If you're a regular reader of the blog, you know I typically have very oily skin that is prone to blackheads. My skin changes a bit when cooler weather comes along to a little more dry, yet the blackheads are there no matter what. I have a few of my favorite masks to share with you that help to keep oil and blackheads under control, and I hope they can help you as well!
I'm not putting these in any order, because I love them all equally, but if you want some serious oil and blackhead control, the Aztec Secret Indian Healing Clay is seriously amazing! It's just this powder that you can add either water or apple cider vinegar to, and make a mask out of it. I tend to use apple cider vinegar, and it does leave my skin a bit red for a while, so if you have sensitive skin, use water instead. I get this from Amazon, and it's super inexpensive, and will last ages.
Another favorite, though expensive, is the Glamglow Supermud Clearing Treatment. I much prefer this mask to their Youthmud mask, since it makes my skin feel so incredibly soft and look nearly poreless. This is a deluxe sample, but the 1.7 ounce is $59. They now have a 3.5 ounce for $79 as well.
A mask that I've loved for years is the Origins Clear Improvement Active Charcoal Mask. Charcoal is amazing at clearing out pores, and feels less harsh to me than other ingredients used to fight acne and oil.
Paula's Choice is a brand I absolutely adored way before it became popular. Their Skin Balancing Oil Absorbing Mask is incredible at making my skin feel super clean, pores are minimized, and it doesn't irritate my skin like other purifying masks can.
The last mask that is great for my skin is the Caudalie Instant Detox Mask. I don't know what it is about this mask, but my skin just loves it. It's got Lactic Acid, which was great when I was pregnant, and it cleared up my skin and made it really soft. It does leave some redness, but it goes away after about an hour.
Do you have any favorite masks?
Since starting with Young Living, I've absolutely LOVED everything I've tried. I placed my Essential Rewards (ER) order for June, and wanted to share with you all what I got this month.
I decided to get allllll the oils this month! Young Living is mostly known for their essential oils, though they do have other amazing wellness products. I wanted all oils so I can get a feel for what I like.
- Vitality Oils: Lime, Peppermint, Ginger, and Digize
- KidScents oils: TummyGize, SleepyIze, SniffleEase. These oils are fabulous for kids! They're already pre-diluted for kids aged 2+, so I dilute just a little more since Olivia is just 20 months old
- Christmas Spirit, Awaken, Purification, and Valor
- White Angelica, Peace & Calming II, and Gentle Baby
- Sacred Mountain, Stress Away, Cedarwood, Abundance, and Thieves
All the oils to the right were free! Yes, FREE! They are the promo oils this month for spending a certain amount, and are worth over $200.
- Orange Vitality, M-Grain, Citronella, Cypress, Lemongrass, Lavender, and Roman Chamomile
I think my all-time favorite oil (so far, at least) is Stress Away. It has vanilla and other oils to help promote relaxation, which then helps me to sleep a little better. This oil was my "a-ha" oil! I made my daughter Olivia a sleep roller with SleepyIze, Cedarwood, and Valor, and she sleeps like a rock, it's pretty incredible!
If anyone has questions or comments about Young Living products, please feel free to leave a comment below, or email me at skinstuffbykaty@yahoo.com with the subject line Young Living. If you've been interested in oils for a while, but haven't made the leap yet, you can sign up as a member here to get your Premium Starter Kit for just $160! It's an over $300 value for an insane price. I would absolutely love having you on my team, so definitely shoot me an email if you sign up! I cannot wait to get you started on your oily journey!
May was kind of a rough month in using up products, but I still have a few to share with you all!
I really only used up some skincare and body care in May. I used up The Body Shop Body Butter Duo in Vanilla, and I thought it was pretty nice! One side was thicker for extra dry skin, and the other side was for basic hydration. I have another one or two as backups.
I ended up decluttering the O'Keefe's Working Hands because it's all dried out and unusable. I liked it when I was able to use it, but it did leave a bit of a film on my hands that kinda bothered me.
I have one sheet mask from BioRepublic in Aloe Rescue. This felt nice and cooling on my skin when I was dealing with some dryness and irritation. I'm a big fan of sheet masks recently, but need to find more time to use them more consistently.
The second to last of my Philosophy hand cream tubes has been used up. The Homemade Honey Buns scent was to die for, and I wish I had another one. My last tube should be used up by the end of June, so you should see that in June's empties post!
The Azure Naturals Ultimate Vitamin C Moisturizer was just alright. I liked it at first, but towards the end I realized it just wasn't for my skin. It didn't sink in very well and just sat on top, making my face feel more greasy.
The last product I used up is an EOS lip balm in the Strawberry scent. These take forever for me to use up, and in all honesty, I don't really like them all that much. They're not the most hydrating and I'm just glad it's gone.
Products used up: 6
Total for the year: 74
I definitely didn't use up as much as I wanted to, but I'm glad I used up at least a few products. So far, June is going much better and I'm more motivated in using up everything I have.
What have you used up recently?
Young Living is a company I had known about for years. I had a friend talk to me a few months ago about their oils and while I was interested, I wasn't truly ready to get a kit then. Fast forward a few months to around the end of May, I was finally ready! I had gotten to a point where I wanted a different lifestyle for myself, as well as my family. I ended up getting the Premium Starter Kit with the Desert Mist diffuser that retails for $160. I also signed up for their monthly wellness box called ER, or Essential Rewards. I'm going to share my thoughts on the starter kit and share what was in my May ER.
Like I mentioned above, the Premium Starter Kit starts at $160. There are others that are more expensive, and there's also a basic starter kit that costs $45, but you don't get all the essential oils or a diffuser. I wanted to have a good array of oils to try, plus all the little extras, so I sprung for the premium kit.
The kit also came with a product guide for 2018, as well as a catalog that's more for the holiday season.
The box everything comes in is absolutely gorgeous, and has a picture of lavender fields. Lavender is one of my favorite scents, so I was glad to see it included in the kit!
Oils in the kit:
Lemon Vitality
Copaiba Vitality
Digize Vitality
Thieves Vitality
Peppermint Vitality
Panaway
Raven
Citrus Fresh
Frankincense
Lavender
Stress Away
I was so intrigued by the vitality oils because they are considered to generally be safe for consumption. I've been adding a drop of Lemon Vitality in an 8 ounce glass of water first thing in the morning. It's so refreshing and helps with detoxing.
I've also been using Lavender and Frankincense on my daughter at bedtime to help her sleep, and it's seriously been a miracle duo! She's been sleeping like a champ!
It also came with two packets of Ningxia Red, which is their whole-body supplement drink. It contains wolfberry, which is said to have incredible health benefits. I've already drank one, and it surprisingly gave me some energy during a midday slump I was feeling. Young Living is pretty well known for their Thieves line of products. The kit contains a 1 ounce sample packet of their household cleaner. You can mix this with water in a spray bottle and have an all-purpose cleaner to use on a multitude of surfaces. It's been said to replace many different household cleaners, which will save money in the long run. The kit also comes with 10 tiny bottles you can make samples with to give to friends and family if you wish.
This is the Desert Mist diffuser. I chose this one due to the fact that you can diffuse for up to 10 hours. There are a few different settings to have it run for a few hours, slightly longer than that, then up to 10. I love that because I can use it in the living room in the morning to help feel refreshed and awake, in the afternoon to help keep me on task, and I can use it at night while I'm sleeping to help me fall and stay asleep. There are also light settings to change the color while diffusing, which is really nice as well.
These are the products I chose for my May ER (essential rewards) order:
Thieves Dentarome Plus toothpaste
Seedling Diaper Rash Cream
4 Vitality Oils: Orange, Lemon, Thieves and Citrus Fresh
I have yet to try the toothpaste and diaper rash cream. I'm a bit nervous to try the toothpaste due to my ultra sensitive teeth, and I have a different diaper rash cream I'm almost finished with before I open the Seedlings one. I picked vitality oils because they're not as expensive and it helped me to get to the 50PV I needed to place my order. I already received my June ER order in the mail and will share that sometime next week.
I've been using my kit daily, multiple times a day. I've loved it so much, that I've decided to become a distributor for Young Living! I've learned so much about all the different products, have so many amazing support people on my team, and have just fallen in love with the brand. I absolutely cannot wait to start this journey, and if anyone has any questions for me or would like to join my team, feel free to sign up here or shoot me an email at skinstuffbykaty@yahoo.com. You can also leave a comment below if you wish. I can't wait to get started!
Are you already part of Young Living? What do you like about it most?
I know this post is super late, but I wanted to share what I received in May's Boxycharm. I'm sad to say this is my last box with Boxycharm. I think they're an incredible value for only $21 a month, and you receive some amazing products, but I have such a large collection already so I realized I truly did not need a subscription service anymore.
The theme for May was Boxy Bash. The first product I received was the Pur Sculptor Highlight & Contour palette. I'm not usually one to highlight and contour, plus the contour shades are far too dark for my fair complexion. I'd probably use this palette as eyeshadow instead. One cool thing is this palette smells like chocolate. This palette retails for $30.
I got four brushes from the brand Aesthetica. A 3 Piece Eye trio and a P12 Face Brush. I don't care for the eye brushes aside from the spoolie. I use those quite frequently. The P12 brush seems nice for blush or bronzer. The trio retails for $45 and the face brush retails for $27.
I also received a Beauty Creations Liquid Lip Gloss in the shade Kiss Me. It's a really pretty rosy, red color that will likely be nice for Fall weather. This retails for $10.
I'm not a big fan of gel eyeliners, or eyeliner in general, but the Pretty Vulgar The Ink Gel Eyeliner in 01 Black List seems nice. I'll give it a try, but I'm not sure if it will stay in my collection. This liner retails for $24.
The last product is from Cover FX, and it's their Blurring Primer. I tend to like primers like this because of my large pores. Cover FX is a good brand too, so I look forward to trying this at some point. It retails for $38.
The total value of this box is $174. That's not bad at all, though I feel the brushes are far too expensive for the quality. Like I said above, this will be my last box for the foreseeable future. I enjoyed the box the few months I was subscribed, and may go back to it in the future.
If you're subscribed to Boxycharm, what did you get in your box?
I took another break from the blog due to family things and lots of doctor appointments for my daughter, but I'm back! I can't say how many times I'll be posting this month, but I realized I didn't get to share my used up products from April, and May's empties will be up in a couple-ish weeks.
I'll start off with some skincare products. I finally finished off the last 3 packets of the Dickinson's Oil Controlling Towelettes, and I'm glad to be moving onto something different.
I have one sheet mask from a brand called Dermal called Bird's Nest. I got a huge lot of these off of Amazon for a really good price, due to a lot of awesome reviews I saw from a group on Facebook. I really enjoyed this and have to start taking better care of my skin again, because I'm majorly slacking.
I used up a deluxe sample of the Origins GinZing Refreshing Face Mask. It's just a clear, gel type mask that dried down on the skin, and left it a bit more hydrated. It's nothing special honestly, but it felt good on the skin.
I had been working on the NeoStrata Foaming Glycolic Wash for a really long time and I'm happy now that it's used up. It made my skin feel soft, but it dried it out during the colder months. I should've saved it for Summer, but wanted it done.
This is the last of the products. I used up 2 Bath & Body Works products: a Spiced Apple Toddy candle and a Coconut Lime Verbena Deep Cleansing hand soap. Absolutely loved the candle, as well as the hand soap, but I'm slowly using up and not repurchasing anything from B&BW. I feel like their stuff is really expensive, and I'm working towards using better household products.
I've been trying to use up the Arvazallia Color Care shampoo for a really long time as well. I don't wash my hair often, maybe twice a week or so. Now that this is used up, I don't really care for it. My hair didn't really feel clean, but it felt softer. I just used up the conditioner a couple days ago, so that will be in June empties.
I used up a Little Remedies Saline Spray that was my daughter's. I use these sprays to help clean out her nose when she gets stuffed up. I like this but found a less expensive option on Amazon.
I used up another Philosophy hand cream in the Raspberries and Cream scent. These hand creams are nice, but they don't do much when my hands are super dry from constant hand washing.
Products used up: 11
Total for the year: 68
I didn't do too bad. I was hoping to use up closer to 80 products at this point, but as long as I can really start taking care of my skin and trying to do my makeup more, I should have better success. I know my goal was to use up 150 products this year, and I'm still hopeful I can hit that goal.
