Skincare

Skincare and health in general starts from the inside, out. I'm drinking more ice water, now that it isn't winter-cold and drinking cold drinks is refreshing instead of a surefire way to give yourself pneumonia. (Because dropping your core temperature in the dead of winter is rarely ever a good idea, unless you have a fever.) Drinking water instead of soda or even juice helps my skin stay soft and clear, because I'm drinking both more fluids and less processed sugar.

A while ago I switched from using lanolin on my heels at night, to applying Olay Regenerist serum in the mornings. I didn't love wearing socks to sleep every single night, especially as the weather gets warmer; and I was getting very low on lanolin. Rather than buy another tub, I tried using the serum on my heels for a few days, and liked the results. I get my Regenerist at Costco, which means great big huge bottles that one person cannot go through by themselves in a year, unless they use a whole lot of it. Well…now I'm using more of it.

Warmer weather means shorter sleeves and scooped necklines, so I'm using more sunscreen. Neutrogena Ultra-Dry Touch sunscreen has a 24-month expiration period, but I tend to get a new tube every year. I used to buy the stuff at Costco; but there I always had to buy two tubes, and I'd end up not using one so now I just shop at Walgreen's and get the wellness points.

At night, I'll wipe down with cleansing cloths to remove any excess dirt from the day, then apply Olay Night Cream. I didn't use this regularly until about a year ago, and sometimes in winter I'll not use it for a night or two; but it really does work, especially on the dry patches that are starting to appear. (This ‘getting older' crap is just that: crap.)

In other changes, I've finally gone through a tube of Missha Perfect Cover BB Cream, and think that I may use this exclusively for foundation, rather than using my loose-powder foundation for lighter-coverage/“no makeup” days. I previously avoided liquid foundations for two reasons aside from lack of a decent shade match: first, they were all rather heavy, and I could feel them on my skin like a nascent oil slick; and second, they didn't cover very well. The US BB creams, which are little better than tinted moisturizers, seemed to have similar problems, though usually it was one or the other: they wouldn't feel heavy but they wouldn't give me full coverage, or they would give me full coverage but I had to apply a bit more than I cared to. There are some downsides to Missha: it contains parabens; the shade range is rather limited; and at $13 per ounce it's not the least expensive option available. But…consider the fact that it took me just under a full year, to use a full tube. Last year in June, Missha had a semi-annual sale that let me get my BB cream at about 40% off. I'm hoping that they'll have that again this year (even though I still have a tube left, it's in my ‘winter color' Milky Beige, rather than my ‘summer color' Light Beige.)

Makeup

In winter I can skip makeup fixative spray and I'm just fine. My favorite primers will smooth my skin and nicely hold my eyeshadow, liner, and blush in place for a full day. I don't live in a really humid area, so don't have to worry about my makeup melting off on a regular basis…but I do use Urban Decay's All-Nighter when the weather gets warmer, to help keep my makeup in place. I don't wear this in winter so much, though if I'm wearing more saturated shades or know that I'm going to be warmer than usual, I'll use it.

Sephora's Contour Eye Pencils are excellent - both in terms of price and in quality. They last me a solid 11 hours of wear with little fading or smudging that I could see. (I didn't test longer than that.) When I wore one for 14 hours, I saw a little bit of fading at the end of the day, but the liner didn't disappear on me. If you haven't tried this line yet, their Ten Shades of Samba collection (limited edition, 10 full-size pencils for $49) is a great place to start. It contains some bright, summery colors from the line like Banana Split (bright yellow), Romantic Comedy (hot pink), Blonde Ambition (platinum-yellow), Summer Cruise (metallic vivid blue) and two exclusive shades, a bright green and a summery orange.

Femme Fatale's latest collection, Post Apocalyptic, contains some great softer shades that I love wearing when the weather's gorgeous and I'm more inclined to go for a walk then spend lots of time on my makeup. Eyeshadow shades Cloud Kingdom, Crystal Guardian, Lemon Sweets, Peebles, and blushes Heat Signature and Hot to the Touch are all great summer shades - either softer pastels with duotone color shifts, or brighter colors that pack a punch.

If I don't have a waterproof mascara, I'll end up with two black-ringed eyes by lunchtime - faster in the summer. CoverGirl's Lash Blast Length has been a staple of mine for a long time, ever since I gave it a try and found that it performed almost as well as BareMinerals' mascara. When I first started using it, the Lash Blast mascaras didn't all have waterproof formulas available - but they've since been added to the lineup.

Changes in habits

It's not a change, so much as a ‘return to what I do in spring and summer' but once the weather started warming up, I began walking more. I'm lucky enough to live near a nice-ish walking trail, and my daily commute isn't too long, so I have time in the evenings to walk for an hour or so. I end up spending a bit more money, because I'll get a drink at the coffee shop at the end of my walk; but I'm walking off the calories almost as soon as I'm ingesting them, which is good. I also get the benefit of regular exercise, which lets me sleep better at night. (I find that on days when I can't go for my walk, I have more trouble falling asleep.) The walk isn't far, there isn't much of an elevation change, and it's all on a paved walk, so in terms of endurance it isn't much. But walking ten miles in a week definitely makes me feel better, helps me sleep better, gives me a chance to just relax and enjoy the outdoors. And because it's a paved walking path set back from busy streets, I don't have the traffic to worry about.

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