If you're like me, your evenings can be just as busy as the rest of your day. Whether it's doing more work for class, household chores or simply taking care of the kids, your evenings and days blend into one hectic mess. 
However, if there's one thing I've learned in my many years on this earth (23 year old Grandma right here) is that taking 15-20 minutes to myself at the end of the night will save me millions on stress. 
While I've always understood the importance of taking care of my skin, Thanks Mom!, it's taken me a fair few to connect that it's also a contributing factor to helping with elevated stress and anxiety.  
Forcing myself to take 15-20 minutes to take my make-up off, wash and hydrate my skin allows me to take a breather and do something purely for myself. It also helps with my stress because I know I'm actively doing something to prevent breakouts and other skin problems. 
My history with skin issues is quite long and yet super simple. I was that classic teen that dealt with acne from a young age and while it's gotten a lot better, I'm not at the state where I'll leave the house completely makeup free. 
The biggest thing I've learnt is that simplifying my routine is key and avoid "overapplying", because it just suffocates my face.
 When it comes to taking my makeup off, there really isn't much that's revolutionary, I use a combination of wipes and micellar water. On good days, I'll stick with the water (with some cotton pads) because it removes my makeup really well, without rubbing and irritating my skin. I love this Garnier one, but you can also never go wrong with Bioderma and Reversa. When it comes to makeup wipes, I'm not exactly a loyal customer. I just picked up these Simple Kind to Skin ones because you can't hear a bad review about them but Marcelle, Uriage and Bioderma (again) are just as good.
Light a few candles, put on your favourite music and take some time to just unwind. While makeup removal may seem like an annoying chore, it is a necessary part of your evening... unless you want your pillowcase to look like a Picasso piece. So instead of dreading it, find a way of making it useful to better yourself. xx

| Nivea Night Cream | Avene Cold Cream  | Josie Maran Pure Argan Oil |

|  Zoella Wonder Hand | Caudalie Hand & Nail Cream | Hourglass Veil Mineral Primer |

Recently, I decided to test out the Origins GinZing Eye Cream. I had received a Sephora gift card and thought it would be a good product to test out. Just like face masks, eye creams have never been a product I've gravitated towards. I usually kept it basic with face wash and moisturizer. However, I've become more aware of the impact a good skincare regime provides, especially when you have acne prone skin (like I do). Because of this I decided to test out and see if adding an eye cream would be beneficial for me.

So after using the cream (every morning) for a good 2 months, I think I'm able to say what I truly like and dislike about the product. When I first used it, I wasn't all that impressed. I didn't see a change. Instant gratification was not in the cards. To be honest, I had my doubts I was even going to get through testing it out. However, after the first week and a half I eventually started noticing it's affects. I'm not going to say that my dark circles completely vanished, but I have seen a slight reduction. And that's the key word, "slight". I do find my eyes feel more awake when I use the cream and I have noticed myself using less concealer (which I think is a good thing).


In the past I used to layer two concealers (a thicker one to get rid of the darkness and a lighter one to brighten the under eye area). Now, simply using the brightening concealer is enough. The cream is very rich but is also very light on my skin. I'm not scared of getting a burning sensation when I use the cream and it doesn't feel heavy after I've applied it.
What I'll do is apply the eye cream before I've moisturized my face, and then apply my moisturizer a few minutes later (after it has had time to sink in). The cream allows the under-eye area to feel fresh and not heavy has if I'm weighting it down with products. So far I have to say that while I had my doubts in the beginning, I'm impressed with the product.

I'm not the best with face masks. It's the one part of my face routine I just can't seem to do on a frequent basis. It's been a few weeks where I've noticed that I'm not too happy with how my face looks in the morning. Even after I wash and moisturize it, it still looks dull and tired.
So while watching an April Favourites on YouTube, I stumbled upon Zoe's video and was instantly drawn to a face mask she was talking about. Now normally, I usually just watch the videos and while the products look interesting, I'm not one to go out and buy them straight away. However, this one hit me. It sounded really interesting and I was curious to see if I would enjoy it.
The product I'm taking about is The Body Shop's Drops of Youth Bouncy Sleeping Mask.


The mask claims to "smooth, refresh and replenish" and honestly that's exactly what my skin problems were. I felt like it was lacking life and while I was keeping it clean, it didn't feel or look fresh.
Well I've used the product a few times now and I can definitely see the difference when I do. I wake up in the morning and I don't feel like my face is angry at me anymore. It's so much more relaxed. I had found my skin looking very tight, like it was stressed. And while yes, we all have stresses in our lives, it wasn't exactly been a serious problem in mine at the moment. My skin is also a lot smother when I wake up and doesn't feel as rough. I haven't used it twice in a row because it still is a pretty even formulation, but I imagine that if you have very dry skin (mine is oily/combination), you could get away with that.


In all, I'm very impressed with the mask. I didn't expect to see results right away and I'm only praying that I keep seeing results as I continue to use it.