A lot of stuff for my face

You know how you read those blog posts, magazine articles, and how-to-be-parisian books and they tease you with stories of frustratingly low-maintenance girls who just use a bit of coconut oil and a swipe of lip stain and they look (or at least sound like the look) perfect? Well, I wanted to be that girl. Doesn’t everyone want to be that girl?

So I bought the idea hook, (eye)line(er) and sinker. I hoped that in the process of becoming a coconut oil smearing, lip staining expert I’d also be using less chemicals on my face (mo natural, mo bettah, right?) and using fewer products (better for the planet because I’m curbing unnecessary consumerism). Win, win, win!

So I tried it for 5 plus years. I only used jojoba oil and warm water to cleanse and moisturize my face, and because I look dead to the world without eye make-up on, I focused my “look” on an eyeliner and brow filer instead of finding the perfect red lippie. I tried almost every natural (or natural-ish) beauty line at Whole Foods and every kind of cold-pressed, organic oil (avocado, almond, jojoba, sesame, olive and coconut oil — the latter which clogged my pores).

But somehow, even with all my water-drinking, mostly clean eating, oiling and staying away from bad chemicals my skin still looked red and splotchy, and dull and patchy, while simultaneously shimmering with oil toward the end of the day.

Turns out I’m not a low-maintenance girl. And maybe no one is (unless you’re 16 and blessed with acne-free skin). My skin takes work and a few chemicals to keep it happy.

I still try to keep my products as natural as possible, but now that I’m at the age where eye creams are my best friend (work, damn you!), I allow for a bit more power in my product even if I can’t pronounce all the ingredients.

I’m blogging about this because I’m a little frustrated that I care so much. Skin is skin and wrinkles happen (girl, you 33 and not 21 anymore). But I feel so shiny and pretty when my skin looks smooth and healthy — even if that means I have eschew the unattainable dream of being low-maintenance and 100% natural. An elusive, capricious thing to chase anyways, and maybe a disingenuous bit of marketing by the beauty world. I mean, Sephora and Ulta would be relics of the past if the low-maintenance myth were real.

Oh wait, one more snafu! This blog is how Cath and I are trying to live with less. And acquiring more lotions and potions was not my goal six months ago. Whoopsie daisies. So my intention is to try to use every last drop of all these products I own and not buy anything new until I’ve used them up. Cath showed you her empties and I hope to do the same in the spring!