bailey bee

beauty, home and lifestyle blog

Pixi Beauty Vitamin-C Collection + Skin Update

The Pixi Beauty Vitamin-C Collection

Yo, guys. Let me tell. you. My skin has been through the WRINGER over the past month. Now that I’m on the upswing I am getting the opportunity to really test these goodies that Pixi sent. We will ignore, for now, that they’ve been waiting for me for six months! For the most part I’m writing this post to be a PSA of these products being available, less for how they worked for me.

The Pixi Beauty Vitamin-C Collection
shown above:
Vitamin-C Serum, Vitamin-C Tonic, Vitamin-C Caviar Balm,
Vitamin-C Juice Cleanser and Vitamin-C Lotion

As for my skin, I had all of these posts planned that were along the lines of “HOW I FIXED MY SKIN! SKINCARE ROUTINE!” and “HOW I CURED MY ACNE” but…. as the months went on, I realized that my skincare wasn’t doing anything.

I decided to get off of birth control at the end of 2018 because I had been wanting to, generally, as I had been on BC since 2012 and also because I was able to be unemployed and thus, uninsured. It seems it took about seven months for my skin to react to the hormone change because the acne that began popping up in July turned out to be just that: hormonal acne.

I fought and fought and fought my face— walking the line between being overly harsh and aware enough to not harm my skin’s natural moisture barrier. I had prescription creams, prescription pills, endless moisturizers and chemical exfoliants and nothing seemed to work. It wasn’t until the end of November when I decided to get back on birth control. My skin cleared up within two weeks.

Lesson learned: outward beauty is only worth so much. Even when I attempted to combat my acne inwardly with eating less dairy and more probiotics, I still had no luck. The other lesson learned? Medicine and more particularly, birth control, is not a bad thing. I know there are so many positive, practical reasons for being on birth control. I fell into the myth that I needed my body to have a “natural” moment to “reset”. My body clearly needs assistance in the hormone department and I’m glad to be back on the regulated train.

Thank you to Pixi for sending me their Vitamin-C goodies. I would have been able to give a far more comprehensive write-up far sooner than it took me to provide this, had they arrived at a more opportune time.

I hope anyone reading this had a wonderful wind-down to 2019 and cheers to 2020!

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Paula’s Choice Skin Perfecting 2% BHA Liquid Exfoliant Is the Real Deal

Paula's Choice Skin Perfecting 2% BHA Liquid Exfoliant
Paula’s Choice Skin Perfecting 2% BHA Liquid Exfoliant

Yep. This is one of those. Guys, my skin was SO. BAD. this summer. A new job plus that job being seriously one of the more stressful times I’ve ever lived through… My skin was hopeless all of July and August. I’m on the tail-end of things now and am just recovering some dark spots and small bumps on my forehead. I’ve been so desperate to get my skin back to “normal” that I was consistently found on Friday nights in my bathroom Googling “make small bumps on forehead go away.” Everything led me to Paula’s Choice Skin Perfecting 2% BHA Liquid Exfoliant.

I am/was so desperate that I bought a travel-sized bottle on a whim to see what happened. Be advised, don’t get this stuff off of Amazon. The product sold on Amazon seems to be a rip-off. I rarely buy anything beauty-related outside of Sephora, Ulta or Nordstrom but I think something like this is best to get straight from the source.

I slathered this stuff on my face early in the evening and let it stay on all night as guided by the countless online reviews I read through. It does feel and appear oily so I would never, ever imagine wearing this during the day. Once the morning comes, you’ll wash the residual product off along with any pesky texture that you had on your facial skin before. My skin looked and felt so incredible after just the first application.

As with any exfoliating product, be wary of sun exposure (in general, but especially when using this!) I was so self conscious of the bumps on my forehead and I’m going to hype this stuff up as a miracle product because of how good it made me feel after using it. I got really excited and tried using it every day or two but my skin reacted poorly so I’ve been limiting myself to just once or twice per week.

The closest product to this that I have tried would be Pixi’s Glow Tonic. It gave me the same slough after the first application but seemed to fall off after that. Am I late to the liquid exfoliant game? If so, please let me know which products I have missed out on! I’m also curious to know which Paula’s Choice products everyone recommends for me to try out next. It seems I’ve been living in the dark!

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Drunk Elephant: The Littles 3.0

the full Drunk Elephant: The Littles 3.0 line-up

I’m so excited to share my thoughts with you all on the most recent ‘The Littles’ grouping by Drunk Elephant. Priced at $90, this is a solid starting spot if you’re hoping to splurge on a DE product but want to make sure you’re making a sound investment first. Before we begin, I must state that I received these products courtesy of Drunk Elephant. That being said, as always, the below opinions are entirely unbiased and my own!

The Littles 3.0 contains the following:

Let me start with my favorites of the group.. Protini, for which I have raved about in the past, as well as C-Tango. I ran through a full-sized Protini earlier this year and the only reason I didn’t repurchase was because of the price (I was out of work for the first half of this year and was trying to spend responsibly) but rest assured, I still love this stuff! It is nice and thick but doesn’t make you feel weighed down. It also absorbs well, which I think is something I sometimes can take for granted! Speaking of thick, the C-Tango eye cream is soOo luxurious and moisturizing. This was on my “potential buy” list as I am planning my next eye cream purchase. It has now become a “definite next buy” in my book!

The bigger disappointments in the group were C-Firma and Umbra Tinte.

As for C-Firma, I’m seemingly not a fan. I had a full sized version of it a few months ago from a holiday set but never got around to using because I still have a decent amount of my Ole Henriksen Truth Serum left. I ended up selling my C-Firma on Poshmark as it was brand new and thank goodness I did! This is one STICKY product and I dooooo not like it. Honestly, I feel like I may have a wonky formula in mine because I can’t imagine people using this product regularly. It’s sticky and heavy on the skin and I now realize how great my Ole is!

Another dud for me was the Umbra Tinte sunscreen. Although there is a sheer version of this product, The Littles 3.0 included the tinted variety that is far too dark for my skin tone. I let my fiancé use it once or twice but just threw it away after that— such a waste! I think this tinted version should at least come in three shades; including, at a minimum, a lighter and deeper option. Can’t speak much to the sun protection as I didn’t try this on myself.

I used up all of the Beste Jelly Cleanser and it acted as a nice cleanser option. Nothing in particular to rave nor rant about on it. Additionally, B-Hydra is a product that I have tried a sample of in the past and am indifferent on. It’s a very lightweight “serum” that I don’t hate but also don’t love. It absorbs quickly but I don’t feel it moisturizes enough for me to recommend it highly. Lastly, I have been pairing the Virgin Marula Oil with the T.L.C. Framboos Glycolic Serum (as advised to do by the directions that come with the kit) and I’ve had good results. My first time trying out T.L.C. Framboos was great because it erased all of the texture on my forehead but this go-around wasn’t as drastic. I assume it is still doing good work– just nothing that really stood out to me.

I am SO happy I was able to try out the Drunk Elephant “The Littles 3.0” kit because I’m such a huge of DE’s products and am always wanting to buy new things by them. Getting a kit like this is a great way to dip your toe in before buying the more expensive full-sized counterparts to your faves.

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My Dermaplaning Experience

A couple of weeks ago I experienced getting dermaplaned for the first time with my sister. Our mom previously had it done and liked it so much that she got us gift cards so we could go ourselves! I wanted to share my experience and show a couple before and after shots I got while I was there.

Firstly, let’s get into what dermaplaning is. If you did not know, dermaplaning is essentially shaving your face with a very high quality, medical-grade scalpel to remove vellus hairs(read: peach fuzz) and built-up dead skin. This procedure is supposed to benefit you in two ways: it heightens the ability for your skin to absorb skincare products better and also allows makeup to apply smoother across the face. I was intrigued but unlikely to ever pay to have it done professionally. I’ve used those eyebrow shaver sticks in the past to shave my upper lip and almost every single time I’ve used them, I’ve broken out. I was certain that if I got my entire face dermaplaned that I would break out EVERYWHERE. That was not entirely true.. read on.

The session started with a quick cleanse of my skin with a bit of alcohol. After that, the esthetician began shaving away in the direction of my hair growth; first starting at my cheeks and then moving to my forehead and nose/upper lip region. I felt and heard little to no sensation while I was getting everything done. I had expected some sort of scratching noise but found nothing audible really occurred. The process was fairly relaxing, actually!

After everything had been ‘planed, there was a round of witch hazel swept across my face. This was to further cleanse my now wide-open facial pores. My worries about breaking out were eased a bit because witch hazel is a strong astringent that is known for clearing and preventing breakouts. After the witch hazel was applied, a cooling rod was drawn over my entire face to close the pores. Process complete!

I had a handful of pimples pop up in the week following my dermaplaning procedure but they weren’t anything I couldn’t handle nor were they very painful. I assume they were a byproduct of the procedure and my skins way of removing toxins that were now closer to the surface of my face. The weirdest thing that happened was that over the following week, I noticed that my face was always clammy. Regardless of how many times I washed my face, it felt sticky (I guess) because there were no longer hairs left to make it soft to the touch. I didn’t love that.

Another weird sensation I experienced post-procedure were the super heightened feelings on my skin. I was suddenly hyper-aware of whenever I was touching my face or if a stray hair brushed against the skin. It wasn’t a positive nor a negative– just a strange sensation that I had noticed. *insert shrugging emoji here*

As for the claim of a smoother makeup application, I absolutely can speak to that. Both liquid and powder products applied in a noticeably different manner. It took some time to be able to differentiate between the product ACTUALLY applying in a different way and my face just being extra aware of my makeup brushes touching my face. The most notable feeling was with my bronzer on the sides of my face– this is an area that I never focused hair removal on in the past and was seemingly the most obvious difference for me in terms of the weird “feeling” sensation. Below you will see my cheek/bronzer region before and after I got dermaplaned:

dermaplaning before and after

With the pros and cons considered, I’m fairly confident enough to say that I likely won’t get dermaplaned again. It was definitely a cool thing to have done but I didn’t love having breakouts afterward. I know that even happens after something like a facial but that and the clamminess were too much for me. It was fun, though, and I’m glad I finally got to test out and learn about dermaplaning. I suggest trying it at least once to see how you like it!

If you have been dermaplaned before, let me know what happened! I’m curious if the clamminess was just something I dealt with– my sister said she didn’t have the same issue. I find it interesting that we all have such different reactions to the same things in life and I’m curious to hear. Hit up the comments below ↓↓↓

To read up on some of my skincare posts, click here!