Breaker

Girl, Wash Your Face

Girl, Wash Your Face! First, that’s a great book by Rachel Hollis. If you aren’t following her, you should be. Love her inspiration and no nonsense way of looking at life! And this book was GREAT!

Now to the washing your face topic. I was recently asked what my beauty secrets are. This always seems so crazy to me because my regimen is the simplest it’s ever been and my face is healthier and clearer than it’s ever been. But it starts with the fact that you have to wash your face in the morning and every night!

Seven years ago I went through a really horrible ordeal. It was some weird eczema, psoriasis, dermatitis crazy stuff. No one really knows. I went to 6 different doctors in 3 years. They would prescribe all sorts of creams and it would temporarily remove the rash and then, it would come back in another spot and even worse than before. By the 5th doctor, I was like… “No! I am not putting that shit on my skin!” And I remember thinking, I don’t want to treat it, I want to cure it!

I took cold water bleach baths, laid with towels soaked in vinegar and washed my hair with baking soda. Those are just a few of the crazy things I was told to do to cure my skin! My skin would weep, crust over and then peel off. I was basically a lizard that would shed it’s skin daily! My ears would fully peel off, every single day! It was as awful as it sounds. It was itchy and would flare up every few days to a bright red, just out of the sun color. I cried so much because it was so painful. And all the while, I had to put one foot in front of the other and go to work and raise my kids and try to not obsess over how uncomfortable I was. All of the damn time! Oh, and here’s my favorite, guess what they would always tell me the cause was? STRESS. OMG, are you freaking kidding me. The whole process was stressful! Yes, I was stressed! And my skin was the thing that was stressing me out the most! Whew, get all worked up just thinking about it!

I have a lot of food allergies, so I thought it was food based. I kept a journal and would write down everything I came into contact with and highlight my “flare” days. When I would get out of the shower, it would look like I had been in the sun for hours. My skin was raw, bright red and irritated! I came up with a new theory every day and a new thing I would eliminate from my diet or my life! It was nuts!

I finally found an absolute ANGEL. She was an allergist that did patch testing on me. (AGAIN, horrible process) But the end result was we found out what was causing my skin problems. Drum roll please! Guess what it was? It was soap. YEP, soap!

Um, how was I supposed to live my life without soap? My littlest had some health issues, so I could see that maybe, just maybe, I had overdone it with the soap in the last 4 years. I washed my hands like I was a mom on a mission! And guess what, I was a mom on a mission. A mission to not have germs in my house and not get my little boy sick. So, to say I used soap was an understatement!

So, I threw away all of the hand sanitizers and all of the traditional soap in my house. I bought some big huge kitchen gloves and I now had an excuse not to clean my house! Legit! LOL!

As a result of all of that, I scaled back on ALL of my products. Through the process of eliminating one product at a time in those 3 years of trying to figure all of this out, I had formed a very natural skin care regimen. And fast forward to today and my skin has never looked better. I get asked all the time what I do to stay looking so young.

So here goes. Here are my secrets! I use a bar of glycerin/palm oil soap from Whole foods on my body. Fragrance Free!! See image below:

And I avoid sodium laurel sulfate at all costs. Guess what that chemical does? It creates the bubbles. Isn’t that what we need to get clean? We need the bubbles! LOL. Well, no more bubbles in my life. It’s the number one ingredient that triggers my skin to flare up and itch!

To clean my face, I use witch hazel. Witch hazel is a natural astringent. I soak a cotton ball in witch hazel and that is how I clean my face, morning and night. Or in my car after I work out or any time I just need to refresh my face! It also keeps the itchies away. I still suffer through the winter for some reason. I don’t get the rash anymore, but my skin flares a bit in the winter. So every night after I wash my makeup off with a cotton ball and witch hazel (Don’t put it on your eyes. I don’t wash my eye makeup off.) I use a little spray bottle and I spray witch hazel on my shoulders, the top of my back and my chest. This stuff is simply amazing. It has really healed my skin and it’s clear and healthy.

For lotion, I also have to use fragrance free and paraben free. I use Vanicream lite lotion. This stuff is simply amazing!!!! I use it on my body and my face!

I use minimal makeup. No foundation and just a little bit of concealer under my eyes. A little Neutrogena blush on my cheeks and some mascara. Finding makeup I can use has been difficult. So I stick to my 4 to 5 products and that’s it.

And here is my ultimate secret. I take care of my eyes. I don’t rub them with washcloths and scrub the mascara off of them. Be careful with that delicate skin under your eyes. After I get out of the shower, I take a cotton swab and put a little of the Vanicream Lite lotion on it and swipe it under my eye gently, toward the center, to get any mascara residue off my under-eye. Don’t rub back and forth. I can’t stress this enough, take care of that skin under your eye. Wrinkles around your eyes are the number one thing that begin to show age in my opinion. And I think this is why I am told I don’t look 45. I really take care of my eyes.

And here is my last tip. You have to use THIS eye cream. I have been using this eye cream since I was 28 years old! I would also say, if you are 28 or older, start using eye cream. I use it morning and night. It has kept the wrinkles at bay and is simply amazing.

 

So that’s it. My daily beauty routine. Give it a try! Scale back on all of the “beauty” products. They are filled with so many chemicals and in some cases very harmful ingredients. In this case, I’ve learned, less is more!

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Nicolle Lamb

Nicolle Lamb, CEO/Founder of Lane Marketing. With more than 20 years of experience in marketing, Nicolle took a leap of faith and started her own company in 2020. She is doing amazing work helping her clients ensure their advertising budgets are spent wisely! She lives in the suburbs of Chicago with 3 amazing kids, one awesome dog, and a wonderful husband. Baseball, Fastpitch, and Volleyball schedules are just a few pieces of Nicolle’s Mom Hustle. Spring tests her sanity every year due to these sports schedules. She enjoys decorating, DIY projects, pretending to be a runner, reading, and spending time with her husband, 3 kids, and her dog.