Men's Skincare -- My Boyfriend's Skincare Routine!

Today I'm going to talk about something a little bit different from my usual posts -- well, kind of. I'm still going to be talking about a beauty-related topic, but instead, beauty for men! I tried to get +Andrew to type this post up himself, as another guest blogger, but he's busy studying for a big test right now and asked me to do it for him (probably because he's too lazy to type it up himself).

With men's skincare, there's a few things you have to keep in mind. For one, your skin is NOT invincible. Your skin, being the largest organ in your body, requires lots of care. Something I have noticed is that a lot of men don't go the extra mile to take care of their skin. In fact, before Andrew and I started dating, he was using ordinary body wash on his face, not knowing that there were better options out there! Another thing is to keep it simple. That was the key when Andrew and I first started looking into skincare options for him. He wanted something that was quick and easy to remember.

As with my own skincare post, let's start with a few things about Andrew's skin: 

Andrew's skin is sensitive, oily-combination, and acne-prone. He tends to get most oily through the horizontal center of his face -- his cheeks and his nose. He also has trouble with ingrown hairs causing acne around his mouth and jawline. 

Andrew's primary problem with his skin is when he shaves. I've seen that to be a concern with a lot of men, actually. Ingrown hairs are often caused by a blockage of the hair follicle with dirt and sebum. In people with curly or course hair, the hair will sometimes curl into the skin and grow back in toward the skin, causing irritation.

For shaving, Andrew uses the Neutrogena Men Skin Clearing Shave Cream with 1% salicylic acid. Salicylic acid is a type of beta hydroxy acid, which can chemically exfoliate the skin. Exfoliation is a well-known way to help reduce ingrown hairs due to shaving, and this shave cream not only provides a nice protective barrier while he shaves, but it helps to exfoliate, all in one step!

For Andrew's face wash, he uses the Mario Badescu Enzyme Cleansing Gel, which is a non-foaming cleanser that uses grapefruit and papaya extracts to break down buildup in the pores. Since this cleanser is gentle and sulfate-free, it will not strip the skin of the natural oils it needs, which means that Andrew's naturally oily skin won't begin overproducing oils to compensate.

As a toner, Andrew switches from day to day. On days that he shaves, he uses the Origins Spot Remover Pads with 1.5% salicylic acid, to really help prevent those pesky ingrown hairs. On the days that he doesn't shave, he uses the Michael Todd Blue-Green Algae Toner. In his words, "It feels like it's actually doing something against the bacteria on my face, but it doesn't feel like it's sucking the life out of my face," which is exactly what a toner should do! This toner is great for irritable skin like his because it is alcohol-free and set in a base of aloe vera juice, which is fantastic for soothing the skin!

For moisturizer, Andrew uses the Cetaphil Daily Facial Moisturizer with SPF 15. Andrew is the kind of person who hates the greasy feeling of sunscreen, and he always seems to loathe when I tell him to put it on when we go out some place. This moisturizer is a great option for people like him (although it definitely shouldn't replace your every day sunscreen!), since it doesn't cause him to feel greasy or oily.

Last but not least, Andrew uses the Origins Ginzing Eye Cream to help with his undereye circles. For him, his dark undereye area is caused by genetics, and it causes him to look constantly worn out. The salmon color and gentle brightening particles in this eye cream helps to lightly diffuse the blueish tones under his eyes, and the caffeine really helps to wake his eyes up. A few weeks ago, he even told me that someone noticed he looked more tired than usual, and he realized it was because he forgot to use his eye cream that morning! This photo is of a sample size he recently got at Origins. Back when I was working at Sephora, I got him a small sample pot and it has seriously lasted months!

- d.