Be A Unicorn and Use Your Things.

I'm in a talky mood this week! A story: Back when I was going to my (sadly now closed) favorite magical thrift store every week, I used to see this woman who reminded me of an older Kate Lanphear. She was right there with me, digging through the racks on half-price day, but always looking like her next stop was a really chic rock 'n roll party in Manhattan. She'd be wearing, like, a silver sequined jacket, crazy printed pants, amazing platform boots and pointy insane statement rings. She 100% pulled it off and was FABULOUS. It was like seeing a unicorn at Aldi or something.

More recently, I went to check out a new thrift store I'd heard about and there she was! My fashion unicorn! She was, as usual, dressed like a rock star on a Friday afternoon in the middle of a pandemic. And here I am wearing boyfriend jeans, sneakers and a hoodie. Dammit. I chatted with her briefly and told her how much I loved her outfits but I also was like, WHY AM I NOT WEARING MY COOL STUFF.  

Working from home and not going out means that my nice bags and fun jackets never see the light of day anymore and I am mad about it, you guys. It doesn't matter if I'm going to the grocery store instead of out to dinner, I can still wear my leather jacket and some fun earrings, you know? So, that's my goal for the rest of this crap-ass year: I am going to dust off some impractical, fun thing every time I leave the house and I'm going to start using my stuff. 

PS. My friend Nina found me this incredible jacket for $17 at Gabes, of all places, and I'm thinking it's a great jumping off point:

I will post an outfit next week! And I challenge all of you to dust off your sequin jacket or fancy zebra handbag and give it an outing. Or, buy the fun boots and don't worry about the fact that you have no where to wear them. Just wear them anyway! Let's all be a unicorn in Aldi.

Stuff I Like: A Lot of Words About The Ordinary.

At some point in the last few months I hit Peak Skincare. Like, I just couldn't handle trying to figure it all out anymore and I started to get really mad about how crazy expensive everything is. I've been using tiny samples of this and that for a while and wondering why my face wasn't happy. One thing I'd been using consistently, though, is The Ordinary's Niacinamide 10% + Zinc 1% (reviewed here) which seemed to be helping.

Then I bought the Vitamin C Suspension 23% + HA Spheres 2% because someone on the Internet liked it a lot. Then I bought the Lactic Acid 10% + HA 2% as a cheaper alternative to Good Genes. Then I bought the Buffet peptide serum because Kate liked it. Then I started reading up on how to use this stuff together and I wanted TO CRY. So, I did what Kate suggested and I emailed them and asked them to design a regime for me. AND THEY DID. Amazing!

The Ordinary is great in providing simple, active serums at a low cost but, because many of them are single note, you can't just be slapping all this stuff on at the same time - some of it doesn't play well together and, let's be honest, it's A LOT. My face can't handle it.

So, they made some recommendations based on what I already had and suggestions for what to buy (I wanted to try retinol again for the winter) and here's what I'm doing:

🌞 MORNING::
“Buffet”
Niacinamide 10% + Zinc 1%
Natural Moisturizing Factors + HA
Sunscreen

🌜 EVENING:
100% Organic Cold Pressed Rose Hip Seed Oil
Vitamin C Suspension 23% + HA Spheres 2%
(I add my Sunday Riley moisturizer)

🌛EVENING 2:
Lactic Acid 10% + HA 2%
Niacinamide 10% + Zinc 1%
100% Organic Cold Pressed Rose Hip Seed Oil
(I add my Sunday Riley moisturizer)

🌜 EVENING 3:
“Buffet”
Niacinamide 10% + Zinc 1%
Granactive Retinoid 2% Emulsion
100% Organic Cold Pressed Rose Hip Seed Oil
(I add my Sunday Riley moisturizer and sometimes skip the first two serums)

If I bought all seven of these products at once the total cost would be less than $60. Seriously! Less than the one stupid tub of Sunday Riley** Ice moisturizer I bought last month. (Which I really like, tbh.)

Now, looking at that routine you're probably like, holy shit that's a lot. And it is, but I'm only doing the evening routine every other night, and on the off nights I just use moisturizer and facial oil. So, my face gets Vitamin C, retinol and lactic acid each on one night per week, depending on the rotation. That's it! I might eventually take the retinol up to two nights, but not yet.

The Niacinamide + Zinc and Buffet both get used every day in the morning (and sometimes at night) but I really don't need to be doing all of it every day. I've been following this plan for about a month and my face is looking better than it has in a long time. I still have melasma (anyone try lasers for this?) but my weird little breakouts have mostly stopped and I'm looking smoother and brighter overall*.

This all sounds great right? Well, THERE IS ONE THING. One thing that I do not like about The Ordinary. All the tubes and bottles look exactly the damn same and the writing is SO TINY that I have to squint angrily at each bottle to make sure I've got the right thing. I need to color code them or something.

That's pretty much it! I am by no means an expert but if you have  questions, please ask. The Ordinary website also has a ton of info about each product and a regimen guide but if you contact them they'll tell you what to use and in what order and all that. So nice.

****

*Full disclosure: I have also been getting a facial with dermaplaning every six weeks. Y'all, dermaplaning isn't a life necessity but it does help all those active ingredients sink in better and it's so nice to have a smooooooth face. Plus, it's super relaxing.

**A word on the scandal: It's...not great. But also, it was so unnecessary! Sunday Riley products are quite good and fake reviews help nobody. That said, I think fake reviews are everywhere - Amazon, Sephora, Beautypedia, beauty influencers, you name it. Please remember that the founder of Drunk Elephant (or one of her employees) hounded Marianne for giving a less-than-glowing review of WonderBar on our dinky little blog. It's just ridiculous. I tend to trust the reviews on Makeupalley because it's mostly just folks like us, but who really knows. Just take it all with a grain of salt.