¶
I feel like skincare is an important piece of just self -care and self -love. It can become, like I said, like a ritual and I think that that's good because you're just, you're taking care of yourself. Welcome back to Keep It Good. I'm your host, Emily. I'm your host, Carly. I'm very excited about this episode today because I'm gonna be learning all things skin care. I'm gonna learn because my friend here, Emily, is all things
beauty and I am all things not. I have not learned properly growing up the importance of skin care. When did you start? Well, I think I really truly started once I graduated high school and was in cosmetology school because... I knew what to do, how to clean my face, I guess, but I was working at a salon and a spa at the time. And
everybody really took me under their wing. And especially the girls in the spa, they were like, you know, okay, you need to use this and start cleansing with this and you need this serum and I'm 17. So it was just a huge awakening and I wasn't using anything crazy. It was just, you know, properly how to remove your makeup and what to use like for sunscreen and stuff like that. So I feel like I started kind of early.
Now kids are starting. Like my daughter has, you know, we buy this very healthy, very clean skincare for them. They're just so interested in beauty. It's just things have come such a long, a long way. You know, I used to use a bar of soap if I washed my face at all. Yeah, I mean, growing up, we used everything all natural. My dad was a carpenter and we had this construction bucket in our bathroom filled with this powder. I don't even know what it was, but we would mix
it and it would turn into a mud paste. And that's what we use. And same thing with like toothpaste. We use baking soda. So I was never really introduced to any type of tricks or, you know, anything really. And now that I'm turning 40, I feel like it's time to learn. I am your student today. I mean, I remember my mom taking me to the pharmacy. I was probably a sophomore in high school and was like, all right, let's get you some good, some good stuff and some nice, nicer makeup than
what you're using. And I thought that was just amazing. I was so excited for it, but that's also why I do what I do. I'm in the beauty industry and that's just what I love. I'm not an aesthetician, but I would say skin. Care is my second love next to hair care. Yeah. Well, your skin looks great. So you're doing it right. I've just always been more of, like I said, we, we grew up very natural. So I feel like, I don't know, I'm kind of a minimalist and I've been making my own kind
of skincare stuff with castor oil. And I know I say it wrong. Uh, jojoba instead of jojoba oil. I put in some frankincense because it all has like really powerful natural healing abilities just in that itself. So that's my little concoction that I use and I've been kind of dabbling in the snail mucin, which one of my good friends told me about that and I was like, interesting. Like it was, it just. the thought of what it's
from, I was like, well, that is very cool. Cause it's not all these ingredients, not all these like acids put in. So I started using that as well. And yeah, that's really good. Yeah. And just like a few months ago, my husband accidentally ordered this like Thayer's toner, witch hazel. And because we had it in the house, I've been using that, which I do love. That's like a new level. I'm actually using that right now too,
as my toner. So, yeah, tell me all the things, Emily, because I am, if it's not broke, I'm not gonna fix it, but I feel like I'm gonna start breaking soon, so. Well, there is like, and it comes down to this, you could do a gazillion things for your skin, and it's just like, what is your level of wanting to take care of it, or how much can you actually get done? Because if you're really gonna go ham on this, it's a
routine, you have to do a lot of things. So it depends on what you want to spend your time on, you know? I mean, basically, cleansing your skin for morning and night is ideal, even if you could just do that and moisturize. I think you're ahead of the game for some people, because I'm sure there's people who don't even do that, or they only do it once a day, which is totally fine, too. But your skin is your biggest organ, so
you really want to take care of it. And that includes, you know, moisturizing your body, exfoliating it in the shower, you know, sloughing off that dead skin, too. It's not just your face. For women, you know, there was all this talk back in the 50s and all that. you know, your face and your décolleté and your neck too. Like, don't just let the cleansing of your face and the taking care just be, you know, your actual face. It should go down your neck onto your chest too.
But in my opinion, it really should kind of be everywhere because, you know, I mean, don't get me wrong. Are my legs dry in the winter? Yeah. My moist dries every day when I get out of the shower. Not necessarily, but it really is our biggest organ, like I said. So we should be moisturizing and taking good care of it. But skincare wise, I would say, you know, basic rule of thumb, like morning and night routine. Do you want me to kind of explain that? Yeah. Yeah. Because I have
a million questions. So let's see if you covered them and then I'll dive into what I need to know. Love it. All right. So we'll start with the morning. We're going to cleanse first. If you don't take a morning shower, just obviously at the sink. If my face is clean from the night before and I haven't gone to bed with makeup on or anything. I suggest something more hydrating because you don't have to remove anything off your face.
It's already clean. If you do have oily skin, then you could use cleanser that is good for combination or oily skin also. But you're going to cleanse first. Then we're going to tone or use an essence is another word. Essence is typically more moisturizing. A toner like the witch hazel would basically your pores are open when you're cleansing. And so you want to tone to kind of, I don't want to say close them, but kind of.
You don't want everything to be open so that when you're putting in all these serums, yes, you want them to go into your skin, but you don't want to cause clogging of the pores. So we're like, we're balancing the pH when we tone. So you're going to cleanse, you're going to tone, then we're going to start with serums. So typically for daytime, you would want to use something like vitamin C or a C serum, they're called, that is very hydrating for the skin. You're going
to want to do all your serums first. Think thin things to thick things. Why? So serums first because they're thin and yes you can layer them. I would give a little bit of time for it to dry though. I want it like throw on this serum your face is still wet throw on another serum your face is still wet throw on your moisturizer give it a second. So maybe that looks like putting on vitamin c and then brushing your teeth. Then put on your next serum and just wait in a second.
Sometimes I'll even just fan my face. But a C serum would be great. Then after your serums, eye cream. And with eye cream, you don't want to rub around the eyes. The skin around your eyes is super sensitive and much thinner than the rest of your skin on your face. So they also say your ring fingers. So you're going to actually dab the lotion on around your eyes with your ring finger because your ring finger doesn't
really do much. So they say it's a very gentle finger, so you're not pulling on your skin at all. So that's something I always do too. Okay? Ring fingers. Then we're going to moisturize. Because if we put on our moisturizer first, the moisturizers typically are heavy. So if that is already around your eyes, the eye cream can't sink it. Okay? So cleanse, tone, serums, eye cream, then your moisturizer. And I also suggest bringing that onto your neck and your chest,
okay? Last step for the day, I know there's some talk about sunscreen, but you're gonna put sunscreen on. See, my makeup has, I've been using the same makeup since like high school. It's just worked and I'm afraid to use anything else, but mine does have SPF 30 or something in it already. So do I need to add more or is that good enough? No, I would say that's fine. Again, I'm not a
doctor. They might tell you different, but in my opinion, no. A lot of tinted moisturizers also have SPFs in them now, so that I think is sufficient. So that would basically be the morning, if you were to do all the things. If you're kind of like a basic gal, I would say cleanse, tone, and moisturizer. You don't want to do the serums, you don't want to do the eye cream, that's fine, but at least you're kind of getting any of the debris off from... whatever you had on the night
before. So night time, first things first, you can use a micellar water or sometimes certain brands have like makeup removing balm, which is kind of oily based. And so you could put that on first and really kind of scrub all that makeup off. It's really light. It literally is like an oil. The micellar water would help remove makeup or like any debris. So again, this is for like an intense. Like time, there can be a lot of steps, but you're going to cleanse again.
I like to use a stronger cleanser at night so I can remove the makeup that I've had on from the day. Then if you were to do a mask, that's when you're going to mask. So the construction bucket of powder. That probably was a mask, like a mud mask of sorts. I have to ask my dad what the mystery powder was because I swear I lucked out. I did not have any acne. Which is probably what led me to this belief that like, I don't need to do much to my skin, you know, because...
Well, and I think there's that too. It's whatever works for you. Like, I used a bar of Dove soap in high school. You know, that was pretty much it. Maybe some moisturizer some days, but I mean, luckily I didn't have any skin problems either, but... So, why you're gonna do the mask after you cleanse is because same thing with the mask, after we remove it... We want to bring the pH to the skin back to normal. So we're going to tone after the mask. You don't want to wash your
face, tone it, and then put a mask. Oh, OK. Does that make sense? Think about the mask as like also cleansing or hydrating. We want to kind of seal that in. So cleanse. If you're going to mask, that's when you're going to do it. Then you're going to tone again. Some toners are just like essence, the hydrating toners, if you will.
That's more like pour some in your hand, it's a liquid, and you're going to kind of press it into the skin, where the witch hazel that you're using is something, it is also liquid, but it's going to go on a pad, and you're going to kind of rub that on. Then we're going to do the serums. So we're back to the same kind of method, thin to thick, whatever serums you're going to use at night, whether it's hyaluronic acid, which is a B5. It helps with plumping, hydration, makes
your skin look dewy. Do you want to get into, like, tretinoin and things that dermatologists suggest, too? Yeah, tell me all the things. So last year, my dermatologist actually prescribed this for me. You know, you're in your late 30s. This is something you should be thinking about. Basically, a retinoid. So it can be drying. Basically, it's the first layer, like, that superficial skin that gets kind of slothed off. You can peel from it. You have to work your way up to it.
It's not something you can use every day. Honestly, I would suggest using it like once a week for a little bit or twice a week to start. And basically they say like you can get up to using it every day or every other day, but it can be really dry, which I found it was on my skin. So I go through these times where I don't even use it at all, but it does help with skin turnover, cell turnover, and just gives kind of a fresh appearance to the skin because that outer layer
is getting kind of removed. very very thin but it does get removed. So a trick with the tretinoin is you can moisturize first or mix the tretinoin with a little bit of moisturizer so it's not as harsh. Oh okay so you're kind of like diluting it um where people moisturize put the tretinoin on and then moisturize again. So cleanse mask if you're gonna tone serums and then the eye cream moisturizer And that's it. All right, that doesn't seem too daunting. No, it's just depending
on what you're doing each day. So if it's a day I'm using the tretinoin, I'm maybe using a heavier moisturizer at night, like a castor oil. I love castor oil. I love the castor oil at night, but I don't also do that every night as my moisturizer. Sometimes I'm just using a basic moisturizer or night cream. Sometimes I'm using a beef tallow.
Moisturizer again mainly at night just because it's thicker and it's a little bit greasy So I don't really want that under my makeup, but if I'm not wearing makeup for the day Then I will use that also as my moisturizer for the day because I love it I mean the one I'm using I love but it doesn't smell maybe the best. It's a little beefy Like I'm happy you can't smell me right now. I would say you kind of smell like a burger. Yeah, I'm just kidding. But I do love
it. And it's so smooth. It feels so good on your skin. And I have a little bit of psoriasis on my eyelids, actually, which pops up here and there. And it is so good for moisturizing both the tallow and the castor oil. Feels so good. I'm going to try the beef tallow. Cause again, it just intrigues me when it's like natural. I've been kind of making my own little botanical, like medicinal garden, not like weed or anything.
It's like echinacea and all these things. Uh, so I've been really interested in like making tinctures. And like I said, I started last year doing my own moisturizer with the frankincense. Like I was reading up, cause I use that a lot for just essential oils, right? I'll burn it or whatever, but. The frankincense is so healing. It helps with wrinkles, even age spots, like I'm covered in freckles. Growing up, I was called
Punky Brewster. I looked like her. And so the older I get, it's hard to tell, is that a freckle or is that an age spot? And I had this one spot on my face. That was a newer looking freckle. And throughout the years it's been getting bigger and bigger and it started to cause me some concern. So I went to the dermatologist and she was like, I'm not too concerned with it. If it gets bigger, we're going to biopsy it and you know, do all
the things. Now I am not one to just like disregard any medical advice, but I said, you know what, hold off. before we take a crater out of my face, let me just do a little experiment. And I started the frankincense with maybe three drops mixed in with scent castor oil. It's a miracle little concoction. And it has literally made this spot on my face go down to like a third of what it was. So I am staying from experience like this
stuff works for age spots. So that and then I want to ask your opinion about the snail mucin. So is that like a serum? Is that considered a step as a serum? Yeah, that would be a serum. They do make it, the first time I ever used it was in sheet mask form. So like, again, at night, cleanse my face, sit on my bed, read a book for 10 minutes, 15 minutes, whatever, with the sheet
mask on. But what's cool about those is there's like in the little packages, there's leftover there's obviously a lot of serum in there, right, when you take the sheet mask out? So then I would use that packet for a couple days after as a serum too, because there was so much left inside.
Oh, cool. So, yeah, cleanse and I would put the sheet mask on, kind of rub that in, and on those days that I was using something like that, I would cleanse and tone first, because it was a mask that I needed to rinse off, like a charcoal mask or something like that, you know, like a mud mask. So... that was just going to stay on because it's clear. It's a serum mask. It's a little bit different. But yes, that would be a serum you would put on first before you moisturize
and do eye cream. What's your take on like those B or A pore strips or like things like that? Is that kind of, you know, harmful to your skin? I don't know if I want to say harmful, but you know, they're made for your nose or your chin area. But yeah, in my head, that makes sense that it does kind of leave the pore open and vulnerable for more clogging. Yeah. Okay. I would just go get a facial and they'll manually extract
for you. I know. I just recently went, my husband got me this awesome spa day for Mother's Day and I deliberately waited to use it until my birthday, which was like almost a year later. And I got the facial and it was like, oh my God, how am I only getting this now? I think I've gotten two in my whole life. And it was just like, wow, incredible. It does feel so good. I feel like skincare is an important piece of just self -care and self -love. It can become,
like I said, like a ritual. And I think that that's good because you're just, you're taking care of yourself. You brush your teeth and you eat well and you're doing all these other things. But if you're not taking care of your actual outside part of your body, you know, and it just makes you feel good. When your skin is hydrated and you don't have any blemishes or anything going on like that, you feel like you don't really need makeup. And that also feels nice being almost
40 and comfortable in your skin. Yeah, I'm more comfortable in my skin now than I was in high school. Right, and that comes with age. You would have never caught me dead without makeup until I was probably 25 or 26. Like I just, no thank you. I wouldn't even go to... You wouldn't catch me dead without makeup until like last week, you know. I'm like really trucking along here, but one thing that I... did pick up like a few
years ago. Cause you know, every now and then I break out with a little bit here and there around my period. Is it on your chin? Cause that's typically, yeah, it has to do with menstrual. Yeah. So I found these awesome things. Um, peace out acne. They're like these little stickers that you put on at night. My God, I wish they had this in high school because you, they are
like the hardest little workers at night. when you're sleeping because you wake up and it literally draws all the stuff that's just clogging whatever is going on there and you take off the little patch and you just see all of it oh really on oh yeah i will yeah the next time i order a patch i'm going to give you i've heard of things like that i don't know if it's what i'm thinking but i know i love it but they actually work so now i'm like addicted to them and i love them and
yeah i'll be getting those for my boys when they hit that prime age of you know, all the things. But I also wanted to bring up, because Steve's grandma gave me this awesome trick back in the day. Before you get out of the shower, and your skin is still wet, you lather up your legs and your arms, your stomach, everything but your face with baby oil, then you dry off. And you don't need any lotion. And your skin is just
so smooth. You know when you go to... get a pedicure and they put that oil on and you walk out of the salon, you're like, oh my God, my legs feel so smooth and like nice. It's, I mean, you could pick up the cheapest little bottle of baby oil, keep it in your shower. And it's, I was like, Betty, oh my God, thank you so much. Betty with the tips. Oh God, girl. And it does the trick. I mean, I'm telling you, my legs, after I do that, they feel so good. Yeah, I've even she
if you shave with baby oil same thing. You just gotta watch out cuz that shower is slick after That's slick, but it really does make your legs feel really really nice. So I agree with the baby oil Betty knew what she was doing Yeah, I'm gonna do the baby oil shaving. I never tried. Yeah, just make a pin dot in Yeah, you know how it's sealed Just like the pin neck, because otherwise it's a mess. So let's talk castor oil, or it could be any kind of, you know, body oil if you
make your own or whatever, but for gua sha. You want to talk about gua sha now? Let's do gua sha. I feel like we're going to go on like a ayahuasca trip. Let's do some gua sha. I know, you want to talk about it? So this is become big, I would say. I mean, I don't know, over the past 10 years, but. from what I know, but I feel like it's really like I see so much of
it now. And it's basically facial massage for your face, your neck, helps with lymphatic drainage too, which has become a big thing too for just your whole body in general. But it's essentially a technique with a lot of it is a jade that you can purchase. They come in like handheld forms, sometimes rollers. and everyone's got kind of a different technique, but it's basically rubbing this along your face to move fluid and helps with fine lines and wrinkles. It's just, it feels
so good. You kind of feel this like fire starting, which is normal. You feel the blood come to your face, like to the surface. You typically will get a little pink, little red from it. That's normal, but It really helps with puffiness. It can help with under eye puffiness and it just kind of gets things moving and it feels so good. There's tons of tutorials online. You can go on Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube. Some techniques
are just so basic. A lot of times I will do something quick kind of in the shower while my cleanser is actually on. So I'm just using my fingers. And then if I do have time and it's like a little self care day or a Sunday or something, I will actually use. you know, the tools, but my favorite oil to use right now is castor oil. So I will put all my stuff on, but if I'm using castor oil as my actual moisturizer, I do that last and it's just helps glide with your tools so
easily. And then, and then there's still so much on. It's not like you're getting it really in your hair or anything. It really kind of stays put because castor oil is pretty thick and it just glides so nicely and it just feels amazing. Now is this because I have like a rose quartz roller in my fridge Similar and yes. Yep, very similar. You can put any of those things in The freezer so that they're really cold and that's just a nice feeling for the skin as well I have
like a huge roller. I don't even know actually what it's made of. It's definitely not Jade or rose quartz And if you're feeling puffy, you can just rub it on your temples if you have a headache or something like that. And those are really nice. I think I bought it on Amazon for $8. And these, you know, the gua sha, they're not that expensive. Again, you can find them on Amazon for definitely under $15, probably
under $10. Is there a specific direction that you're supposed to move it, like up and out? Yeah, you're kind of moving, you're kind of starting from... the center, like if there was a line to be from the top of, you know, the middle of your forehead down to your chin, you're going to think like everything from the middle to the left and the middle to the right. So you're kind of moving out to the edges towards your ears and up, and then also down the back of the neck.
And, you know, your neck is incorporated into it too, just for the lymphatic drainage portion. But like I said, there's so many tutorials online, different people you can follow who, you know, you can get the direction from, and it's so easy. but it feels so good. Oh, I'm gonna have to try some foie chat. Yeah, and again, I'm sure there's people who do it every night. I do it just like when I can and I'm finding the time for myself, but it does really feel good and I love the castor
oil for that. So some nights I'm using castor oil as my moisturizer I'm never using it during the day because it's way too thick again unless I'm just staying home all day but I would say the night time is when your skin is really getting to heal and rejuvenate itself because there's so much time that you're resting and So that's really one kind of the strong stuff is used like a retinoid or something like that I'm gonna have to revisit I had tried retinol or retinoid one
of them over -the -counter, but I had tried it briefly and I got real scared because it started flaking, like you said. Yeah. And I just kind of chucked it and ran, but I might have to start reintroducing myself to that one. Yeah, it's just... Yeah, I think if you layer with a moisturizer, so moisturizer, and then your retinol, and then moisturizer again, that might help. And I've had, like I said, good luck with using the castor oil on those nights I'm using the tretinoin.
Yeah, see I wasn't using castor oil back then, so that could probably help. Yes, absolutely. And there is bad castor oil, so you do want to look for organic castor oil too, because there's so many other uses which we could go down. Like, oh, that's a whole other episode with my love for castor oil. But yes, definitely loving it on the face for sure. So I wanted to give a little shout out to one of the brands that I'm using right now, because I am using a good amount of
their stuff. I don't even know how to say it, to be honest. It's made in California. I'm gonna pronounce it shwa -lay. This is where I'm getting my tallow balm, which is basically a moisturizer. It has vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin E, K, B12, omega -3, and choline. Ooh, again, doesn't have like, it smells like tallow. doesn't really have a scent, but I can also get behind that because I know that there's not a lot of junk in it.
But the balm that I'm using also has methylene blue in it, which I feel like is a new trigger word for people. It's like a big thing. You can actually ingest it. It could be in skincare, like I'm saying, and I feel like it's kind of the new craze. So they actually have some of that also in their tallow balm. And I've been using their Methylene Blue serum also. So it is actually like light blue. Oh, that's cool.
Yeah, I love it. So Methylene Blue helps with collagen production, skin thickness, so your skin's not so, you know, thin or crepey looking. It adds hydration, it reduces wrinkle formation, and it neutralizes free radicals. So if you were to use it at any time, it'd be best really in the morning to help. you know, with any free radicals that you get during the day. But I've
been using it morning and night. I've been putting it on before I do my vitamin C serum in the morning, and I've been putting it on at night before I use my hyaluronic acid. Again, let those serums sit for maybe even just 30 seconds. It just needs to kind of not be wet before you apply the next one. And a lot of these, they work well with other things you can completely layer. Also, what's neat about Methylene Blue is it's antiviral, antibacterial, antifungal. It's awesome. I love
it. Yeah, Steve brought that up to me the other day. Of course, you too, probably. Oh, yeah. Your ears were ringing. I know. You know what, too? They have a deodorant I've been using because I think most of us are trying to get away from all the aluminum and all the other crap in our deodorants, and it works really good. Like, not stinky at all. Not stinky on it. It has zinc and charcoal, arrowroot, baking soda. Like, it's very clean, and I love it. I've been very, very
happy with my products from them. Like you said, I've been using the Thayer's Witch Hazel as my toner, which is something new. I've never used Witch Hazel before until like three months ago I started using it. Little goes a long way. It lasts forever. And that's priced really well. Then my cleanser. And I do have a couple of their serums, my hyaluronic acid and my vitamin C serum. I do have one of their moisturizers too is Laroche Posay. Don't know if I'm saying that right either.
Yeah, I have heard about that one Yeah, I've been liking it and I've tried a ton of brands So it's really personal too as to what works for you. What feels good. You want to use clean clean products We do our best but in the same breath some of the clean clean products maybe won't Fix what you need. Like sometimes you do need something prescription So it just depends on what you're needing for your own personal you know, your skin, what does it actually need?
I think that, you know, if you can just, like I said, even if you're just cleansing and moisturizing, you're doing better than most of the other people. Yeah, girl, wash your face, right? Read that books. Yeah. So another thing is like double cleansing or not cleansing at all. Again, this is just like, there's a couple of different camps. It's like what makes the most sense. Some people double cleanse, which means they wash their face
two times in a row. to make sure that they're getting all the stuff off, which I totally understand. If you're using a ton of makeup or something really strong, then yeah, you might need to cleanse two times. You don't want your toner pad to be brown from all your bronzer that you had, even though you just washed your face. That shouldn't be the case. It just depends on what camp you're in as to what works best for you. I'm in the
rugged camp. It looks great though. So whatever dad was mixing in that bucket, I think he really...
Yeah, I can't wait to find out. the mystery bucket maybe it's basically it feels like a mud mask which is great because that is exfoliating and can also close your pores which is half the battle yeah no it's cool we had an obscene amount of it you might have to bottle it he might really have something it's like a five dollar bag from pump depot it's just cement yeah yeah well to leave you guys today i wanted to give a quote per usual. So I don't know who this is from either.
Couldn't find it. But it says, skincare is a ritual, not a routine. And I feel like it's so true because it's kind of self -love. You need to like take the time and it feels good when you do it. You know, when I take the time to do all the things, it feels nice. So incorporate this into your life, give yourself the love and treatment that you guys deserve. And as always, keep it good.