Other than inner beauty, skin care is the most important part of being beautiful. You may the most beautiful modelesque woman and have the most horrible skin under all the face paste. Taking care of your face should  be more important than the makeup you buy.

You only have one face, so take care of it.

I didn't start out taking as good of care of my face as I should have. I have dry, combo, acne prone skin. Big thank you to the family genes and being a woman. I have used the cheapest, the cutesiest, and most popular TV brands. Most are crap products or not the right products for what I really needed. I grew up using Clearasil, Clean & Clear, ProActive, Neutrogena, Avon, and any other drugstore brand you can think of. I have also seen a dermatologistand that was a big mistake.  Everything dried out may face and made me a wee bit scaley.

Fast foward a few years.....I finally saw an Esthetician.

About 6 months before I got married, my skin went bezerk! We had just moved (1200 miles) to another state, started new jobs, and I was just plain stressed out all the time. I was using my dermatologist prescribed products that seems to suck every bit of moisture out of my skin. Big mistake. She (lovely esthetician whom is married to a Nebraska man) told me that my skin was very dry and needed some serious hydration. So, like any other junkie, I spent a crap load of money on a few ounces of products. Decleor. Beautiful and lovely smelling skin care products that come with a hefty price. They performed very well and I still use the oil. Yes, I said oil. Oils are good for your skin. No, not canola or 5W-30. Legit, skin oils. Like, Decleor, Josie Maran, or Garnier.  In reality, they were great products and worked well for my skin. And again, like any other junkie, I just decided to try other new things. 

I tend to spend a bit of money on skin care.

I never buy a product without doing the research on it. In part, this comes from the musings of my husband. He is a nerd. He researches everything before he buys it and has instilled this very important quality in me. I am grateful for this quality. I could have wasted thousands of dollars on crap products that are just hyped up. I read blogs, read reviews,  read complete product descriptions, and YouTube all of it. The later is my favorite. A blogger that I absolutely live is Caroline Hirons. I caught her on the Pixiwoo blog. She is a skin guru from the UK. She is funny, very informative, and knows her stuff. Pixiwoo.....my favorite makeup artists, also from the UK.

Oh, most importantly, i sample the products first, if I can.

I have a 3 drawer organizer that has a dedicated 2 drawers to samples. One of those is skin care samples that i have received from purchases at Sephora, Ulta, or any department store that I frequent. The other is new makeup stuffs. If you are thinking about a new skin care product that is available through a makeup counter, ask for a sample. Any great sales person will gladly give you a sample that tailors to what you need and a generous enough sample to give it a thorough go.

Keep your receipts.

This goes with any beauty related purchase. I keep them for skin care, hair care, and makeup. Why keep a product when it breaks you out, doesn't perform the way it claims, or is simply doesn't work for you?

Below is a picture of my current and favorite skin care products. This is on my sink in the bathroom. The gorgeous mirror is an antique from one of my grandmothers. I have everything right there, so I can not have an excuse to not use them!