I’m basically working remotely full-time nowadays, and I’ve gotten really lazy with sunscreen on days when I don’t leave the house. How vigilant are you with sunscreen on your shut-in days?

Do you wear sunscreen on days you don’t leave the house?

With all this talk of resolutions and improvement, let’s unburden ourselves of our most shameful secrets! 😂 Never use SPF in winter (or ever)? Addicted to the St. Ives apricot scrub? Sleep in your makeup? Stick with products that don’t seem to be working for way too long? Whaddaya got? This is a safe space, sorta!

Besides my general inconsistency, I’m TERRIBLE about keeping track of how long products have been open. I’m also crazy for exfoliation - my skin lets me do it without consequence, but I just know one day I’ll go too far and completely dissolve my skin barrier.

What’s your worst skincare habit?

I was lucky enough to win the Real Barrier Porebium giveaway (lord knows my pores need it), but I’ve gotta confess my ignorance here—among the products there’s both a cleansing foam and a powder wash, and I’m not sure of their respective uses. The descriptions on their bottles and the English instructions are very similar (apologies for the low-quality pics) - they both seem like cleansers geared toward oily pore-prominent skin, but would one use one in the morning and one at night? One after the other? I’m generally unfamiliar with the concept of a powder wash (aside from Tatcha’s polishes), so if anyone has any insights I’d be grateful to hear them!

Real Barrier Porebium -  cleansing foam vs powder wash?

Is there ever a point where you’re like “this is good I’m not messing with it anymore” or are you always willing to try something new? I kind of feel like I’ve already been able to max out my results (maybe I’ll feel differently as I acquire more visible signs of age), but I can’t keep myself from trying new stuff, lol.

When are you satisfied with your skincare routine?

And does your timeline differ for different kinds of products? Cleansers vs treatments vs moisturizers vs sunscreens, etc.

How long do you want/need to test a product before you’re comfortable giving a review?

I’d actually say the finish is… not sticky and not greasy, but I do feel a bit more of a film with this one than some other sun sticks I’ve tried. I think that might be part of the deal if you want that velvet matte finish, though? 

I received this product complimentary from Benton in exchange for my honest review. I’d never tried a mineral sun stick before, but I really liked this one and think it’s a great option particularly for people with sensitive skin or who prefer mineral filters. As a mineral-based sun care product, it’s also appropriate for children.

In some ways I’m not the ideal person to test this product—I have resilient skin, no problem with chemical filters, and I’m also pretty pale, so I’m not the best person to test the degree of white cast it leaves. But all that being said, I really liked this and will continue to use it! The one way in which I *am* a good tester for this is that I have oily-combo skin, and this sun stick leaves a velvety matte finish. 

In addition to the zinc oxide and titanium dioxide filters, it has three types of hyaluronic acid, vitamin E, and allantoin and panthenol for moisturization and soothing. And of course, it is eminently portable. If you prefer mineral sunscreens, and maybe even if you don’t, this is a great buy.

Of course, the price point: $128 when not on sale. Wait for a 30%-off sale on the PML website, which are frequent. (**EDITED TO ADD: For a long time it was marked down all the way to $77, so you may want to wait it out until/in case they do that deep a discount again!) There’s not a duochrome shade in this palette like there usually is with the astral shade, which may be disappointing to some. There’s also some flakiness in the Blood Moon 005 and Jubilee shades in addition to the Astral Solstice shade, so you’re going to probably want to use the IntensifEYES wand, glitter glue, or something similar with them.

Tl;dr up front - this is a gorgeous palette, fantastic formulas and colors, it’s often marked down significantly on the PML website, it’s both everyday and special occasion friendly - if you’re thinking about it, buy it.

I recently decided, at age 37, to learn how to apply eyeshadow (oily lids, hooded eyes, and incompetence deriving from incredibly poor eyesight conspired to keep me ignorant until now). And I decided to jump in with both feet and start with the palettes everyone raves about - I got a trio of Motherships (IV, V, VI) at a recent sale on the Pat McGrath website. They’re all beautiful, but I think Midnight Sun is my favorite. The color story is versatile - there’s shades and finishes in here for both special occasions and everyday looks. (I should say though, part of the reason that I love the color story is that it complements my warm-leaning coloring. The moss green of Wicked Envy, Taboo’s brown ochre… mwah) The formulas are of course fantastic - obviously there’s the special Astral and Blitz shades, but MAN the mattes (Vermillion Venom, Taboo, and Xtreme Dusk) are so. creamy. And the metallics (Skinshow Moon Glow, Bronze Eclipse, and Wicked Envy) blend so nicely they almost might as well be mattes. In short: wow. I can’t get over how easy these are to work with for a newbie like me. I’m probably spoiled for other eyeshadows now!

The pump is a bit stiff but it’s nothing that’s too bothersome. It’s also on the pricier side—$32-40ish USD for 30mL/1 oz. But if you’ve had trouble finding a good vitamin C and don’t mind the price, this one is absolutely worth checking out.

I received this product for free from Picky and Dear, Klairs in exchange for my honest review.

I haven’t historically been a big vitamin C person (I’ve gone through bottles of various serums without really seeing results), but the Dear, Klairs Freshly Juiced Vitamin Charging Serum is so unobjectionable that I’m more than happy to stick with it for awhile!

“Unobjectionable” sounds like it’s damning with faint praise, though. This is a really great product if vitamin C works for you—it uses a much more stable vitamin C derivative, 3-O-Ethyl Ascorbic Acid, so you don’t have to worry about its oxidizing and becoming ineffective as soon as you open the product. It’s also considered gentler than your standard L-Ascorbic Acid, which is line with my experience of it, with the caveat that I have pretty resilient skin regardless. It has a clear, thin texture with just enough viscosity that it doesn’t drip everywhere. And like I said above, it’s consummately unobjectionable—no stickiness, no pilling, absorbs quickly, no scent that I could discern (which makes me wonder what the citrus extracts in the ingredients list are for—extra antioxidants, I suppose? Is that how that works?). Other notable ingredients include niacinamide for brightening and moisturizers like glycerin, butylene glycol, and panthenol. 

Unfortunately it does contain various citrus and herbal oils that might make it a no-go for more sensitive skin—always patch test first! I was also a bit surprised that it doesn’t contain any other mild chemical exfoliants to bump up the power.

I received this product for free from Picky and YADAH in exchange for my honest review.

This is the first peeling gel product that I’ve ever tried, so read this review in that context! For other peeling gel neophytes: you basically apply it after cleansing, massage it around your skin, and the product gently physically exfoliates and balls up into little product crumbs (the “peeling” part) and gets everywhere. At least, that’s my experience, lol. 

The relevant ingredients here are cellulose (for physical exfoliation) and green tea water and powder (for antioxidants, and I believe the powder is also intended to add to the physical exfoliation). It’s gentle and gives a nice mild exfoliation. I liked this and it didn’t irritate my skin. I can see myself reaching for this when I feel like I need a mild physical exfoliation (which is much of the time, lol), but if I had or if I find a peeling gel that also contains AHAs/BHAs, I’d probably go for that first, as someone with congestion-prone AND resilient skin.

I’ve noticed that reviews seem a lot more mixed re: how irritating the eye cream is versus the serum, and I do tend to have pretty resilient skin, so if you have sensitive skin, you may wish to proceed with caution. I haven’t noticed any undereye brightening (yet), but I’m going to continue to use this and see how things pan out.

I received these products for free from Picky and SOME BY MI in exchange for my honest review.

I love me some actives, so I was really excited to try a pair of SOME BY MI retinol products.

So, SOME BY MI’s Retinol Intense Advanced Triple Action Eye Cream! The titular “triple action” is, the packaging claims, its ability to address wrinkles, signs of aging, and “skin tone darkening.” The flagship ingredient is the same 0.1% retinol we have in the serum, along with niacinamide reasonably high up on the ingredients list.

I really liked this eye cream, and it has an immensely better dispensing mechanism than the counterpart serum: a squeeze tube with a nice precise applicator. The cream is a bit, well, creamier/more silicone-y than the serum (makes sense, as dimethicone is the fourth ingredient), but it absorbs similarly well, and it didn’t cause me any irritation.

CeeSlaw