 Hey guys it's Monica. Thank you so much for joining me in this video. I am going to share with you and I'm not a haul fan at all but I did pick up a couple of things this week that I want to share with you and I also want to talk to you about skincare scams. Scams, Hocus Pocus. Is there really a miracle product out there? So if you're interested stay tuned. Hey guys thank you. Thank you so much for joining me today. I was on Facebook and on Facebook and I know many of you follow Penny Smith and she does skincare and I will link her channel below but anyways Penny's her channel has grown amazingly. She's got I think over a hundred thousand subscribers now. I mean it's awesome but she is just a beautiful YouTuber and yes she's younger but she gives the most amazing skincare advice and one of the things that I was reading or her group in Facebook was the difference in products you know that you can get in Europe and that you can get here in the States and and all of that stuff. So it brought to mind when I was watching and listening to that it brought to mind the conversation I had with my mother. My mother's 92 and you know my mother has I think she has amazing skin especially for the fact that she's 92. She's gone under a lot of stress since the end of September when my dad got very very sick in the hospital but my mom is his main caregiver and at the same time my mom takes care of the yard as much as possible. She's very much into the garden and to the flowers and all that and one of the things that she's always talked about was and I remember this growing up. Now yes she wasn't a sunblock fan at all but she used to talk about her skincare and all she ever did was she would wash her skin really good like with the dove soap or something of that nature. Usually it was dove and then she used Nevea. Now I know I'm pronouncing it wrong probably. Anyways this brings me to Penn Smith because this is what they were talking about particularly this because if you buy this in Europe overseas you get a different level of ingredients than if you buy it here in the States. So my mom has always had her cream sent to her from Germany from family and friends over there and people that have gone to visit they always sent her the Nevea and she loves the stuff. This is all she's you can see my head well I don't know if you can see but mine has a significant amount missing but this is all she ever used to use was put this on her face from moisturizer. Now I use this for my hands I use this for my body. I don't put this on my face I find it to be too you know too heavy for my face for my skin but reading reading the Facebook page and the posts and all that and my mother and you know we all we all want to believe in the in the ads. We all want to believe what the manufacturers and the advertising gurus are selling us including YouTube gurus we want to believe that we can achieve the same results using the same products and it doesn't always work that way sometimes it is totally hocus pocus you know sometimes you spend a whole lot of money for stuff that's very similar like this is a very expensive cream that has almost the same ingredients not quite but almost the same ingredients that's like I don't know eight times the amount of money or something like that but anyways I know we all want to believe in that but skincare you know is it all hocus pocus no I don't believe it really is all hocus pocus I do believe that skincare can be very very very basic it doesn't have to be super expensive it doesn't have to be whatever you use to watch your skin whatever you use to exfoliate your skin to me that's the most important thing washing getting the dead skin off so that you can regenerate your skin if that makes sense you want to get the dead skin off and then you want to protect the new skin so to me washing exfoliation I do use a toner but I use all different types of toners I am not hung up on one particular toner sometimes it's glycolic sometimes it's a witch hazel sometimes I've got a ton of it's like it's a ton of snail I mean I've got a ton of different toners and essences and whatever whatever works for you whatever you want I do believe you have to to get some moisture in your skin and get a good balance so for me wash and I have been using an oil based cleanser I've already talked about that I think in my previous video so I'm not going to go back in there into that but I do like the open formula products I think they are extremely affordable and I've been using that oil based cleanser and I've been using their their powder exfoliation and among among and some other products as well so whatever you use does not have to be costly and I know there are some people that say it has to be medical grade it has to be this has to be that but to me and it's it comes right down to the basics of what my mom said wash your face yeah make sure your skin is clean and then moisturize that's all she ever did all her life and she didn't even use a lot of sunblock but me I wash my face I exfoliate I then want to use some sort of a toner just to balance and then at that point in time during the day it is going to be sunblock and I'm going to have a lot of sunblock and then whatever you know whatever makeup but at night it's my retina and I think my retinae has been my tried and true if there is if there is any holy grail in skin care for me it's retinae and I know not everyone can use tretinoin but you have to use a different variation whatever you can use for a tretinoin something that is going to help with your skin over time I'm going on four years August will be my fourth year anniversary and when I started this I was thinking you know I was 62 I was thinking it's too late I can't tell you how many people ask me is it too late I have people leave me comments they're in their 20s I'm just starting retina I think that's awesome anyways four years in August for me and I will do an update video I know I'm kind of behind on that but to me this is the only thing for me that's tried and true and thankfully and this is not for everyone but thankfully I can get mine very affordable overseas using the reliable RX pharmacy in India yeah everyone's going to have different expectations and then my Olay eyes this is another example of products that are similar in the states but different ingredients overseas my Olay pro retinal eye treatment this is what I use every day on my eyes do you have to use this no there are many other eye creams you can use and some people don't even use eye creams I mean before I was using any kind of eye cream or any kind of retinol around my eyes I was just using a light moisturizer and I would bring my retina and I had the weakest one point 25 and I would bring that up pretty close and down my neck and into my decolletage so you know whatever you end up using is okay the whole point is that whatever it is as long as you use it consistently I think you'll get results I think the people that expect results overnight they're in for a big disappointment because it doesn't happen overnight so hocus pocus skincare you know all of that stuff I try not to spend a whole lot of money on it yeah I get products sent to me for review and then I bought products over again after they've sent to me like for example the open formula I love their their wine I've I bought Saturday skin I happen to like Saturday skin a lot I I've bought those I use rose hip seed oil and I end up using the ordinary or the time not the ordinary brand of the rose hip seed oil and I go down my neck almost use this every day so there are stuff there are things that you can do for skincare that obviously don't break the bank so that said I don't think it's hocus pocus at all I don't think it's hocus pocus my halls I ended up buying off of the Amazon these headbands these bandanas they're they look so pretty on I really like them I thought they would be really cool in the summer I got like six of them the others are out in the motorhome I don't have them in here but got like six of them but I'll tell you I must have a really fat head because these are tight on my head and after a while that it's the pressure so I got all these bandanas I'm going to keep trying to stretch them but they're not they for me anyways they haven't been they haven't been super comfortable they haven't been super comfortable on at all so the other thing too is last week I ended up going to Coles and I bought a couple of things in Coles I bought let me show you I don't even know this is a Elizabeth and James I consider this to be a sack yeah it was expensive sack but I consider this to be sort of a sack bag because I have like a big bag briefcase that I carry my laptop in and then I have a smaller black little bag that it's like I just hang it over my shoulder it just has my wallet just big enough for my phone I still like to have some of my makeup my cosmetics I still like to have other things with me and I don't like to put them in my briefcase so I got this I just thought it was it was super super cute I really liked it it was expensive without a dough but it was big enough for me to put in a couple of things like my cosmetic bag because that doesn't fit in my in my regular bag at all and you know and I have to I still want to have my cosmetics so I have to carry that in there my camera goes in here a couple of brushes and if I want I can put my wallet it came with another little a little compartment but most more importantly this is just I think comes in different colors cold you know you get it you have a coupon no kind of a shape at all just a very much a sack it kind of reminds me of when I was a teenager young adult I always used to like those hobo I used to call them hobo type bags I don't know over the shoulder you know stuff like that not very constructed doesn't have a ton of compartments folded up like this I love this so I caught this I was debating between the black but somehow this color I don't know who the camera is picking it up somehow this color just kept calling my name so I had the black in my my cart and then I went back and I grabbed this one and I put the black one back and I I love it it's just like it's like the cutest thing so I fold it up I can put it in my big bag with my computer or I can carry this I can carry it in the store if I want I can take out my smaller bag that has my wallet I can do pretty well anything that I really want with it I love it I think it's so cool I also bought while I was there two tops I'm not a fashion person but so these were just these are chaps and I like them to be big and flowy and oversized but I just thought these this was such a pretty design kind of like like when I used to wear the long skirts and I used to have the flowers probably in the 80s away in a little bit I just really loved it it's oversized you you can strap a belt around it if you want you can tie it up you can pin the front a little bit longer in the back I bought two the pink one of one the black one black the black one I have and I still have the tag on but I absolutely love it I'm gonna I'm certainly gonna keep it I'm not returning it I just haven't wanted yet so I haven't pulled the tag off I love it I just think it's really cool so that was what I ended up buying in cold a little bit of a cold haul and I just I thought it was really cool now I saw on Natalie the beauty divas channel she had done an amazon haul and she did it in collaboration with Jennifer love Jennifer loves Jennifer love I can't remember what is it Jennifer loves Jennifer love I can't remember anyways and Jennifer had shown a bunch of different amazon outfits as had Natalie I watched both their videos but one of the things I did buy was this particular top I am not I don't normally wear a lot of the cold shoulder tops I have some but I don't normally wear a lot because I just feel like my arms are so fat I just feel I feel a little sometimes I feel self-conscious in it but I really like this and I know you can't see it this is sort of long and black and I love this little crisscross in the back is just very plain but it does have the cold shoulders and it's what is it three-quarter goes down a little bit below my elbow that's my preferred type of a sleeve so anyways I said I'm going to get this so I ordered I watched the video came out last Saturday I had this in the mail Monday morning I couldn't believe it so I knew when I was going to shoot this video I was going to talk about this so I ordered two other things but this was the only one that has come in so far so I really love it I thought that was super super cool the other thing that I got this was actually sent to me you guys know that I have been really trying different mascara's and all that I am actually still using my the mascara I got from City Beauty the more I use it the more I love it and many of you know that I'm a it cosmetics I love my superhero more often than not I always use my essence well I've been also using an Elta mascara I've been trying that but this was actually sent to me from the Octoly Network from Clarence and this is their Wonder Perfect mascara 4D look at the look at them I just think this is the cutest little container so I haven't used it yet I just got it in I'm going to open it up because I really like the brush and I am going to use it I think this is I think this is going to be really nice Jay and I are going camping and we're going up to Booth Bay Habermane yeah glamping I should say right with the motorhome we're going up to Booth Bay Habermane and this is coming with me I'm going to try it in Booth Bay because I'm going to be near the water and I don't have a whole lot of waterproof mascara but this is waterproof this was sent to me complimentary from Clarence it's their 01 Wonder Perfect mascara 4D waterproof I believe this is in the shade black I'll let you guys know how I like it but you know mascaras in me yeah I'm always always loving to try new mascaras absolutely loving to try new mascaras so I kind of feel a little guilty for having gone shopping but this is the first time I've been in a store other than running into the grocery store on a quick trip into Walmart to pick up essentials I went into Coles I picked up essentials not that I really needed it I hope you guys are all well thank you so much for hanging in there with me today and looking at my little haul I think this I can't I'm so surprised at how well this top fits for Amazon I'm going to order another one in a different color that's how much I like this top thanks guys bye bye