Oil for Oily Skin?

It's the most wonderful time of year. The time of sweating yourself to death in a pool of sweat because mother nature is a jerk. 
Along with the many lists of wonderful things I got in the gene pool from my parents including my sass, good looks and charm come a list of not so great qualities. Including my lack of patience, allergies, oily face and sweat glands. Thanks, mom!
Because of my mom's ultimate generosity, I get to pay the ultimate price and sweat in air conditioning. Jealous? I know you are. I mean everyone gets to have their highlight on fleek and I have a natural born highlight called oil. 
I don't get to experience the joys of having my highlight be able to land planes or have the ability to have my face beam up to Mars. But I do have a t-zone that gets shiny like nobody's business after about 20 minutes in the sun. 
Every summer I get to deal with the oil and my makeup literally melting off my face. Oil blotting sheets have nothing on me. I can 2 of those sheets fully soaked in oil within seconds. Disgusting right? However this year, I said enough is enough and I am going to get this hot mess situation under control because no one needs to experience it. So I started doing some research into how to get the oil to stop production effective immediately. 
Gel moisturizer. Nope.  Night cream. Nope.  Face masks. Nope You get the idea.

As a last resort, I discover cleansing oil. We have a winner! I literally immediately saw a difference in not only how my skin felt but how it was starting to look throughout the day. I wasn't becoming a grease slick within an hour or two after putting on my makeup. It was taking a lot less time to become shine face. It was glorious. 

Garnier was one of the first brands to put out a cleaning oil in the drugstore. You take 2 pumps of the oil into your hand and rub onto a clean dry face. To remove it, I take a warm washcloth, put on my face for a couple of seconds to loosen the oil and then use the cloth the remove my makeup and other dirt on my face. 9 times out of 10, I would always have to use a face wash afterwards cause I always felt like there was still oil just sitting on top of my skin. But until I found another cleaning oil at the drugstore, I was out of luck. 
Then the craze hit the fan and needless to say, cleaning oil was everywhere. Neutrogena blessed me and released my holy grail oil of all time. 

This stuff smells amazing and doesn't leave me feeling oily afterward. I don't have to use a face wash after. I can just use the cleansing oil to remove my makeup, dirt, and oil. It has even gotten most of my waterproof mascara. I constantly have 2 on hand at all times. If one God forbid goes missing, home girl has a backup. I take this stuff seriously. 
In my quest to find the right solution to rid myself of ShineFestUSA on my face, I read an article about Catherine Zeta Jones. The woman is drop dead gorgeous. I have always admired her and how great she looks. In this article, she said how every night she slathers herself in argan oil. I immediately bought argan oil to slather myself in. Just like someone saw Cady Haron wearing army pants and flip flops. So she bought army pants and flip flops. 

I can't put into words how much argon oil has changed my skin game. I use this stuff all the time like they use Windex in Big Fat Greek Wedding. I literally burnt my ear curling my hair and put argan oil on the burn and it healed so much faster. It has help my acne scarring, replaced my eye cream, night cream and so much more. When I use it at night, it absorbs into my skin quickly so I don't have to worry about it rubbing off on everything. I notice my makeup goes on so much more smoothly in the morning, and I don't need to use as much foundation. It is a serious game changer in my skin care routine. 
Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that putting oil on my face would help with my oily face. It always seemed so counterintuitive but it goes without saying that there is a cure for just about everything. Had I not discovered cleansing oil or argan oil, I would probably be a hot sweaty mess with grease face standing the closest to an AC vent or fan. 
Summer is miserable. But your face doesn't have to be. 

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August Favorites: Skincare Edition

Now that it is officially September...
Dear Mother Nature, As of September 22, it will be the first day of Autumn. Can you please make FL feel like fall and make me the happiest woman in the world?! Thanks. 
Let the countdown to Fall begin!!! Who is with me?
Since my makeup routine has been pretty standard this month, I decided to switch it up the month and give you my skincare favorites as well as my routine. I have it down to a degree and still need to work out a few kinks but hey my skin has never been better. 

I have had my fair share of skin issues especially when hormones took over my innocent body. (Someone remind me again why we have them again?) Now that I am in my 20's, I have noticed that my skin still goes on a roller coaster and I am OVER IT! 

So I decided to really pull the reigns and do something about it. Yes, I don't have as many breakouts as I used to when I was a teenager, but it still fluctuates. During the hot Summer months, I get extra oily and breakout more. Fall/Winter I tend to dry out a bit more than normal. You get the picture.

So when trying to figure out my plan of attack, I decided to stick with my go to drugstore products like I normally would; However, I also wanted to get products that would really keep my skin clean as to not hope for any more "junk" to appear on my face than normal. 

After trying many products theses are my favorite...

In the morning, I wash my face with Olay Pore Minimizing cleanser/scrub and my scrublet (From L'oreal Go 360). This smells good and really makes my face feel clean when I use the scrublet with the cleanser. 

At night, I leave it up to the good old Clean and Clear. Isn't this the stuff that everyone used when they were teenagers? I don't even care. It works. While the smell is annoying, it does it job. 

(Don't mind the Equate label. Just trying to save a buck or two). 

1. Foaming Facial Cleanser

2. Astringent

3. Moisturizer

Once a week, I put on a mask to scare my neighbors and relax. 

Once a week, I use a really nice scrub to exfoliate. 

Before I put on my makeup, I make sure my skin is really clean. I may be putting on my makeup at 7 am or 1 pm. No matter what time I put on my makeup, I want to make sure I get all the dirt and excess oil off my face so my makeup looks better and lasts longer. 

1. Any Astringent to prep skin for makeup. I like one that will remove dirt, and clean my skin. 

I put it all over face, behind ears, and down neck. 

2. Olay Oil Minimizing Toner- A toner that smells good! Woot Woot! 

I put it all over my face including my eyelids to absorb oil. It really works and I can tell when I forget to put it on. 

It took me a while to figure out but I really love how my skin looks. 

What are you go to skin care products? Do you have a holy grail skin product that you have to have? 

Let me know in the comments below what they are. 

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