Love Your Skin Link Up

I'm doing my first blogger "Link Up"! Yay! The lovely Katie of Pretty in Pale put this together with Erin of Shades of Gray and a Pinch of Pink (until today I had not read Erin's blog, but she's pretty hilarious! - and check her blog post on this subject, if for no other reason than to see the sun damage done to one half of a truck driver's face! Crazy!)

So, here we go with the questions!

1. What's your daily skincare routine?

I'm not sure I'd call it a "routine", but usually I wash my face at night in the shower (currently using Neutrogena Naturals), and then moisturize with Neutrogena Night Cream or sometimes just coconut oil. In the morning, I rinse off my face but don't wash it because it seems to dry it out too much, and moisturize with either Jergens gradual self tanner for the face, or Neutrogena daytime lotion, both of them with SPF of course! I try to exfoliate on a fairly regular basis, and I have a few different things that I use, some of them from samples that I get.  

2. A skin product you could never live without?

Hmmmmm, definitely need moisturizer, definitely need sunscreen, speaking strictly skin care and not makeup, I guess that's what I can't live without. If we're talking about makeup as well, under eye concealer and eyeliner!

3. Have you ever used a tanning bed?

Oh yes, of course I have! I started when I was pretty young, probably 16-17, and tanned off and on for years until I was diagnosed with melanoma at 33. I was never a "tanorexic" and always tried to be moderate, but as a lot of us have learned, there's really no such thing as a safe/moderate tan. I will not pretend that I don't miss having a streak free tan, or the nap time I had in the tanning bed, but I now compare tanning beds with smoking, it might make you feel better temporarily, but the consequences are most definitely not worth it! And it's not just the risk of skin cancer, it's also the sun damage that can make you look old beyond your years. 

4. Thoughts on spray tanning?

Spray tanning is ok, I have done it a few times for special occasions, even before melanoma entered my life. It's not perfect, at best, you'll have some streaking and it looks a little weird wearing off, and at worst, you'll look like an oompa loompa! I don't spray tan much, but I do use self tanner on a regular basis. It's important to love your skin (and body!) the way it is, but I also have pale skin and dark body hair, along with keratosis pilaris (red bumps on my arms and legs), so I need a little help! 

5. Favorite brand of sunscreen?

For my face, I use Neutrogena sunscreen with a ridiculously high SPF if I'm going to be outside. For the rest of my body, I'll use whatever I find as long as it's not expired - and I will throw it away if it's expired, even though it's probably still good and I'm just wasting my money, but better safe than sorry! 

6. Biggest skincare splurge?

I guess my biggest splurge is Bare Minerals makeup, and Urban Decay Primer, and even though they're makeup products, I feel like Bare Minerals is good for my skin so I'm counting it! I'd love to splurge on Arbonne because I love their products, but I also like to be able to just walk into a store and buy what I need, and Arbonne isn't sold in stores.

7. Celebrity with the most perfect skin?

That would probably have to be Nicole Kidman, her skin is gorgeous!

8. Feature you're most self-conscious about?

Geez, how much time do we have here? I suppose the aforementioned dark hair and keratosis pilaris makes me the most self conscious. 

9. What do you think about botox?

There are times that I look at my forehead and eye wrinkles and think it would be awesome to get botox, but for the most part, I would not want poison injected into my face. Plus, my eye wrinkles are mostly from smiling and laughing a lot during my almost 35 years on this earth (34 years and 51 weeks exactly, but who's counting?!). Just like most things, I think it's fine in moderation, but it can be overdone and then you just look weird and expressionless.

10. I feel most confident when...

When I'm gross and sweaty from a great workout! Or when I'm dressed up to go out - I work in a small office and don't really dress up much for work, and then I'm at the gym most days after work, so I spend a lot of time in jeans, shorts, t-shirts, tank tops, flip flops, tennis shoes, etc, so I love getting dressed up sometimes!

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So, that was fun! Be sure to check out Katie & Erin's blogs, and on their posts they have links to the others who are participating so you can see what all they have to say about their skin. You might get ideas about awesome products to use, or learn from someone else's prospective about skin care and health. If you're a blogger, you should definitely participate!