 Do you want to get an insider look into my skincare routine and what I feel like is highly effective on this 53-year-old face? If you do, that's what we're covering today. Let's get into it right now. All right. So last video, I showed you this bag, this monster bag. This is the bag that I keep my skincare in. And yes, it's a huge bag. The reason that I keep my skincare in this is because it's so much easier for me to do skincare on my bed and my makeup on my bed because I have a hard time standing for very long because a few of you know I have POTS, which makes you feel very light-headed, dizzy, and sometimes you do pass out. So I do almost all of that kind of stuff on my bed. And having bags like this really helps me to achieve that. I will link the video where I talked about this bag and a few others that really are very convenient for me to be able to have everything together and to just put it on my bed and be able to do it. But I wanted to take a minute and just give you an inside look into what is in here. Did want to pan you out just a little bit to show you my top today. I usually try to do that and remember to do that. I love this top. It has this inset in it that's crocheted and the overlay goes all the way down. It's a very dark teal blue. Might look a little bit more blue on camera, but it is a very dark teal. And then of course, let me get you closer now. And of course, I tried to show you my earrings as well. I can link those today. I got them off of Amazon. I'll make sure that I link them for you. And my finger nail polish I can link as well. Okay. Now that that's out of the way, let's talk a little bit of skincare. I'm just going to go through this in the order of what I actually put on my face. So let's start with morning. In the morning, I'm going to use just a regular washcloth with warm water. And I've been using the Sarah Vital Comfort Bead Cleanser all in one daily face wash to cleanse, refine, and nourish, mature skin. It says it has vitamin E, hyaluronic acid, and exfoliating jojoba beads. So I've been using this and I do like it very much. I was sent this by the way. This is one that I really feel does help to just get any dead skin off or any dirt or anything that you've gotten on your face through the night. I mean, we sleep for what, eight to 10 hours. So really we do get a little bit of dirt on our face. So I just use a washcloth and that to take that off. And the washcloth does help to do some exfoliating as well. So I do a little bit of polishing and buffing with that. Now at this point, I add a little bit of extra water or moisture. You can splash your face with water, doesn't cost you anything. Right now, I'm trying this Mario Badescu Skincare Facial Spray with aloe, adaptogens, and coconut water, and I've been using that as the extra moisture or spraying it to get all of that extra water added to the skin so that the skin can start to get plumped up. Now if you have an allergy to coconut, make sure that you skip this. A lot of people, they can eat coconut, but they have a very strong allergy to coconut on their face. My mother is one of them, so she has to be really careful. The next thing that I do is this toner, which I have talked about probably since the dawn of the toner. This is from Good Molecules. It's the Niacinamide Brightening Toner. This has, it says, formulated with Niacinamide, Vitamin C, Arbutin, and Licorice root to brighten and improve the appearance of enlarged pores. This is amazing. I have talked about this all the time. This is the best brightener that I have had and the best sweep for your pores. If you have clogged pores, you're going to want to get some Niacinamide somewhere in your routine. Niacinamide just goes in and it just completely takes any gunk, any sebum, dirt, anything like that out of your pores. So this is so wonderful. And all those other ingredients, Vitamin C, Arbutin, and Licorice root, those are all brightening ingredients. So your skin is going to look so much brighter and so much healthier. This is my second step. Well, third step, I love that stuff. Now, I do use the Grande Lash in the morning on my lashes. This was one that I got during the holidays. I'm not 100% sold on this because some days I'll use this and it will irritate my eyes and sting a little bit. Some days I'll use it and it will be fine. So I don't know, have you guys had that issue yourselves with this? I don't know if I'm exactly completely sold on this. I use a different one at night. Then, after I have done my niacinamide toner, I go in with the Sukoyakosu Hada Urea Lotion. Again, this is an essence. You're going to find that I don't use anything thick on my face in the morning before makeup and except for my SPF. And that is because I find that I do layer a lot on there. I want my skin to be super hydrated, super plumped up because all those lines are going to be plumped up and they're going to be so much less noticeable with your makeup on. If you do have super hydration, even if you're oily, you're going to want more hydration than you think you should. So this one, it's just water-like. I put it into my hands and then I pat it across my face. And then I'll go in with the eye cream from them. Sukoyakosu Hada Urea Eye Cream Disclaimer. I always have to say this at this point. Urea, yes, is a byproduct of urine. However, that is not in these products. Urea that they put in here is made in a lab to mimic that. And the reason being is two-fold, Urea is antimicrobial, which means that it can help with acne. It also has a property of being able to exfoliate, which is huge in my opinion. Because this, we could put right up underneath our eyes, super soothing. But you get that minute amount of exfoliating that you could never do up underneath your eyes. You can't put a scrub all over your eyes. It's too irritating. You can't use one of the really AHA, BHA ones. It's just too irritating. So this has been my RitterDye Holy Grail. There's three products from them. I have all three. I love them. I forgot to tell you that right after I cleanse my skin and I don't have any of the other products on yet, I do use the ordinary glycolic acid 7%. This is my new one. I just got it again. I've gone through so many of these. This to me isn't irritating. I have used a lot of other glycolic acids that can be very irritating on my skin, but this one doesn't seem to be. And as I get into menopause more and more, it seems that I have a lot more irritation. So I'll use this maybe two to three times a week. And this is an extra boost for exfoliating as well. Once I have my eye cream on and the urea lotion on, I will go in with my very favorite Tinted SPF. This is a moisturizer from Dermatology. And it is an SPF of 46. This has fantastic ingredients in it. It has niacinamide in it. I've never had any problems with this. This has that little tiny bit of tint in it. If you've never seen it before, it just looks a little bit tinted, but it doesn't really give you any sort of coverage or anything like that. It just sinks really quickly into the skin. And I love this because you're getting your moisturizer, you're getting your SPF, and you're getting a little bit of good skincare. So this is one that I have bought over and over and over again, just because it plays so well underneath makeup. And I love it. All right, switching gears over to nighttime. At night, I switch things up and I go in all different directions. And you're going to think I'm crazy, but I'm going to start out with what I do first. And then I'll tell you the variations of them. I first go in with a cleansing balm right now. I'm trying the Neutrogena Makeup Remover Cleansing Balm. Melting Balm. I like this very much. It is a lot like the good molecules. I think I might like the good molecules one just a little bit more, but it takes off any eye makeup, any waterproof makeup, anything you have just completely comes off. It's very slick about that. And then I was also sent this cleanser from Kate Somerville and it's called ExfoliCake Cleanser Daily Foaming Wash. I don't find that this is very foaming really. I mean, I guess if I, you know, worked it through with some water, it would be more foaming. But I just use it to take any residuals of the balm off because I want my skin to be squeaky clean so that it can be ready to accept any serums that I'm going to put on it. Now on an average night, so this would be like probably four days a week. I next go in with my very favorite serum of all time because this is a dupe for Lancome Genifique and it's a dupe for Estee Lauder Night Repair. And this is the Krannis Cell Bifida Complex Repair. And I'll go ahead and I'll read this to you as well. It says, gives vitality to your skin, enhance skin protective, enhance moisture supply, whitening and wrinkle improvement. Excuse me. Now this has not only Bifida, but it has galactomyces in it and it has the vitamin C in it. It is just chock full of everything you need to help wrinkles and brightness and dark spots and all of those things. I go through a bottle of this maybe every two to three months. I love it because it is a fraction of the cost of those other high end skincare products. And it has a ton more Bifida in it, like something 60% or something. Whereas Genifique and Estee Lauder Night Repair, they have something like between 10 and 15%. So you're getting a huge powerful punch here with this one. I mentioned an eyelash serum, but this is my Ryder Die eyelash serum. This is from Xlash. This is what I have used for years and years. This is the double size tube that will last me anywhere from five to six months. So even though this is about $66, I believe it is, when you break it down to compare to the other ones, it is about the same cost, maybe even a little bit more cost effective. And this makes my eyelashes grow like crazy. When I was sent this originally, I think it was six years ago, they originally sent me a tube to try. And I tried it and the first two weeks I was like, are my eyelashes getting a little bit longer and thicker? And I couldn't really tell. By six weeks, I was like, this is darn amazing. And by three months, my eyelashes were fantastic. I wasn't even ever thinking again about using false lashes. So that was six years ago, and I've been through tube after tube after tube of this. And during the pandemic, when you couldn't get anything from overseas and whatnot, I was in a panic about this. I really, really missed using this. Such a good lash serum. I cannot be without that. I also skipped something else that I shouldn't have skipped. If you guys have not seen these, this is just like the makeup eraser, except for super inexpensive. You can get these off of Amazon. They come in like a package of five or something like that. They come in off different colors. I have one in my lap that's really dirty because I do my makeup with these in my lap. But this will take off your makeup so slick. If you have a problem with not being able to get off your eye makeup, this is your new best friend. I'll make sure that I link that as well. After I put that serum on, I'm going to go in with one of my new favorites. This is something that I was so happy to find because I really liked the Ordinary's Buffet with copper peptides. But I was finding that. I felt like I was going through that bottle really quickly and I didn't know when to use it. And I was just kind of confused about all the things because they say that copper peptides don't act well with a lot of things. Well, I found this DNA code. It says, for all skin types, copper peptides daily firming cream. This has Argyraline and Magtrixyl 3000, SNAP8, I'm not sure what that is. Hyaluronic acid, Pentrapeptide 18, and it goes on and it has like SYN-A-K-E, SYN-C-O-L-L, SYN-Tax. It has so many yummy, good ingredients. Okay. So four nights a week, I'm going to use the Prana Cell and then I'm going to use this cream on top of it. And I love it. It is, it has been brightening my skin. I feel like it's just helping my wrinkles so much. I really do like that. And then as a last step, I'm going to take my Sukiyaku Suhara. This is the actual cream. This is very thick. I mean, this is a thick cream. I don't think you could ever shake that out if you tried. It is really thick. It's just this side of Vaseline. And I love it because when I wake up in the morning, my forehead and around my eyes are like the Sahara. But if I slather this on at night and I put it all over, it's going to feel sticky. You're going to feel like you're sticking to your pillow. I get it. I know it's not the greatest feeling. But if I put it in a thin layer across the rest of my face, but slather it around my eyes and over my forehead, this will still be tacky in the morning. And my eyes will still be plumped up. And that's the reason that I use it. But again, I want to tell you, this is super sticky. It feels sticky, but it is so hydrating. It is beyond any hydrating, anything that I've ever been able to find. And between those three products, I feel like my skin is so hydrated and it's plumped up and it's beautiful for actually putting makeup on. So that would be a typical four nights a week. Now I can hear all of you going, where's the retinol? Where's the retinol? Well, let me tell you something. Recently, I have been really kind of hitting my skin a little bit harder with the retinol. And I've been using a few products that I was sent and then a couple of products that I actually bought myself. So this is Prescript Skin Retinol Toner. So this I will use on some nights. And then I will go in with this La Roche Posay. This is the Redermic R. This is the Inta Aging Treatment Intensive. That's the tube of it. And then they also sent me the Redermic's Retinol Eye Cream. So I have both of these and I will use this with it. This is like a triple punch of retinols that is really good, but it doesn't irritate. And that's why I love using them together. Maybe once or twice a week. I'll use all of these together. Right after I cleanse, I'll use the toner. Then I'll use these. And then I'll go in as a last step with this Sukoyaka Suhada Cream in order for the moisture to be held in tight. I feel like I've finally gotten this routine down. Even though there's a lot of products here, I don't use them every single night. I'm switching off. And you don't need to use all these all the time. You don't even need to have all of them. You can just use one or two or whatever you feel like. Really works for you. Okay, I got into the routine of doing this two nights a week. And that is, first of all, five drops of this City Beauty Ultra-Firming Dry Oil for your neck and your decollete. And then this one is from The Ordinary. It's Ethylated Ascorbic Acid 15% Solution. This is in oil. This is a vitamin C. And then I was using, I'm using The Ordinary's Grenactive Retinoid 5% in Squelain Oil. So I do five drops of each of these. And then I put them all over, let them sit. And then I go in with this on my eyes and on my forehead to keep the moisture locked in. That's one night a week. I only do this one night a week because if I do this more than one night a week, I'm going to notice a lot of irritation. Now, for the heavy-duty retinol or for the heavy-duty retinol that everybody talks about, I was getting, I was on the 1% of the retinol tube. That is the prescription, 0.1%, yes. And it was causing me so much irritation, seemed like once I got into menopause, I was just having the hardest time with it. And I was all the time, even though I kept it way away from my eyes, my eyes were burning, I was having a super hard time with it. So my good friend Sherry from Graceful Beauty, if any of you watch her, she's a skincare fanatic and her skin looks phenomenal. So she talked about this from Truth Treatments. This is the regenerating 5% retinol gel. She talked about this on her channel and she talked about how this replaced retinol for her. She doesn't use that anymore. So this is not inexpensive. This is very expensive jar. I will just tell you that up front. This is an investment into your skin. But I have had this for probably, I've probably had this for almost six months and there's a little bit of a divot in there, but not a lot. And I'll tell you why. On the nights that I use this, I will go in with my cranae cell. I will let that completely dry down. I don't want it to be tacky. I want it to be completely dry. Then I'll go in with my Sukoyaku Suhada cream. And I will put a thin layer of this on. And then I will go in and I will put this on. And I don't use very much. I mean, you barely put your finger across there and you barely need hardly any to go on your skin. The reason is, is because this is so potent. And if you're just starting out, please, I beg of you to start out with the 1% instead of this 5% because I was a mess. I mean, my skin, this works so strong. And my skin was just, it was doing exactly what it's supposed to, is that extreme turnover of your skin, building collagen and all of that. But I was using it every other night and I was killing my skin, my skin hurt to the point to where I couldn't put anything on it for days at a time. So I talked to Sherri and she's like, Oh girl, you're crazy. She's like, that stuff is so potent. You need to step down to 1% or try putting on the cream first and then putting on a super light layer. That's what I do. And I'll tell you what, I only use this every 10 days approximately, maybe every two weeks. I don't use this once a week. I don't use it every day. I don't use it every few days, only occasionally. And my skin loves it. Absolutely loves this. I feel like Sherri does in that, yes, it's a huge investment. Yes, it does cost a lot. But wow, I feel like I bumped up into a different category with my skincare. I am not discounting tretinoin or Retin-A. I think that it's fantastic. It is that prescription. It is what most people need. I just couldn't use it anymore because it was too much for my skin. Now, I might have been able to only use it once or twice a week or whatever, and it not been as bad as it was because honestly, I'd used it for years and I'd used it every other night and I'd never had any problem with the prescription. But when I went into menopause, began to have a problem. So this has replaced it and I love it and I could not sing its praises more. But I have one more thing to tell you. It is so important as a mature aging woman to do some sort of a chemical exfoliant on your skin. We have something like 15 to 18 dead layers of skin on the top of our skin. So we need that pretty baby skin to poke through in order for our skin to look good. A couple of my favorites are the ordinaries AHA, BHA. I have to be really careful with that because it will make my skin very sensitive if I do it for the full 20 minutes. I can do that one for between five and 10 minutes. Then I have to rinse it off. I also have the City Beauty Dermal Reset Exfoliating Concentrate. This is my favorite one because I can put this on overnight. And in the morning, I won't have a bunch of irritation. I feel like it sloughs off very slowly and I really like this one. Now this one I did get sent very recently and I'm still testing out. But I do think this is a really great gentle product. If you're somebody that has problems with your skin being very sensitive, it's the Bare Minerals Ageless Fido AHA Radiance Facial. And so this is a very gentle peeling mask that you put on and then you wipe off and then you go ahead with the rest of your skincare or your makeup, whatever you're doing for the day. This is really, really gentle and I really like that about it. So I can use this as often as I want to. If I want to use it every day I can. I usually use it a couple of times a week. So I know that was a lot to take in. Down below what I'll do is I will put the order of everything that I use and I'll also put whether it's morning or whether it's nighttime. And like I said, I don't use all of these products every single day. I switch off a lot. This is a skincare routine of somebody that does this for a living. You don't need all of this. If you want to go bare bones, do Cleanser Serum Moisturizer SPF in the morning. That's all you need. At night, clean off your makeup and do a serum. Do a Retin A, Retinol, whatever you want to do and a moisturizer. That's it. So if you really wanted to get down to bare bones, you could. And full disclaimer, come a little close because I'm about to tell you something. I know a lot of you have said recently that you feel like I'm aging backwards. Well, I took the plunge and I finally did Botox right here. And so I've got Botox in between my 11s right here. They were getting so deep and I was so self-conscious about it, especially being on camera here. And I know that that might upset some of you and I apologize if it does. I try to stay as real as I possibly can. There's nothing else going on around in this area over here and on my neck and everything. I've not had any work done. I've not had an eye lift or anything like that. I just have gotten some Botox in this area to be able to help those 11s. So you know, I wanted to make sure that I was as transparent as I possibly could be with that because I don't want people to think, oh, this skincare is going to give you the absolute smoothest skin you've ever seen. When we get to a certain age, we have those things that we battle. I mean, my 11s were from frowning for years and years. I mean, I've been through a lot of trauma through my life. And so I earned my frown lines, but I didn't like them very much. So those are gone. And that is one reason I think that you feel like my skin is so much smoother now. It's that whole area right there that I got some Botox in. And I really love the results of it. And I'm really happy with that. I did it. And like I said, again, I apologize if that upsets any of you. I feel like the skincare is every bit as effective as it ever has been. Go back to some of my videos a year ago. I only started Botox about four or five months ago. Some of those videos back then, you were even seeing how great my skincare was doing. And I really believe it's some of these things that I changed up and that I did differently. And they're still helping so much, especially with the firmness of my skin. That's not something you can do unless you get fillers. I'm not going to get fillers, by the way. So I hope that you did enjoy this. If there are any skincare items that you can't be without that you feel like have really affected a great change in your skin, please let us know in the comment section. Please be kind in the comment section about the Botox. If you would, I understand that we have differing opinions, but I still feel like even though those opinions may be different, may differ. That we can be very respectful in the way that we deliver them. I hope that you do have a wonderful week or weekend wherever this video may hit you. I love you all so very much. Please take care of yourselves. Let's all meet back here in my next video, right here on my channel. Take care of yourselves. Goodbye, my friends.