Meet the Products That Changed My 15-Year Skincare Routine

Ok, ok.. So it may not look like it from the photo, but I consider my skincare routine to be pretty basic. Especially when I see some bloggers posting about $80+ oils where the bottle is .02 ounces... There's nothing wrong with that, but I don't have a line-item budget just for skincare, so until I do, I'll be sticking with these products that keep my face clean & blemish-free and keep my wallet (relatively) happy. 😉

Part of my skincare story incorporates habit, which is a necessity to ensure you're treating your skin the same day-in and day-out, but as we all know, habits are hard to break! Back in my teens, my mom took me to a Bloomingdale's when we were in New York visiting my grandma and bought me my first set of Clinique products. It felt like a rite of passage into having a special set of facial products, and I've used various cleansers, toners and moisturizers from the Clinique line ever since. In fact, the habit has been so hard to break (and I'm not really trying to "break" it), that when my friend Courtney at Good Skin Day introduced me to (spoiler alert!) Indie Lee, I kept my Clinique, too.

Part of the reason I've used Clinique for so long is I consider their line to be very versatile, and it's allergy tested and fragrance free. Back in the day when I had, ahem, teenager skin, I used their Acne Solutions liquid makeup, and while it's not technically skincare, I would consider it a product that nicely blends the line between skincare and makeup. All that to say, it was a good fit for me!

AND, I can't talk about Clinique without the three magic words: gift with purchase. If you time out when you buy Clinique correctly, you can spend a certain amount and receive a makeup bag with tiny samples of product they sell. Typically, you fall in love with those products and it's a trick of marketing genius that I'm not even mad about. So, it worked on me, and now I've come to crave the three-step process they recommend. Here's my skincare routine broken up by morning and evening.

Morning:

So, as we've covered, old habits die hard. I start each morning with liquid facial soap from Clinique, wet a cotton ball with the number 2 Clarifying Lotion, which acts like a toner, so the name can be a little misleading. In their clarifying lotion, Clinique has numbers 1-4 depending on your skin type, and 2 is for dry combination. They also have options for very dry, oily combination, very oil and dry, sensitive skin. Then I use about 2 pumps of the Dramatically Different Moisturizing Gel all over my face and neck area. It's such a light moisturizer that this is my favorite part. Also, before BB cream existed (typing that makes me feel old..), I would sometimes mix a little of this with my foundation to give a lighter look.

Then if I'm still feeling a little dry, I'll use the Mario Badescu facial spray with aloe, herbs and rosewater. Sometimes I use this product mid-day, too, for a little pick-me-up. My sister-in-law introduced me to this product as a Christmas gift, and I've been loving it ever since!

Evening:
Here's where I just did the same routine with my Clinique products forever until (drumroll please) I found out about Indie Lee. Courtney Dunlop, who I mentioned earlier, owns a boutique skincare company in my hometown of Springfield, MO, and she let me try a little sample of Indie Lee. I tried it like a good sample-receiver, and I kid you not, after the first use my skin was glowing. I figured maybe it was just in my head or the sweet smell of the rosehip cleaner, but then I got compliments on my skin, so I knew it was a thing. My dad even noticed the glow!

So, I bought it and I've been using it in the evenings since. I'll be honest and say sometimes I'm lazy and just use a Neutrogena makeup wipe and forget the rest, but any skincare expert would tell you (and me) that's bad, so... oops! Usually though, when I go to bed at a reasonable hour, I'll go through with the full routine. Indie Lee is an affordable, high-quality, all-natural skincare line, and for that reason, it has a lot of fangirls. Consider me one.


I start off with a makeup wipe, or if I'm not wearing much makeup, sometimes I'll take mascara off using Clinique's Take the Day Off (which I think is an adorable name). Then I use Indie Lee's Rosehip Cleanser, which is so gentle and smells good! I follow this with the CoQ-10 Toner, which doesn't come in a spray bottle, but I like to put it in one because I think it makes it disperse more evenly. Then, I finish with the Squalane Facial Oil. I'll put 2-3 drops on my face and massage, focusing most on my cheeks because that's where I tend to be the most dry. If I'm feeling more dry, similar to my morning "bonus step", I'll use Mario Badescu's facial spray with aloe, chamomile and lavender. I looooove the way this one smells.

If you're in Springfield, go to Good Skin Day for a local way to snag Indie Lee! I've been looking for a good eye cream because I'm closer to 30 than 20... but that's a different post for a different day. Ha! Any recommendations for a budget-friendly eye cream I should know about?