July 24, 2013
Found: a night time beauty routine so simple I can do it while camping
Happy Wednesday friends, and congratulations to making it to hump day, which seems especially triumphant of an achievement during the middle of summer. I’m kidding, we’ve been having a great summer so far, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t the least bit exhausted and ready to crash by 9 pm. Between spending lots of time outdoors in the hot sun, running the kids to and from camps, which sometimes seems more trouble than it’s actually worth, and coming up with somewhat stimulating activities that won’t leave them zombie-like by the end of summer, having 3 kids home all day makes for well, a long day. I salute the moms and dads who home school and this is their everyday.
And because it’s summer, we seem to be on the go more and allowing things to slide more, like an 8 o’clock bedtime, and most nights the kids are getting into bed by 9pm, just when my body is ready to shut down. For years I had the very bad habit of stumbling to the couch after bedtime, and plunking my rear there until I fell asleep for 2 hours, then stumbled back to bed, where I fumbled through brushing and flossing my teeth, and taking out my contacts. I skipped washing my face because that would wake me up too much then I wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep for hours. It was a terrible habit I still revert back to on occasion, but lately I’ve started a new night time routine.
Immediately after the kids go to bed I haul myself to the bathroom. I wash my face, brush my teeth and floss, moisturize and take out my contacts. Then I stumble to the couch where I zone out, watching TV, and most nights I still fall asleep on the couch, but at least my face is washed and my teeth are clean, and I can transfer myself to bed at midnight with barely an interruption. As you can see, I’m one of those strange people who like falling asleep to the TV. My dad does it and my brother does it too. It’s almost in our genes. Plus, I think my parents let me do it way too much when I was a kid, which is precisely why I won’t allow TV’s in my kid’s rooms; I want them to sleep more so than I’m worried about them turning into zombies!
The whole beauty routine at this point in my life is pretty darn simple, since I’ve mentioned a few times that I’m all about simplifying and stripping down. Simplifying in the beauty department for me has made it less intimidating and daunting, especially at 9 o’clock. It includes washing my face with a very gentle cleanser, applying some moisturizer (since July 1st I’ve been using the Aveeno wash and night moisturizer, as I mentioned here), dabbing on some eye cream, always with your ring fingers(!), and applying a coat of lip moisturizer. I brush my teeth early so I won’t be tempted to snack, which always doesn’t work, especially if we’re watching a nail biter like Walking Dead (what’s with my zombie fascination?) or Dexter. And I always, MUST have a fresh glass of water sitting on my nightstand. I can’t go to sleep without knowing it’s there, because I always wake up for a drink of water in the middle of the night. I seemed to have unintentionally let you in on some of my strange and OCD tendencies; the need to fall asleep on the couch at night, my fascination with zombies, and my need for routine.
I’ve shared my secrets, now share yours. What is your night time beauty routine? Is it exhaustive and detailed, or is it simple like mine? Or are you young enough where you haven’t found the need to start one yet? 😉
AVEENO® Daily Moisturizing Lotion: Give your skin a naturally beautiful fresh start. This nourishing lotion improves the health of your skin in just 1 day! It contains ACTIVE NATURALS® Colloidal Oatmeal and is blended with rich emollients to help protect and soothe dry skin.
Compensation was provided by AVEENO® via Glam Media. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and are not indicative of the opinions or positions of AVEENO®
Mine is quite similar, down to the teeth brushing and the timing of doing it all so that I can roll myself into bed at any given point (but I don’t fall asleep on the couch. i fall asleep with my book).
My bed time routine is quite similar, the biggest difference being that I do it together with the little ones. My children are 3 1/2 and 5, so about 2 years ago I started to wash my face, put out my contact lenses and brush teeth the same time the children do the teeth brushing.
You mentioned one advantage of that which works for me as well: I hate brushing my teeth, so after that I would not eat anymore AND the children stopped begging me to change their clothes, brush their teeth for them etc., because mommy is occupied herself, HA!
Having my contacts out so early (at about 7.30/8 in the evening) also helps my eyes to recover, putting the make up off cleared my skin more than I would have believed before, and just the feeling of being ready for bed makes me listen more to my inner voice and really go to bed when I feel so (mostly at 11 or so).
‘scuse me while I pick up jaw off the floor from you going to be without washing your face!! eek!
ok but seriously – good for you for starting a new routine that works for you and sticking with it.
I’m ALL about my evening routine and feel crazy when I can’t wash & brush before bed. I take my contacts out either before or after the baby’s bath and then usually wash my face just after he’s gone down so I’m done with that and anything else is just easy.
I’ve been experimenting with night creams/serums the last few months that I’ve been loving and of course I do like to get my Clairsonic on.
HI, I started to read your blog a few weeks ago and I love it. 🙂 As for the night time routine, I’m one of those people who cannot go to bed without cleaning their face. Even when I was a university student, I used to drag myself to the bathroom after every single night of partying. :)) I have been diagnosed with mild rosacea two years ago, I use sun cream every day and I experiment with products that do not make me flush, so it is really important to get off everything at night. My skincare journey is quite similar with your clean cooking experiments, I had to learn a lot and eliminate lots of harmful chemicals. (I need to be more careful with our cooking though, your series is a great motivation.) So, I wash my face (Avene or Simple sensitive facial wash) + Body Shop aloe toner and Avene serum. I also use eyecream and lately a lash booster serum. This whole thing takes 2 minutes. And I brush my teeth too! 🙂
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