Skin Care Routine for the Lazy

Hello my perfect loves,
I really want to tell you all about my skin care routine with the drug store products that I use. I am wicked lazy when it comes to skin care. Honestly, I just don't want to do it. When I want to go to sleep I just want to sleep, not take an extra 30 minutes messing with my face and then go to sleep. I also don't like to do it in the morning either. Who wants to wake up early to do all that? So this is for us lazy girls.

I have really dry skin, and occasionally get hormonal acne, just on my chin. When I was in high school, I had crazy hormonal acne and legit tried everything and eventually got put on birth control and an antibiotic which after about 6 months - a year made everything clear up nicely. The reason I am trying to get into a good skin care routine is because when I want to make sure that I will have nice skin when I am older. It's a known that taking care of your skin is important, and it is also proven that taking care of it when you are young, can help your skin when you are older.

When I got my makeup done a few weeks back, the makeup artist asked about my skin care routine. I was honest. I said really, I just use a makeup wipe to take my makeup off at night and put on a light moisturizer and that's it. She didn't like my answer. She told me that when you sleep, your skin detoxes and pushes out all the bad stuff in it. She told me if I'm going to do anything, that I have to at least wash my face in the morning to get all of the bad stuff off of my skin. I would love to have lovely skin when I am older, so I figure I should take her advice.

My morning routine:
1. I use the Neutrogena Extra Gentle Cleaner wash for sensitive skin, that way my skin still retains the moisture it needs.
2. I use the St. Ives Timeless Skin moisturizer which is supposed to help reduce wrinkles. I realize I'm only 21, but it doesn't hurt to be preventative! This moisturizer is extremely thick, so if you don't have dry skin like I do, I would recommend something lighter for the day. 

My night routine
1. I take off my makeup with a makeup wipe. Right now I am using just a generic Meijer brand, and it's cheap and does the job.
2. I either use the  same Neutrogena Extra Gentle Cleanser that I use in the morning, or I will use the St. Ives Timeless Skin Apricot Scrub. (I use the scrub about 2 times a week
3. I use the St. Ives Timeless Skin moisturizer which is a PERFECT night moisturizer because it's so thick.

That's it. That is 100% all I do. Just 2 steps in the morning and 3 steps at night. It is super simple, it's quick and it's cheap. I can't say enough good things about these products. I used to not purchase the St. Ives products because I thought they were so inexpensive, they must not be good. Do not be fooled, I am in serious love with these products and my cleanser. If you are lazy like me when it comes to skin care, give this a try and let me know how it works for your skin type? If you use any of these products, tell my why you do or don't love them!

Have a happy Monday, and I wish you all great skin!
XO-Stacey

Spring is Coming!

Happy Monday everyone! Monday's are supposed to be the worst day of the week, so why not spice them up with a ginger? (: I have a few new products that I am not ready to talk about just yet, and I am trying to give them a go for a week before I tell you about them, so be ready next week for a lazy girls guide to skin care.

Today I just wanted to speak a little bit about spring. Many of the beauty gurus that I love are all ready for spring, but here I am, in the Midwest and it's still cold and snowy, and gross. The local weather right now at this exact moment is 36 degree F and rainy.. How can we all be ready for spring so soon when there is ice on the ground, and I had to scrape ice off of my car this morning.

Let me talk to you about my favorite things that will be happening this coming spring and summer.
1. I am graduating from college. I have somehow managed to get my bachelors degree in 3 years. Does anyone understand how unbelievably excited I am about this??
2. I get to start my Fashion Internship in May. Who doesn't want to be around clothing, social media, visual merchandising, and photo shoots all day long? Because I'm loving this whole blogging/vlogging social media thing, I might see if my boss will let me run their blog and post more frequently on it. For some reason, this is something I absolutely love.
3. The sun... the sun is never prevenlent in the Midwest because it is always gross and dreary. All I want is to be able to walk to class without wearing everything I own.
4. Shorts and Tank tops - everyone loves summer clothes. I can't wait to buy some new shorts for I have had the same ones since my sophomore year in high school.. so you know that situation needs to get itself together. Half of my closet is seriously black, gray, and white.,, the other half is muted colors because I suck. This summer is going to be dedicated to cute, put together summer clothes rather than just throwing something on because it's warm.
5. DRESSES. I have a dress obsession to the max. Just last summer, I bought 32 dresses... It's a really weird obsession but I am in love with dresses. Some of them I should definitely retired but that means I am allowed to get new ones.. RIGHT? Only, I'm not too sure how the boyfriend will feel about that considering I already have so many... I need them okay? Speaking of which, maybe a dress collection should be in order once I can actually wear them?

You would think that makeup would be in this bunch too.. but I feel like who cares when it comes to "summer colors" and "fall/winter colors". I'm gonna wear what colors I want when I want!

Let me know what you are looking for this spring and summer?

XO-Stacey

Sephora Love and Other Goodies

I have a few wonderful things to share with you this Monday; (1). Two people have told me my hair looks really long today, and (2). I have some makeup goodies to share and my thoughts on them!

Over this past weekend, I went to see my sister in Tennessee. For my birthday, she got us Sephora makeovers! Cue heart melt for best present ever.  Friday morning we went to Sephora in hopes of getting completely gorgeous, getting some new products, and learning some more about skin and makeup. We had the most lovely makeup artist! She was a serious blast, and a huge help.

I was looking at BB creams, but was swayed in the way of a medium coverage foundation that is absolutely perfect for my skin type. Let me tell you, it feels like heaven on my face, and I can't even tell I'm wearing makeup. If you have dry skin, I 100% recommend this foundation. Want to know what it is yet?  It's the Make Up Forever Face and Body Foundation. First, lets talk about the packaging. It's a perfect glass bottle with a pump. You get 50mL which is a about 1.7 fluid oz. This is actually a very good deal considering most foundations are only 1 fluid oz. The shade that I am in is 20 (there are two lighter shades on the website but not in the store), and it's still a tad dark for me, but I have translucent skin, and if they made a clear foundation, it still probably wouldn't match. Ginger skin is the WORST for matching with makeup. However, the makeup artist told me that when you have freckles, you should always go a shade darker because your face is always a bit darker than the rest of your body because of the freckles. Who would have guessed that?? Not me! The best part about this foundation is that it is a little more than 70% water. It's a super watery foundation, but us dry skin ladies, this is perfect. It goes on my skin so smoothly. I've used my fingers and a flat top kabuki brush and both worked well. I can tell my t-zone loves the moisture because it's not flaky at all. No matter what foundation I have used it clings to the dry spots and just looks awful. But this foundation is a dream. At $40, I honestly think I will constantly be repurchasing this because I love it so much.

The second product I purchased was a Nars Radiant Creamy Concealer, at $28 it seems a bit pricy but boy did it stick. I got it in the shade Chantilly, which is the lightest of the shades. My thing with concealers is that I can never get them to stay long enough on my acne. I get hormonal acne only on my chin, and it's dry and annoying. This stuff, covered it up and stuck to it like a dream. All day long it stayed on. I was so unbelievably happy about it. I also really enjoyed it under my eyes. The only downfall, is the I need a good eye cream because my under-eye area is always dry and when it's not hydrated properly the concealer doesn't look as smooth as it should. This happens with me for any concealer so super hydrating eye cream isn't a huge deal, I just need to purchase it.

I bought a brow product, that I thought I would never need to purchase. I always just used a shadow to fill in my brows and thought it was perfectly fine. And then, the makeup artist used the Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Wiz in Caramel on me and HOLY CRAP. First of all, it was the most perfect color match I have ever seen. My eyebrows looked unbelievable. Even my sister said it was amazing and she's not a huge make up person. Eyeshadow usually wears down a bit throughout the day, but this stuff stayed on all day and night until I took it off. I can't say enough good things about this pencil because it was so amazing. The price was $21, which is actually a lot less that I was expecting. It is still a little bit on the pricy side of things, but depending on how long it lasts it could be a steal. They have 5 different shades, and there is a spooley (how do you spell that word???) on the end and it is unbelievably amazing. It is also paraben, sulfate, and phthalates free which we all know I love and adore.

 The last thing I bought at Sephora is my new favorite thing that I need to purchase in EVERY POSSIBLE COLOR EVER. At $18 a pop, it's the Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics Lip Tar. Now if you haven't heard of this, it's the greatest thing ever. and if you have, you already know how great it is. I got the color Strumpet which is a purpley/fuchsia/red color. They have 37 different colors (some of them being very off the wall colors) however they can be easily mixed with one another and they come with a lip brush. It's made without parabens and the colors are so pigmented it's unreal. The makeup artist put it on my lips and I fell in love. I got so many compliments on my lip color that day, it was wild. you MUST MUST MUST have your lips super moisturized and flake free before you use it or it will stick and not look very pretty. It stays on basically all day. I never needed to touch up but I did put on chapstick a few times for my lips began to feel dry. It left a great stain to my lips and wore so well. It was definitely matte, so if you aren't a fan of matte lip products you probably won't enjoy this as much. But lord, am I in love with this stuff. I cannot wait to go back and purchase more colors.

These last three things are from the drugstore that I'm just going to mention fairly quickly, and not rant about like I did the others. I went to Meijer the other day, and they were having a sale on makeup as usual so I had to try things out. Also, my Meijer just started carrying NYX Cosmetics and I had to buy something. So I bought a Nyx Matte lip cream (which I love and can't wait to purchase more of), another Revlon Kissable Lip Stain Balm in Lovesick (not my favorite, but it's still pretty wonderful) and the Mega Plush Mascara which is really weird. I don't think I like how the brush is so flimsy and I also don't think the formula is very build-able. I tried to put two coats on and the second coat made my eyelashes look weird. They were super long, but super thin, and they stuck together making it look like I didn't have many eyelashes. Also, my eyelashes didn't stay curled very long with it either. I'm going to keep using it to decide it the formula changes at all once it's been opened but it's not my favorite at the moment.

If you try out or have any of these products, let me know what your thoughts on them are!

XO-Stacey

Very first Video!

Hello my lovelies! On Wednesday, I posted my very first video to YouTube on how I do my everyday heatless waves. I will add the video in at the bottom of this post, but today I wanted to talk to ya'll a little about my experiment that I am conducting.

Awhile back I had been talking about how I was going to monitor my hair growth each month and the 1st of March I started it. I straightened my hair so that it would be at its full length and drew a line on the back of a white shirt. April 1st, I will do the same thing and hopefully we can see how much my hair is growing. Unfortunately, the problem with this month, was that my hubby was out of town for business and I had to figure out how to draw the line myself. This could potentially make the result of the first month bad, but I'm just going to keep going with it but make sure someone else is drawing the lines. I also looked at a hair chart showing lengths of your hair. (How many inches = where at on your back) I believe mine is about 12 inches. I can tell it's a bit longer than it was when I got it cut, but I also picked up some lovely chewy prenatal vitamins to see if those help my hair grow as well. A lot of people were telling me that the prenatal vitamins were a terrible idea because you'll gain weight and what-not. But honestly, I'm on the line of being underweight anyways, and It's not like I'm really receiving 1/2 of the vitamins my body actually needs so I think this might just be a good way to get my daily vitamins in as well.

As for the YouTube videos, feel free to subscribe to my channel. I am going to post videos every Wednesday. My channel name is sakovach. I think that I won't always post the videos I make onto this blog, however there may be times when I want to talk about the same things or when I want to add more detail to whatever it is I talked about in the video. I hope everyone is okay with that.. if there is an everyone? I'm really interested in seeing if my videos in conjunction to this blog will hopefully make a difference in someones life somewhere in the world. I realize there are so many blogs and vlogs about hair and makeup, but I really just want to show my journey with my hair growth, and all those other fun in-between things that I am interested in. I'm young, I might as well try out all things that could remotely interest me while I'm still trying to figure out what to do with the rest of my life.

I know, I'm sorry for that weird rant I just went on. Without further or due, here is my first video!
Also feel free to follow me on Instagram: sakovach  or twitter: Witty_Ginger 
I would love to hear from you!