My Skin And Hair Are So Grateful...And So Is My Pocketbook

Lets just get right into it. It is vital, in my opinion, that every person, not just women, have at least a three step skin care process they do every night before bed, and every morning before you leave for work. I'm a big fan of taking time off from wearing makeup. I do it often. When I worked for a major retail store that is primarily known for their makeup and skin care selection, I still followed the "no makeup" rule on certain days. It also helped my sales in skin care so customers could see that the products actually do work. My face was like a walking advertisement. Lets be real though, there's still that one week a month where my hormones turn psychotic and certain parts of my face break out, it happens. I embrace it. You can't compete with mother nature, she always wins.

Let me go ahead and address my current finances, or lack there of. Covid-19 has had a negative effect on so many of our bank accounts, so yes, mine too. Granted there are much more details to MY Covid journey in 2020 and how I got here, but I'm doing everything I can right now to take care of myself, and pay these bills that Covid don’t give a crap about.

Anyways, I can no longer afford my usual skin care and makeup products like I used to be able to. I just can't stay up on top of my collection of stuff, and I've had to choose what is a priority and what is not. Food is a freaking priority. That setting spray is not. The good tooth paste is a priority. That prestige highlighter is not. You get the picture. We've all had to make some sacrifices.

Here's what I do:

For my facial cleanser, I still use my Clinique Liquid Facial Soap, mild, for dry combination skin. This is less than $20.00 at most retail stores. I use this every morning and every night.

Side note! And this is very, very important. Use makeup remover to take off your makeup. I don’t care if you bought it at the dollar store. Do not, I repeat, DO NOT use your facial cleanser to remove your makeup, it’s not removing anything. Trust me.

My second step is Clinique Clarfying Lotion 2, for dry combination skin. This is about $18.00 at most retail stores. You'll notice that this is not an actual lotion, so I like to call it a liquid exfoliator. Because that's what it is doing, exfoliating the skin to get it ready to receive the third step.

My third step, and this one changes sometimes. Recently I had to get real creative because money is ultra tight (and listen, I'm not complaining! I'm going to be fine! Something is going to take a shift and I am going to be blessed for my hard work. Speak that!) so I broke it down to this one universal item. It's so simple!

Coconut oil. Boom. I put it on only at night, and on the days I'm not wearing foundation, which is most days because, well, masks. The brand I use is less than ten bucks. And another plus side to this Holy Grail of all things beauty is I can put it in my curly hair to add moisture, and It's a much better alternative to cook with.

For a lot of you this probably isn't one of those "Wow" moments. You are most likely already well aware of the amazing benefits you can receive from rubbing coconut oil on your face, body, hair and skillet. I'll just say that I turn 35 in less than a week, and I get more compliments on my skin and hair than I do anything else. I regularly receive messages from women asking me what I use as a moisturizer, and why my curls look so healthy. This is it people.

I do have some other pointers I could share with you on the curl game, but I'll save that for later. Although, if you want to reach out and ask me some questions, I'll gladly share my "secrets".

Well, that's really it for now. Desperate times have called for desperate measures. I wanted to write about my favorite makeup item which is lipstick, but there isn't a whole lot of lipstick wearing that I'm doing these days. I do, however rub coconut oil on my lips to get that shine. It's like a night time lip moisturizer. It's pretty amazing actually. My lips are my favorite feature on my face and I have to keep it covered up for the majority of my day. This new normal has certainly been an adjustment. But I still have hope that one day we won't be required to sport a mask anymore and the world will be a safe place to wear lipstick again. Chow, Xo