10 Skincare Essentials to Revive your glow after dry weather

See by Paris

Sunglasses for eye protection. I'm including this because sun protection is huge for me, and it's easy for a lot of people to overlook the necessity of protecting your eyes and surrounding eye area as an extension of skincare!

I love the concept of the See Concept Paris brand x branding so much. Stylish Rx sunglasses for a flat rate. If I needed prescription reading sunglasses, these would be perfect. But don't worry, because they have non-prescription versions, too (which I have). In fact, since Ryan and I got our pair from Bon Marché, I've been wanting the version that sold out when we were there. When they're priced at only 35-40 euros, it's a win on both ends!

https://www.izipizi.com

UPDATE:

See Concept Paris is now IZIPIZI

Visine

Don't laugh, it's true! I usually put a drop into my eyes after I get up around 5:30 AM. It blasts a "woken up" feel and is also good for times when I feel like my eyes get irritated after a lot of screen time. I don't use it every day, though.

Kose Cosmeport Oil Blotting Sheets (60)

from Japan*

Now that the weather is transitioning from dry winter to sunny spring, I've noticed that my skin also has begun reacting to the change. I have sensitive skin and finally started using oil blotting sheets to wipe away oil on my face as the day goes on.

Julep*

Beach Tonic, Dry Body Oil: for skin, but I decided to try it as a scalp oil to help soothe my scalp from the dry weather. I spritz some in my hair after a shower and comb it in. I found that I really like the light scent in my hair. This product appears to be sold out (again), but hopefully, they'll come back soon! I'm going to cherish mine until it does. XD

Rock Star Hand Crème*: This works so well and smells soooo good! It became my "go to" sense memory for calming & re-centering in grad school. If I knew I needed to dive into intense work, I'd squeeze out a tiny dab and massage my hands with them. So therapeutic.

What Your Skin Needs*: I'm impressed with how well this skin milk works. If I've just showered or washed my face in the morning, I'll use this to treat my skin after. If my face is feeling dry or I feel like I have itchy potential red spots about to crop up bc of dryness, I'll also put a little on to sooth/hydrate my skin.

Boost Your Radiance*: This is one of their newer items in their "Korean Skincare" line. Because the sister product, "What Your Skin Needs" works soooo well, I was ready to give Boost Your Radiance a chance. So far, I'm also impressed with it. I started using it at night before bed to let the oils soak into my skin while I sleep and keep me hydrated overnight. The smell is gentle and it feels more hydrating than greasy. It also seems to absorb quickly. I also use a tiny dab on my lips to hydrate them/prime them before lipstick.

Related Post: A Subscription Box Taught Me How to Self-Care

If you're interested in joining Julep Maven, it's their subscription box program which TOTALLY helped get me through grad school! Self-care is so important. Julep also makes great gifts! ;)

They release new beauty & skincare items every month, and I love how innovative they are with being on the cutting edge of what's next. A big part of Julep's success is that they crowdsource opinions from the very people who they seek to serve, so they keep churning out consistently amazing products for us!

If you're interested, the current deal for new members is a FREE 12 pc set of full sized nail polishes for joining.


So yeah--you can get a FREE 12 piece set of polishes just for joining! How generous! I guess that's how much Julep founder Jane Park believes in her brand. #GirlPower

You can skip as many months as you want or cancel your subscription at any time. I keep skipping until I'm running out of What Your Skin Needs Milk for your face or if I want to send a box as a gift to someone or if I'm really excited about a new skincare product. If you're not ready to join a subscription box program just yet but want to buy some of the beauty / Korean skincare items, Julep shipping is free for orders $10 or more and you can use the code FREEMAY to snag a free polish if your total is $10+! The code is valid for the rest of May.

Happy skincaring! :)

Nivea

In Shower Lotion*:

So we have a funny story with this item. In Paris of Summer 2015, we were in a hurry in Monoprix. My sister grabbed the French version of this, which was brand new and out at the time. It was under the lotion category. For whatever reason, we just skim read the main part that said After Shower Body Lotion. We totally missed the fine print below that specifically tells you to WASH IT OFF. 😂

So for about a week, we were using this in-shower body lotion as though it was regular body lotion. We were slathering it on and going about our regular days, and we were like, hmmm this lotion doesn't seem to absorb very well! We feel sticky, and like it's melting (plus, it's summer in Paris, which means you're probably sweating…). Usually Nivea makes great stuff. What a bummer! This lotion isn't very good. So Angelica grabs the bottle to look at it and figure out the ingredients or why it's not working very well. OMG. We realized we were in such a hurry that we grabbed this one because it was new and looked good, and we completely skipped over the most important part with the direction right there on the front. We were using it wrong all of this time!!!! 😂😂😂

But also, this was a new product at the time, so we were expecting that we grabbed regular lotion, not in-shower lotion. We figured it made sense to not work well because the Honest SPF lotion we were using was actually not that great (and we kept getting random silver/black specs all over us from the label rubbing off the bottle just from holding it), so at the time, we were thinking, "Great. We're on a roll with these products!"

Haha nope. Once we started using the Nivea in-shower lotion as intended, it worked SOOOO well. Our skin is so soft! We were completely impressed and slightly embarrassed (but also not, because…well, it was in the body lotion section).

We couldn't use up the bottle while abroad, so I brought it back with me. Then, I have this habit where I bring back all these goodies and keep them stored to "preserve" them so that I don't use them…which defeats the entire purpose and is completely illogical. I know that, but it was my "thing." So during my last year in grad school, I acknowledged how silly this was and made a pact to start using these things for myself. I had other products to use, so this one remained in the suitcase until I graduated and then moved to MN with Ryan after we got married (more than a year after buying the lotion to begin with). 

When we unpacked my things from Philly, we were soooo happy to see it! We tried to use up the bottle and were completely impressed with how good it still worked (again, more than a year later). In fact, we finally ran out of it, and Ryan liked it so much that he saw the US version while grocery shopping at Target a couple of months ago and immediately bought it as a replacement! 

When your husband buys the Nivea In-Shower Body Lotion on his own without you asking him to because you didn't even realize it was available Stateside yet…that's how you know it's a good product!

What we're both so amazed with is how well it works so quickly. It's like you put a little on and wash it off right away…and your skin holds that softness. It's crazy!

Nivea Roll-on Deodorant*:

Besides Gillette Men's Deodorant Clear Gel (loved since c. 2000), the only other deodorant that I swear by is this one by Nivea, but it has to be the European version. The American one isn't the same for me. Whenever I go back to Paris, I stock up on them.

I'm not joking.

Le Petit Marseillais*

We actually brought this one back from Paris.

Most of my beauty products are actually from when I go to Paris.
Because the EU standards are arguably much stricter than the US standards (unless that's changed within the last 3 years), I tend to trust EU products a lot more (even if we've had the same brand in the States for a long time). I have sensitive skin, so finding products that harmonize with my skin is a big deal. Le Petit Marseillais was one of those brands we could only find if we happened to be in France. Keep in mind, this was Oct. Ryan and I traveled in Oct and then Dec-Jan, so we feel like we were barely back home when I opened up a March edition of Cosmo US to be surprised with a Le Petit Marseillais ad!

This ad in #Cosmo. Whaaaaat! #LePetitMarseillais Stateside

A post shared by WomenInSTEM life by: Jacky So (@jackypostgrad) on Mar 6, 2017 at 5:48pm PST

Whenever this happens, part of me selfishly wishes it would stay special and exclusive, but the other part of me is excited that we can now buy Le Petit Marseillais in the US. We are actually almost out of the current one we have from Paris, so I want to save the bottle and then compare it to the one sold in the US! Muahaha.

UPDATE: Ryan found the US version at CVS! Haha but, in classic American style, they only had the big versions available (for now, anyway). We got the 250 ml one from France (they also have 650 ml), but the only sizes available right now in the States are either 400 ml or 650 ml. 

What do you think? Do you have any beauty products you're excited to break out or try for the change of weather? :D