My Current Picks for Skin Woes!

When I need an at-home spa experience in a half hour or less...recently I have been turning to my Mario Badescu products. While I save for some higher end skincare, Clinique and Mario Badescu have kept my skin looking good for years. I was blessed with wonderful skin genes from my mom (thanks mom!), but the oily skin that has kept her wrinkle free and looking ten years younger than she is---has caused me acne and clogged pores. I use prescriptions topical medicine from my Dermatologist for my acne, and thankfully, over the years, my breakouts have become few and far between. That's the good news. The bad news is that I have acne scars, and since my skin is so fair, they are extremely noticeable.

To combat this, I have been using Mario Badescu's Whitening Mask on a weekly basis, and noticing a slight difference. The mask ($24 for 2 oz) smells slightly sweet and doesn't have Alpha Hydroxy Acids, which means it plays nice with any small breakouts on my skin and doesn't irritate. Licorice and Mulberry are gentle but slowly effective at diminishing my dark spots.

No, this is no miracle treatment, but I would rather have something that is gentle on my skin than something that strips it. With regular, gentle exfoliation and this, I've seen a difference in a month. 

It also tends to pull out a lot of gunk on my cheeks (where I use it), so it has a facial feel to it as well, which makes it better for oilier skin types. 

And while I am brightening...

I might as well un-clog those pesky pores on my nose!

Mario Badescu's Silver Powder ($12) is a tub full of pore-unclogging miracle powder, in my opinion. This can be used as a mask, a spot treatment, or my favorite--as a prep for extraction or pore strips.

I know pore strips aren't exactly the best for you---and I prefer careful, steamed extractions, but sometimes...what this does to a pore strip is extremely (and grossly) gratifying.

First of all, this jar will last you years...and years....

So, while I have my Whitening Mask slapped on my cheeks, I dip a wet cotton pad into the powder and spot it on my nose, forehead, and chin. It creates a paste that dries after 5-10 minutes.

It will look something like the above. Remove with warm water and viola--blackheads are diminished, pores are smaller, and oil is absorbed.

But---don't expect this to remove all of your blackheads. That is where the extractions or the pore strips come into play. This really loosens them up. If you choose to use a pore strip at this point, you are going to wonder why they never worked this well before. Seriously---results are rewarding to say the least.

And by the time the pore strip comes off or the extractions are done---I rinse of my whitening mask, and I feel like a glowy-rosy babe. 

And that has been my little skin regimen lately!

Do you like Mario Badescu products?