they say it takes a village to raise a child, well i say it takes a sephora to get this mug neighborhood presentable.

last week’s photo shoot for mary jo matsumoto has left my skin less than porcelain smooth.

while it does wonder for pictures, the make up i wear in these shoots sometimes leaves my skin angry, inflamed and looking for the next fight club.

i have to call in the heavyweights to get things to calm down, for oil production to stop over generating, for redness to abate and desist, and for pore size to truncate and vanish.

it’s masks! serums! scrubs! and potions galore in the bathroom de katie.

the current heat wave is also wreaking havoc on my already angst-ridden, teenage rebellious skin. cue the john hughes music. 

my skin is oily to begin with, a challenge even without the humidity and swelter. so i guess with this heat my skin is best described as adipose? buttery? lardy?

i have lardy skin.

luckily though i have some help. boscia’s newest cleanser, the detoxifying black cleanser, is literally doing just that, detoxifying. as with all boscia products, i am obsessed with this cleanser. it really is black, and it heats up in your hands. while it’s not an overly sudsy soap, this stuff does what it says, it will purify your skin of all the muck and grime. it gets all the makeup and thick sunscreen off without stripping the skin of its natural goodness.

another product i can’t live without is my caudalie vinexpert anti-ageing serum for the eyes and lips. made with resveratrol and peptides {anti-aging musts} this serum does wonders for the look of the eyes {i have yet to use it on my lips.} i throw this on my clarisonic opal {instead of using the serum clarisonic supplies} at least once a day, and i can definitely tell when i don’t use it. the combo of the opal and the serum make my eyes less puffy and the lines less noticeable.

lastly my favorite mask right now is a clay, hydrating mask from nature by canus {don’t get me started on how to pronounce “canus”.} usually i shy away from clay masks because, even with my lubricative skin, the clay can be drying {read: make me look old!} but this one is very different, it’s hydrating, and the results from this mask are immediate. so immediate that my friend alexei yesterday, post-mask, even remarked on my skin, and inquired what i had done differently. the proof is always in the compliments.

wishing you a ph-balanced wednesday m’loves.Â