What my mom never told me...

On my 13th birthday, my mom took me and a couple of my friends to get a facial and have our makeup done at Elizabeth Arden in Beverly Hills.

I wasn't allowed to wear any makeup until then, so this was a big deal.

So was going to the now defunct The Bistro in Beverly Hills for lunch afterwards.

I mourned along with my mom when they closed the doors of our favorite restaurant in 1994.

No more chocolate soufflés. 

No more cheese bread.

I hear they opened an offshoot called The Bistro Garden somewhere else, but it's just not the same.

But I digress...

The facial was nice, but the makeup.... well, it was 1982, so let's just say blue eyeshadow isn't my color.

Besides, 13 year olds in full makeup? Not a good look.

Anyway, as part of my mom's present, we were allowed to buy some products to clean our little faces and the lady that sold it to us gave some advice, in her very French accent...

"If you start taking care of your faces every single day at this age, you will always have beautiful skin."

Now, that I'm older, I realize that she was trying to make sure that we'd be lifetime clients, but my young self took what she said to heart and I've been cleaning my face every single morning since then.

I know it's bad, but I could never get into the habit of cleaning it at night.

After I ran out of the products, that the oh so smart French lady had sold us, my even smarter mom bought me the much less expensive Clinique Three Step.

source

Anyone else use this?

I loved it! Especially that toner, because I thought the sting meant it was working.

Actually, it might have. I went pretty much zit free during my entire teenage years.

That was my face cleaning regimen right up until I was in my early 40s. Then one day it stopped working as well as it once had and my face started getting really dry.

Oh no! What to do?!

You see, all my life my mom told me lots of things were going to happen after I turned 40. Things like... my boobs would sag, my butt would fall and that I would lose my flat tummy... scary, right?!

It was at the time.

I was in my 20s when she told me that ;)

Thankfully, my boobs and butt are pretty much still in place at this point, but after two cesareans... well, that flat tummy has been MIA for a very long time.

The one thing she never told me is that my skin would dry up.

Sigh.

So, I remembered that my grandmother Bonnie had beautiful skin and she always used Ponds Cold Cream.

source

That worked for awhile, until I started getting adult acne and my psoriasis started flaring up.

Not okay.

After that, I did some research and after some trial and error, this is what I came up with and have been using ever since:

This is my routine:

When I'm done with my shower, I splash my face with water in the sink and then rub a dime size drop of the olive oil all over it with my fingers. 

If it's good enough for Sophia Loren, then it's good enough for me ;)

I also use olive oil on a piece of tissue to take off my eye makeup.

My brand of choice is California Olive Ranch (which I also cook with), because it's a true olive oil.

No, I don't have that huge bottle in the bathroom. I use a little dark glass bottle that has a dropper.

Then I take a clean white washcloth that I wet with warm water and rub all the oil off.

White, because I'm weird and like to see all the dirt that comes off my face.

After that, I squirt a little witch hazel onto a cotton ball and wipe the residue off.

I use Thayer's because it's alcohol free.

Then, if my skin feels really dry, I put a pea size amount olive oil back on my face and rub it all in.

Then I put on Burt's Bees Brightening cream, for the age spots that started appearing in my late 30s.

It seems to work, because the spots have at least lightened up.

That's what I get for using baby oil to tan my face in my teens and twenties.

Silly girl.

About once a month, I use Origins charcoal mask, because it really cleans out those pores and takes away the dead skin layer. 

That's it.

I've been doing this for about 4 years now and my psoriasis is much better, I rarely get a zit, and my face is nowhere near as dry.

I will tell you though that when I started using the oil, I did break out at first, but after a week it went away.

Now, I don't know if this will work for any of you, but it really helped me, so I thought I'd share my routine and the products I use. 

Please don't come after me, if you try it and you break out like a teenager that eats pizza everyday. 

You can buy all of them at Amazon, but I linked to the product websites, so that you could read more information. Which, by the way, I'm not being compensated. I just love them :)

What is your skincare routine?

xo

rue