explore their other products.





The last product I used was just plain old Vaseline to hydrate my lips. I have not used plain Vaseline in a really long time but my lips have been very dry from the winter. When I was out shopping I saw that they had a small travel size pot and I thought this would be perfect to use as my lip balm and it would not take up too much space in my bathroom skin care drawer. I know they have products that are specifically made for the lips, but I learned that skin care companies like to put the same product in different packaging and sell it for more than what it is worth, when you can get a larger amount for a better value. Vaseline is pretty universal so I can use this for multiple things even to clean my house. Visit their website--they actually have quite a selection of products to look at and chose from.











Caitlin

• Dr. Dray's YouTube Channel
• Dr. Dray's video about Skin allergies 
• My YouTube channel
• My Morning Skin Care Routine Video