Let’s face it, once Thanksgiving passes here in the U.S., and December gets rolling, things get seriously hectic. The craziness leads to making poor eating choices, not hydrating our bodies enough, and neglecting our skin. Not to mention when you don’t eat right and hydrate your body, all that neglect shows up on your skin. I’ve partnered with Ohlolly, one of my most favorite online k-beauty shops, to come up with this Get Glowing Holiday Skincare Routine to keep your skin glowing and in tip-top shape during the chaotic weeks to come.
You have family get-togethers, holiday parties, gift shopping, house decorating, and hosting to deal with (among MANY other responsibilities) during the month of December. There’s so much to be done so it’s really important to use super-powered products to strengthen your skin against the stresses of it all. Here’s a nightly routine I came up with to fight stress and nourish your skin during the cold, dry, stressful holiday season.
The Two-Step Cleanse
This is super important in a Korean skincare regimen but especially during the holiday season. We’re entertaining, or being entertained, so we’re also dressing for the occasion. Wearing (maybe) more makeup than usual. It’s super important to remove all makeup and impurities from your skin.
1. Heimish All Clean Balm*
This is an amazing first-step cleanser to get rid of all of your oil-based makeup and environmental buildup while keeping your face supremely hydrated. It’s natural, paraben free, and hypoallergenic. It contains shea butter, donkey milk, and coconut extracts to make for a rich, silky texture and also a blend of citrus herbs which help brighten the skin. Honestly, this is an essential oil powerhouse product; among those citrus herbs you’ll also find freesia, iris, jasmine, tiger lily, narcissus, rose, lavender, eucalyptus, tea tree, and juniper! This is so aromatherapeutic. I really love how it dissolves all of my makeup and makes my skin feel so refreshed, soft, and hydrated.
2. Heimish All Clean White Clay Foam
2.I’m in love with this cleanser as a second cleanse! After removing surface debris, this is really great to clean deep into the pores. It has a super rich, creamy foam that is so satisfying to use. It cleans really deep, so deep it leaves you with that squeaky clean feeling, but doesn’t dry out your skin at all. The deep cleanse is due to the white Amazonian clay and the moisturizing properties come from the hyaluronic acid, coconut oil, and 10 (yes, 10!) different natural herbal oils; some of which include orange peel, lavender, grapefruit peel, eucalyptus, tea tree, and bergamot. On top of being a powerhouse cleanser, it’s also very aromatherapeutic! It’s been pretty chilly here on the east coast, where cold season has been going around full force (I’ve been unfortunate enough to be dealing with it), and I’ve had quite a dry, irritated nose. This cleanser has not made it any more irritated or dry, which is impressive for a deep cleanser!
Tone & Treat
Benton Aloe BHA Skin Toner*
Now that your skin is properly cleansed, it’s time to restore its pH with a soothing toner (especially since the Heimish cleanser has a higher pH). Enter this Benton toner. It contains aloe leaf water to soothe and hydrate irritated skin. In addition, it also has BHA to gently exfoliate and get rid of dead skin cells. And if that still isn’t enough, snail secretion filtrate contained in the formula boosts hydration and smooths out the skin’s texture. This toner is a great multi-tasker in that it preps skin for the rest of your regimen but lightly treats it, as well. The first time I used this, I applied it with a Muji cotton pad. I felt like most of the product was absorbed into the cotton pad so, going forward, I’ve been applying it with my hands. Which has been a far better application method! Since there’s no water in this toner, it’s more viscous and so much more hydrating during these colder months. And the gentle exfoliation is perfect. My skin feels like velvet (seriously!) after using this.
Targeted Treatments
If you have additional time, you can use products that have targeted treatments. Think: serums, ampoules, and/or sheet masks. These are really great ways to get in an extra dose of skin boosting nutrients. Here are a few of my favorites to incorporate into my skincare regimen.
Benton Snail Bee High Content Essence
This is a super powerful essence. Just like the aloe toner, this is a water free product. Instead, snail secretion filtrate is used. It also contains bee venom, EGF, and a bunch of botanical extracts to help repair damaged, stressed skin. Also in the mix is arbutin and adenosine, which brighten skin and diminish the look of wrinkles. The formula is very smooth and cooling with a Gel consistency. It applies so nicely to the skin and absorbs wonderfully! This also makes your skin feel velvety and hydrated and it toned and calmed down the natural redness of my skin.
Sheet Masks
Some of my most favorite for hydrating, plumping, soothing, and healing the skin are the Papa Recipe Bombee Honey Mask, Cosrx Holy Moly Snail Mask, and almost any Innisfree It’s Real Squeeze Mask (in particular, Green Tea and Blackberry). If you’ve been following my blog, you’ll have seen here and here just how much I love these three sheet masks.
Moisturizing
Moisturizing the skin requires two steps: treating the delicate eye area and locking in all of the nutrients from your previous skincare steps with a really nourishing facial cream/moisturizer/sleeping pack.
Benton Fermentation Eye Cream*
I have been searching for my HG eye cream for years now. And I have pretty high standards. It has to minimize my dark undereye circles (I have come to accept that they’ll never be completely diminished because dark undereyes run in my family, but I have high hopes for good maintenance), it has to be highly moisturizing, and it has to keep wrinkles at bay. This eye cream claims to have superior wrinkle improvement with a formula that includes galactomyces ferment filtrate, bifida ferment lysate, EGF, and ceramide. All of these are supposed to work together to diminish wrinkles, plump up the delicate skin, prevent skin damage, and relieve stress around the eyes. I LOVE the texture of this eye cream. It’s thick and mousse-like but also light at the same time, if that makes sense. It’s highly moisturizing and I feel like my fine lines really are less noticeable when I’m consistently using this. The jury is still out on whether or not it diminishes dark circles but that could also be because I’ve been dealing with sickness lately. I’ll be sure to give an update on that once I’ve fully recovered.
Cosrx Ultimate Moisturizing Honey Overnight Mask
I find that I’ve been going straight to this mask lately to seal in all of the goodness of my previous skincare steps. The texture of this is so nice! It’s a rich, gel that glides over the skin so smoothly and absorbs beautifully. It leaves virtually no residue behind, which is great because there’s nothing I dislike more than getting sleeping mask residue all over my pillowcase. It’s supremely moisturizing and leaves my skin plump and glowy the next morning. I’ve been using this every night! This mask has an amazing list of ingredients, some of my favorite. There’s propolis extract (the first ingredient!) and beeswax to calm and nourish skin. There’s also allantoin (a highly moisturizing, healing, therapeutic ingredient that comes from the root of the comfrey plant) and adenosine (again, for skin brightening). The ingredient list is simple but powerful, which I love!
And that concludes my nightly Get Glowing Holiday Skin Care Routine featuring Ohlolly! Follow this routine and your skin will be soothed, repaired, refreshed, and all glowy for the holiday season and beyond. Thank you so much for collaborating with me, Ohlolly! I had so much fun putting together the Get Glowing Holiday Looks and this nightly skincare routine for my readers and your customers! The ladies at Ohlolly are so super sweet and such a joy to work with; I really hope we can work together again. They’ve created such a well-curated shop that I really enjoy shopping from and I know that if you haven’t shopped there yet, when you do, you’ll love it just as much as I do. If you’re looking to purchase any of the items used in these looks, click here and you can get 10% OFF your total order (new customers only)! Until next time beauties…
**Full disclaimer: Items marked with an asterisk (*) were gifted to me from the ladies at Ohlolly. All other items were purchased with my own money. I’ve also included a referral link above for new customers. Offering a referral code lets you receive a discount on your first order and helps support this blog.**
Post written by
Jill at The Beauty Vein
