My Morning Skin Care Routine- Student Edition

I'm going to show you all the skin care products I use on my skin in the mornings- student edition. What I mean by that is that, yes, of course we would all ideally like to use the best of best products and spend ages on skin care every day, but the reality is, particularly as a student, most of us can neither afford super expensive products, nor spend more than about 3 minutes on skin care on those early varsity mornings. 

So let me start by saying that I do not use all these products every day. Most mornings I laze in bed till the last possible second, usually leaving myself about 20 minutes to get ready in total. So usually I will alternate between a few different products each week. So I'm going to show you what I use each morning, most these products are great on a budget (because we all know how super expensive fancy brand skin care products are) and work really well for my, combination, skin. 

Okay so the first thing I'll do is wash my face. I'll be honest, I do sometimes skip this step (even though it's pretty important) if I don't have time (it takes a while to run the warm water, lather it in, wash it off, etc.), but I do try to do this in the mornings as it is so important for your skin, it wakes me up and leaves me feeling slightly fresher considering its like 6am. If I do skip washing my face, I'll use a facial wipe instead, the ones I use are Clicks 3-in-1 Facial Wipes but you can really use any brand, they're a much-of-a-muchness:

The face wash I use is one I always find myself resorting back to after trial and error with lots of other brands. I can whole-heartedly recommend this one- it smells amazing, it lathers up nicely, it is pretty cheap and most importantly, it is really mild and agrees with my skin. It is the Nivea Daily Essentials Refreshing Facial Wash Gel. 

So once I've dried my face off, I will always use a toner. I love toner as it makes my skin feel fresh, helps with any oily patches and in general feels good for my skin, particularly areas with spots. Toner is also great to remove any make-up that you didn't quite get off the night before. The toner I use, again one that I have used for years because I love it so much, is the Nivea Daily Essential Shine Control Toner- for Combination skin. It is again, really decently priced, and I just apply this by putting some on some cotton wool balls and then rubbing it over my skin. 

If I am in a really big rush that morning, the only other thing I'll do it apply my moisturiser. The moisturiser I use is the Dermalogica Clear Start Breakout Clearing Daytime Treatment. This is slightly higher on the price scale, but for me, if there is any face product to splurge on, it is definitely moisturiser. I just use a little pea-sized amount of this stuff and rub it all over my face. 

Okay, so at this point, this is fairly often all I have time to do, but usually, I will add these steps as well:

After I have used my toner (before moisturising), I sometimes like to use a cleanser. The cleanser I use is Clarins Cleansing Milk. Again, this is slightly more expensive, but a great dupe for it is the Environ Precleanser. While the formulas for the two are quite different, both do the same thing really well. I am currently using this Clarins cleanser and it is just so gentle on the skin. Basically all I do is put a little on my fingertips and gently rub it in, then with a wet cotton-wool ball, I will just rub over it and gently remove it and cleanse it in. This is great if your skin if feeling a bit dry, so I use it a lot particularly in winter. 

The other thing I will do if I have time, is use an eye cream. My usual sleep deprivation means that I constantly have dark rings under my eyes, so whenever possible, I like to use a super moisturising, thick eye-cream. My under eyes are very sensitive, and I have found that almost all the products I have tried burn my skin there, so the cream I currently use isn't actually only an eye cream, but I use it particularly for that, as it is very mild, doesn't burn the skin, and is thick and moisturising- it's the Nivea Daily Essentials Light Moisturising Day Cream. 

Okay so thats it: wash, toner, cleanse, moisturise and under eyes- but only if there's time of course. Like I said, I do get lazy with skin care sometimes, I think we all do, but it's important to just try to take good care of it, because we only get one face, so I want to look after mine.  As you can seen, I really like the Nivea Daily Essentials range, it is so good and super cost-effective, so if in doubt, I recommend all those products. 

If you enjoyed this post, I might do one on my nightly skin care routine as well, but I hope this is of some help to any of  you wondering what products to use, which brands are good, and how to do it on a budget!