REVIEW Clinique Take The Day Off Balm

First off, I am a cleansing balm convert.

When I used to see balms in blog posts or articles, I'd just skip past it, convinced it could never work on my crazy oily, temperamental skin.

Ah-how wrong I was!

I love this stuff. I wish it smelled pretty, but otherwise, it does a great job.

WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE

I love you TTDO. I really, really do. 

I picked mine up at the Clinique counter at Plaza Senayan for IDR 450k, or just under 40USD. It's not cheap, but it's a really good product IMHO. 

You do get a lot of product, in fact, it contains 125 grams of product. So this should last you at least 3-4 months, or maybe more. I've been using it for a month, and I've barely dented the surface. 

WHAT IT CONTAINS

Ingredients:

Ethylhexyl Palmitate, Carthamus Tinctorius (Safflower) Seed Oil, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Sorbeth-30 Tetraoleate, Polyethylene, PEG-5 Glyceryl Triisostearate, Water, Tocopherol, Phenoxyethanol

I ran this product through cosdna, and two products were flagged for acne and irritation. The first was Ethylhexyl Palmitate, which rated pretty high for acne, and the second was Tocopherol. I have a tendency to break out or get bumps under my skin when I use products that don't suit me, and I've been doing fine with this. Just make sure you really get all the product off your face when you're done cleansing. 

I like that it doesn't contain mineral oil. Now, I don't hate it like others do, but it's a cheap filler, and at this price tag, I'd be pissed if that's what they used. But they didn't. So it's all good. 

HOW I USE IT

I always apply this on my face while it's dry, and the balm quickly turns into a silky oil, just like it claims to do. It removes my makeup really efficiently, and even my eye makeup too, because sometimes I can't be bothered using a separate eye makeup remover. I like that even though it turns into an oil, it's not messy and runny, and it doesn't feel overly greasy on my skin. I massage it into my skin and then I remove it by using a tepid face towel. I use both sides to make sure it's all off.  

And voila! Clean, refreshed skin, ready for a second cleanse, or other products. 

I've been using this product for a month, and it hasn't irritated my skin or made it break out. Win!

WILL I REPURCHASE? 

Yes. This is a cleansing staple. 

FYI- I love products in jars. Feels fancy. I love feeling like I'm rich. Ha!

Talk to you all soon!xoxo

My Skin and Stuff

Adult acne, tick.
Super dry and rough cheeks, tick.
Oil-slick nose, tick.
Massive pores, tick.
Showing a few wrinkles, tick.
Hormonal acne, tick.

Is there anything my skin doesn't experience?

I thought I should just give up.

Thankfully, I didn't.

Recently, I've been experiencing the best skin of my life. Soft, supple, hardly any breakouts, my nose hasn't been turning the rest of my face into an oilslick. Hooray!


I've been going to my derm to get peels, and she prescribes an 0.05% tretinoin for me. She has her own formulas though. The cream that I apply to my cheeks is a richer, more emollient formula, and the one for my T-zone feels lighter, and is a slightly yellow color.

But it's not really just tretinoin that's made a difference to my skin. I'm convinced it's my overall regimen.

First, I followed Caroline Hiron's advice and cut down on foaming cleansers. They really strip your skin of moisture. Your skin then works harder to compensate, turning your face into a personal oil-ravaged playground.  Some of the cleansers I use still have some kind of surfactant in them, but they're not so harsh. In turn, my skin has been thanking me. In short, I stay far,far away from cleansers that give me a "squeaky clean" feel. Skin should feel clean, but still soft after cleansing. I've found that foaming cleansers make my oily areas a mess, and my cheeks feel so rough, you could grate cheese on it. Lovely, I know.

DOUBLE CLEANSING

Yes, beauty bloggers and magazines wax lyrical about the benefits of this. It's basically using one product to clean away your makeup, and then doing another cleanse after to make your skin feel supple and hydrated, ready for your next steps.

I double cleanse after a long day outside. If I stay home and am makeup-free, one cleanse is enough, unless I just want to feel like I'm doing a home spa.

LAYERING MOISTURE

One of the biggest fallacies I fell for is avoiding moisture for all my oily areas. Oily skin needs moisture too. In fact, now that I sandwich layers of moisture onto my skin, my oiliness has been under control. My skin no longer is an oily mess by afternoon. Yes, there's oil there, but it's mild, as opposed to oil spill disaster levels.

ALWAYS GO TO BED WITH CLEAN SKIN

This. This is the most important thing ever. I get it. Sometimes you're beyond exhausted. But getting into a habit of cleansing in the morning and at night is the best thing you can do for your skin. My routine takes 5 mins. It's only 5 minutes. When I see that my skin has been so happy lately, it's totally worth the 5 minutes it takes.

I know there's beauty bloggers out there who are getting fab results by waiting up to 30 minutes for the product to really sink into the skin before moving on to the next step. I haven't developed that kind of hardcore devotion to my skin yet-or maybe never. 5-10 minutes most nights is what I can manage, and I'm happy with the results.

FIND PRODUCTS THAT WORK FOR YOU

I started really reading into what ingredients work, and reading from different sources. Don't take anyone's word as gospel. Figure out what could possibly irritate your skin. Then look at what works for me. Skincare doesn't have to cost a fortune, and as much as I would love to spend all my hard earned cash on pretty products, I just can't. Obviously. So I spend what I can. Although I have to admit, I am most excited about cleansers,serums and acid products, and not so excited about facial oils and regular moisturisers:). I still carry an old phobia about that, which I am most definitely getting over, but still takes time.

I figure that even the most expensive foundation won't sit well on skin that isn't at it's best, so I might as invest my skin, first and foremost.

And I'm convinced there are great products at every price point, so unless a product really,really excites me, I am not going to spend hundreds of dollars on it.

Right now, I love Western products, Korean and Japanese products, and there's a few local organic skincare online shops that offer good quality for great value. Just find what works for you:).

SKIN REGIMEN

Right now, I get peels every month or so, I plan on getting another non-ablative laser treatment, and other than that, I just look after my skin the best I can.

In the mornings, I cleanse-tone-acid product-serum-moisturise-sunscreen then apply makeup. In the evenings before bed I cleanse/double-cleanse-tone-acid product-serum-moisturise. Sometimes I skip or add steps as necessary.


BE HAPPY

Skincare is important to me, but it doesn't control my life. Being with my bf, friends, family, my pets and pursuing things I love makes me happy. I try to keep my stress under control:).

Talk to you all soon! xoxo