My skin journey has been a little shaky but ever improving.  Once I got my skin clear, the new problem of incredibly dry skin arose.  Going from crazy oily to crazy dry over the course of a few weeks was really odd because I wasn’t really paying attention I was just doing my normal skin care routine.  I won’t buy skin care without samples anymore after these past few months.

To be clear, I’m not on Roaccutane for my skin, which has a reputation for drying out skin like no other.  But, what my current skin care has taught me is that you need to listen to what your skin is telling you and adapt your routine to it.  In a nutshell: skin care without samples is a no-no.

Here begins my moisturizer mission.  I was using the Daily Facial Moisturizer from Cetaphil for a few months and my makeup went on well and I never broke out with it so I kept using it, despite my skin being incredibly oily after 5 hours while still having dry patches everywhere. My skin has always been oily so I didn’t realize that the reason my newly dry skin was overproducing oil was because this moisturizer wasn’t hydrating enough.  I switched over to the Cetaphil Moisturizing Lotion from night only to night and day which was a little thicker and supposedly more hydrating to get rid of the dryness not caring about oil.  My skin was still really oily but some of the dry patches went away so I kept using it for a while.  Here I am with 2 half-empty moisturizers that just don’t work for my skin that I bought without samples. Lesson= learned.

Once I realized that I was rarely doing masks anymore, I began searching for a moisturizing mask to help get rid of dryness, still not giving two hoots about the oil.  I bought two full-size masks (which I still use on occasion) but I got an amazing sample of the Deep Moisture Mask from Clark’s Botanicals which my skin LOVES.  Too expensive to buy, I set out to Clinique for a few samples of their Moisture Surge Range, raved about here.

I found a day moisturizer and a night mask at Clinique that my skin loves and I love too.  My skin doesn’t produce a single drop of excess oil overnight or throughout the day.  YES.  I got the Moisture Surge Extended Thirst Relief and the Moisture Surge Overnight Mask, if you were wondering.

So why I won’t buy skin care without samples anymore is because within a few uses (a sample’s life span) your skin will tell you if it likes that product or not.  Anything that isn’t your ideal tells you that that product isn’t what your skin needs to be it’s best.