HOW TO LOOK YOUNGER ON A BUDGET

Today's Blog:  How to Look Younger on a budget.  I see so many mature women around my age (35),  wasting a fortune on anti aging skin care products to look younger and thought I would share my own  dirt cheap, affordable, but very effective skin care routine. Because honestly, I spend a ridiculously small amount of money on lotions and potions and I feel like most of these ladies, and maybe you, are just getting ripped off ...

 If I was willing to blow hundreds and hundreds of dollars on a .025oz cream,  I would get botox instead. Serious.

I'm not going to cover nutrition, health of hair, teeth and exercising, because that's pure common sense and it's boring to talk about. Again.

Let me go over my stats, so you know what kind of skin I have, that way, you can adjust my recommendations to your own skin type.  I suffer from insanely sensitive and dry skin. If you breath on me, I'm more than likely to get a horrible rash...

Mature, anti aging skin care routine will look something like this:

• Cleanse
•   Vitamin C Serum (unless your serum requires you to use it at night)
•  Moisturize
•  Protect - SunBlock
• Makeup  
  
• ~at night~
• Cleanse
•  Night Cream with Retin -A
•  (Monthly Chemical peel - Optional)

Did you notice that I didn't add a toner to my list?  I consider it the biggest "waste of money & time" beauty product (SK ii line do tempt me though to spurge, with all the excessive hype behind it in Asia!)...Toners generally do 1 thing, balances the PH level of your skin (vinegar does the same thing), unless your toner have something like salicylic acids for acne and is used for blackhead control, or is an anti aging miracle tonic like SK-II Facial Treatment Essence (expect bad reviews because of the price, which I also think is ridiculous).

Anyway, here is my - Cheap Anti Aging Skin Care Routine:

Cleanse:
 I wash every night but  rinse only with water in the morning.  (I have dry, sensitive skin remember and I don't do anything dirty at night that requires scrubbing my face in the morning with soap!)

•  Makeup Remover: Pond's Face Wipe or Nutregena Eye Makeup Remover
• Cerave (or you can use Cetaphil) = The only difference is that Cerave doesn't have Sulfate! :)

Protection:
Sunblock I use - I blogged about it on another page - click here.


Vitamin C Serum DIY: This serum will make your skin literally GLOW, I kid you not. But it's a bitch to get used to in the beginning, I still can't use this every day...   Google the effects of Vitamin C serums to get more details but THIS IS A ANTI AGING MUST HAVE! Don't buy it, make them fresh yourself!

You apply the serum before lotion - Lotion application is always thinnest consistency to the thickest. 

Kassy's Vitamin C Serum DIY Recipe (I'll link where to buy) , watch the YouTube DIY video to learn how to make this Vitamin C serum -- Which is supposedly a Dupe of SkinCeuticals C E Ferulic.

:

1 tsp L-Ascorbic Acid

3 tsp Distilled water
1 tsp Sea Kelp Bioferment  ( Sea Kelp, my precious - this makes your hair grow faster too!)
1 tsp Jojoba Oil

1/4 tsp Vitamin E Oil (Rosehip Seed Oil works too)
1/8 tsp Ferulic Acid
1/4 tsp ice cold Vodka(buy from your local liquor store)

Some kind lady made a Youtube Tutorial for this Vitamin C serum recipe.  She's crediting someone else for the recipe though, but from my knowledge this recipe is Kassy's C serum.

Google Kassy's Vitamin C serum for more info!




Retin-A/Tretinoin :
What it is:
Cream or Gel that promotes peeling of affected skin areas and unclogs pores. Ba-bye blackheads and dull skin! (if you have dry skin, get the cream, if your skin is normal to oily, get the gel kind - if your skin is insanely sensitive, you might want to consider getting the micro .04 )

Before Internet, you could only buy this with a doctor's prescription.  No longer.  With that said, if you're pregnant or thinking about getting pregnant, or are breast-feeding, you're not suppose to be on this.. speak to your doctor.

Tretinoin  Cream (dry skin) in .025% strength.
Tretinoin Gel Microsphere - if you have extremely sensitive skin.
If you have tough skin .05%.

Make sure you get the weakest strength, which is .025%. or 0.04 in micro. Trust me on this, you're going to FEEL like absolute crap the first few weeks. Do not order it any stronger than .025% initially and do NOT use any other anti aging beauty products, like the Vitamin C serums, toners, just ANY products with alcohol in it (its even in the lotions!) while your skin adjusts to this product - and it will eventually.  My skin took 7 months to get used to it. :)

• Use it every 3rd~4th night when you start for a month at least
• Wait 30mins after you wash your face before you apply.
• Only use a pea size amount.

When I used the Retin-A cream for the first time, I felt nothing.  No dryness, redness, pain or any other skin problems.  So I, of course, promptly started to slather on a THICK layer of this stuff EVERY effing night - and 4 nights in a row at that. 

Well, on the 5th morning, I woke up in some SERIOUS pain and my face looked like a lobster's ass. Even water hurt to use... Use a PEA size amount, seriously! 

And the only thing that made me feel better was the Aquaphor - which reminds me, you need to order this with Retin-A - this makes a great night cream during the initial Retin-A hell-phase.  We all went through it..

Lotion:
Eucerin Q10 Anti Wrinkle.  It's super moisturizing and it's made for super sensitive skin.  But the best part about this Anti Aging lotion is that it's less than $10!! And works better than some of the most expensive lotions, if all you need is a moisturizer, than this will work.

With that said, this lotion might be too heavy for you oily skin girls.. :)

 I've been MIA from blogging (so sorry) but I've been so busy and have been out of the country. However,  I've discovered some AWESOME shampoo and conditioner in Korea that I'm completely nuts about and will blog about it as soon as I find someone who sells it in the US.  It's annoying and pointless reading about a raved review when you can't even effing buy it, right? LOL...

 Anyway, stay tuned for  the most awesome shampoo/conditioner that's I've discovered in Asia blog! :)


Thanks for reading as always!!  xoxo