My Skin Care Routine

My skin has had its ups and downs. Growing up, all the way until adulthood, I had virtually perfect skin. I never had any problems at all as a teenager - no acne flareups, no nothing. Due to this, I didn't really have to develop a skin routine out of necessity, to the point of where I didn't really do anything. Then, in my 20's, all hell broke loose. I started getting terrible hormonal breakouts around my forehead and chin every month, and every time it would happen I'd be left with a ton of awful looking acne scars. I tried all sorts of (cheap, I was broke) acne medications and skin products, but nothing really worked - or it would work for a while and then its effectiveness would plateau off. Luckily, the worst of my skin problems just seemed to go away on their own around my mid twenties, and I've had pretty average skin ever since. I still get some acne right before the time I get my period each month, usually around my chin/mouth area, but nothing terrible, usually. I have combination skin -my skin tends to get patchy and dry around my mouth and my forehead, and oily around my t-zone. I've been waffling around with my skin routine for the past few years, tying both drugstore and high end skin products and face washes, but in the past several months I've settled into a pretty consistent routine that's left me with solidly clear, smooth skin. Here are the products I use on a weekly basis, if you're interested:

1. Neutrogena Oil-Free Acne Wash - this is a classic, and it just works. I cleanse with this twice, daily. I've been toying with the idea of ditching the acne products for something more aimed towards maintaining youthful appearance, but I'm not quite comfortable enough to do so yet. I've tried tons of products, including several that are much more expensive, and I always go back to Neutrogena. Plus, the ultra-refreshing scent doesn't hurt. I used to use the regular formula, but switched to the exfoliating scrub because my skin was a little flaky from the winter.
2. Eucerin Daily Protection - another drug store wonder. I use this as my daily moisturizer (both in the morning and at night), and it's the perfect balance between light and quenching. It also provides my daily sunscreen.
3. Serious Serum - this got, like, life-changing reviews on Amazon. And while I haven't found it to be life-changing, per se, it's pretty solid. I use this as a nightly spot treatment, and I've actually noticed that if I dab it on a spot I can feel a pimple coming on, it often never surfaces or disappears in about a day. And I'm still pretty prone to acne scars, and this stuff does one of the better jobs I've seen at making them fade.
4. Aquaphor - if you don't use Aquaphor, it's time to get in the know. It's a miracle worker for anything that's dry - I use it on patchy spots, but I know lots of people who also use it on dry, cracked lips and hands.
5. Murad Clarifying Mask - I actually don't use this weekly, more like when I remember to, but it's pretty great. After I rinse it off my face feels baby smooth and nice and tight in the best way possible.
6. Mitchell and Peach Fine Radiance Face Oil (in Flora No. 1) - this came in my beauty subscription box one month, and I'm still getting used to it, but it's very effective. Every few nights I'll switch my nightly moisturizer out and apply this oil to my face with a cotton swab. I really feel like it quickly balances the oil production in my face and restores moisture while zapping extra oil, as odd as that seems (I've read that when your skin is dehydrated it produces more oil, so moisturizing regularly will keep oil at bay). I REALLY hate feeling greasy/oily though, so the sensation takes some adjusting for me, and the scent is almost kind of patchouly-like, which isn't really my jam. If I ever bought this, I'd probably try a different scent.

My Winter Essentials

I've noticed lately that when I come home from work, I put on the same outfit every day, snuggle under the same blanket, and slip into the same nightly routine. Something about familiarity makes the cold, dreary winter easier to bear, I think. Here are the essentials that have been getting me through 'til spring:

J. Crew Factory Shearling Slippers (no longer available)

They're super cozy, and the pop of red makes me happy.

Everlane Boyfriend Sweatshirt

I seriously wear this sweatshirt pretty much every night. The material is pretty heavy so it's nice and warm, and it looks pretty polished for a basic sweatshirt so I feel less frumpy in my nightly leggings/sweatshirt uniform.

Asos Wool Scarf (no longer available)

This scarf is big and as cozy as they come.

Lou & Grey Essential Leggings

I've mentioned these before, and I stand by 'em: these are my favorite leggings, and I live in them at home.

JR Watkins Shea Butter Lemon Hand Cream

(Oops, I think the link goes to the body cream, but I'm pretty sure it's the exact same thing in a bigger tube.) Winter does a number on my skin, especially my hands since I'm constantly typing and always forget to wear gloves. I keep this cream at my desk at work, and it keeps my digits silky smooth. Plus, it kind of smells like fruity pebbles. And it's Paraben and dye free!

Kleenex Cool Touch Tissues - Available literally anywhere.

I'm disgusting, and my nose is constantly drippy when it's cold out. I always have tissues on hand, and these are the bomb because they have menthol or something in them that's just a tiny bit cooling and keeps your nosy from getting all raw when you have the sniffles.

Faux Fur Throw

Not the exact one I have, but very similar. I can't imagine anything being cozier to snuggle up with on the couch while watching @Midnight (our new nightly ritual...except we're old and lame, so we TiVo it and watch it the next evening at an earlier time), except for perhaps a certain white fluffy dog I know.

Malin + Goetz Mojito Lip Balm
I subscribe to one of those monthly beauty sample boxes, and this came in my shipment last month. I like it because it keeps my lips soft and smooth without creating a gunky buildup, which most lip balms seem to do and it really bums me out. Softlips cherry will always be my #1, but if you're feeling a little fancier and are looking for a summery, tropical scent, this balm is pretty solid. 

Target Haul

Decorations are officially down and the house is back to normal, other than the dining room table (I liked the centerpiece that I put together for Christmas and I think it looks more "wintery" than "Christmassy", so I just tweaked it a bit) and some lights I left up in the kitchen (there are a couple of dark corners that I didn't realize needed help until I put Christmas lights up, so I'm leaving them there until I come up with a more permanent solution...or until the lights burn out). Even though getting everything cleaned up and put away feels like a weight off my shoulders, I like to refresh our decor a bit at the start of a new season. Enter my most recent Target trip.

I do a lot of my more basic grocery shopping at Target, because if I use my card I get 5% off each time I shop (which works as long as I pay off my bill each month, ha), plus I can save even more using my cartwheel app without having to use coupons (which make me feel like a tool...which is dumb, I know). Plus, the Target I go to is in the same shopping center as Trader Joe's, which is generally where I do my more specific/specialty grocery shopping. Anyway, every time I go to do my grocery shopping, I normally do a quick scan of their home goods. I know that a lot of people see this as their downfall and end up with a bunch of crap they don't need/didn't intend to buy, but I see it as quite the opposite. Target is continually getting in new home stuff, which means they're constantly putting stuff on clearance. I'm completely addicted to their Nate Berkus line, and a lot of their Room Essentials line has a lot of modern looking basics at stupid low prices. And a lot of the time when they put stuff on clearance, the price drops by as much as 70%. So stuff that was already inexpensive costs next to nothing, and since we're still relatively new homeowners, I'm constantly looking for stuff to fill empty spaces in our house. SO! I'm practically MAKING money.

Their clearance selection is kinda hit or miss, but this week it was definitely a huge hit. I ended up getting a Nate Berkus pillow that I've had my eye on for months (I couldn't find it on their website, but I'm thinking about going back and snatching up this one too) as well as the little geometric picture frame and the glass/gold accented candle holder. I was thisclose to buying this lamp, but I don't really have anywhere to put a single table lamp right now, so I left without it. I almost put back the little hex vase, but it was under 3 bucks and I always wish I had more little stuff to add to shelves and bookcases, so into my cart it went. And I was eyeing up those white and gold candlesticks all Christmas season, so I had to snag them. After buying all this stuff, plus my normal groceries and some stuff for my new desk at work, my total bill was under a hundred bucks. I normally spend right around $100 for just groceries for the week, so I was pretty satisfied with my trip.

The house is officially back in working order, but there are a few things that are driving me totally bonkers - we have a floor lamp in our foyer that we brought from our apartment that clashes with the style of everything else in the house that I'm dying to get rid of, but I need another floor lamp first because otherwise the corner it's in (which is where we put our Christmas tree) is too dark, especially after having the brightly lit tree there for the past month. The whole area looks too stark and random for my liking, and I want to get a new jute rug for the room. And then the shelf above the TV in the living room is the bane of my entire existence, and I need to start nagging Jeff to wall mount the TV so we can get rid of it without having a huge blank space on the wall. The shelf itself doesn't go with the rest of our house (it's a very contemporary looking floating shelf from Pottery Barn that was left here by the previous owners, and it's off white which clashes with our white trim), and it's hung way too high and just looks super awkward, no matter how I arrange things on it. We've had a wall mount for our TV since the first week we've moved in that's been leaning against a wall in our foyer, so it's time to put it up. I also have a bunch of frames that I've thrifted over the course of several months that I need to spray paint white, so I can finally get a couple of gallery walls up. So, lots of (little) things to do in the upcoming months. Stay tuned for some much needed progress.

More Like Trader...GO Home You're Giving Me An Anxiety Attack.

'Tis the season for people to act like total assholes.

LOL I'M KIDDING. No, that's a lie. This is going to be a discussion about Trader Joe's. And it's not going to be the kind of Trader Joe's discussion in which I wax poetic about how amazing their Turbinado Sugar Sea Salt Dark Chocolate Almonds are or how I could spend six hours straight in their cheese section (but they are! And I could! That post will undoubtedly come someday, but not today.) This is going to be a discussion about how I can only go to Trader Joe's maybe once a month, lest my blood pressure skyrocket and I end up hospitalized.

LOOK AT THIS.

What is the deal with people in Trader Joe's? Wait. Let's back up. Let's start in the Trader Joe's parking lot, because that's a situation that probably deserves its own article. But it's going in this one. I swear to god there is some kind of a substance - a gas, perhaps? Being pumped directly into the parking lot, which causes people to act like absolutely vacant jagoffs from the time they arrive in the parking lot, continuing for the duration of the time they're in the store, until they're several miles outside of the vicinity. Parking lots are bad enough during the holiday season - I could write an entire BOOK about how much I hate parking lots - but there's something about a Trader Joe's parking lot that makes people completely incapable of looking anywhere, before they do anything, ever. These people will run over children. They'll run down the elderly. They don't care. They just want their cookie butter, and they don't want to walk more than 20 yards for it. I am one hundred percent honest when I tell you I will park in the furthest spot possible away from the store in negative 10 degree weather and sleet just to avoid dealing with these boneheads.

So then you go into the store. It's like the damn Lord of the Flies in there. No one has any regard whatsoever for the direction anyone else is going. They stop in the middle of nowhere. They'll park their carts smack in the middle of the cheese display and look at a brick of camembert for 20 minutes while you mentally jab their eyes out and throw them at their head. They'll dart across the store, cutting 20 people off and tripping over someone's two year old who's been inexplicably left in the middle of the floral section on the floor for a free sample of local fig and serrano pepper chutney on an artisanal cheese straw. AND THE AISLES! You go into a regular grocery store, and there's a clear direction laid out. One side of the aisle is up, the other side is down. Nooooo, not at Trader Joe's! Their aisles are about 1/8th of the width of a normal aisle, and it's a free for all! You better be either prepared to fist fight a path for yourself, or to wait 40 minutes at the end of the aisle until someone is done reading the label of every pasta sauce in the entire store (there are 300). Possibly the worst part of all of this is that you become a part of the problem by default. No matter what you do, you're going to get in someone's way or cut them off, because when everyone is doing it it's impossible not to. It's a vicious cycle. Every time I go into that store, I come out with at least 3 fresh gray hairs, and my next stop is always the liquor store (because my Trader Joe's doesn't even sell 2 Buck Chuck! Freaking Delaware.)

This is a picture I texted to my friend one day, because it was the only time I had been able to freely maneuver in this store. EVER. She responded with shock and jealousy.

 So, this is the way Trader Joe's is ALL of the time, and then during the holidays it's like this times 4500. But you HAVE to go! Because cheese! And those almonds! And CHEESE. I'm tellin' ya. White people problems, AMIRITE GUYS?

Ugh.

My car is a deathtrap.

I'm convinced that my car is going to literally fall apart right under my ass as I'm driving one of these days. It just received a new alternator after dying on me in the middle of downtown Wilmington a few weeks ago, and it should thank its lucky stars that we have wonderful wonderful angels of family friends that own a car-repair business, or it'd be right out on its' ass. Today when I was driving around, it kept kicking into gear and lurching at weird intervals, and then it was making this odd rattling noise, which I'm pretty sure was the air-conditioner but could have been squirrels in my trunk or small pieces of my car falling off and rolling down the road.



Needless to say, I'm in the market for a new car. I would have already bought one, but I'm also in the market for a house, which is more important. So to avoid interfering with the home-loan process, I'm holding off on buying a new car until I buy a house, or until I absolutely am unable to drive my car, whichever comes first. I basically refuse to put any money into my current car (it's a 2000 Honda Accord with about 17 million miles on it), and it desperately needs new tires, probably new breaks, a new windshield, and a swift kick in the ass.

Just kidding Car, you've been good to me. Please don't die on me. I love you, baby.



So, as I do, obsessively, I've been researching the type of car I plan on purchasing. I have it down to a few options:

2013 Hyundai Elantra (currently the forerunner)

 

 

 

 2012 Nissan Sentra

 

2012 Nissan Murano (what I'd ideally buy, but probably don't want to spend the extra money)

 

 Whatever I end up deciding to buy, I'll be super jazzed because I've never owned a brand new car before. Stay tuned to see what I decide!