A skin care company did a survey once and discovered that 50% of American women make skin “cocktails,†or products that they mix themselves, a witchy feminine quirk.Â
We experiment endlessly with products, always searching for the Holy Grail which will defeat our unique set of problems and constraints (“my hair is flyaway, but so thick I can’t weigh it down to tame the problem! Now what?!â€)
And if one product is good, two or three are even better. I mix up a special cocktail in my palm every morning. It is designed to deal with several issues, which are often at war with each other. For example:
- I want to make my skin look less red.
- I don’t want to wear foundation because it looks like such a mask.
- I want a far higher SPF than is available in moisturizers with a “hint of color†that would sub for the foundation.
- I want some kind of helpful topical agent (if I’m going to all this damn trouble, I might as well do some good).Â
- Whatever I use cannot make my oily-to-normal face greasy.
Friends, that’s a tall order. But I solved it.
In the palm of my hand I mix three equal pea-sized dollops of the following ingredients. It gives you sheer, glowy coverage that looks fantastic and takes out all the irregularities. It looks like you have absolutely nothing on your face. Â
- SPF 50 sunscreen with zinc (I was using the ultra expensive, $30 bucks a tube, Skinceuticals, but switched to a drugstore brand. Experiment till you find a kind with a good consistency; I like Neutrogena Dry Touch).
- Drugstore foundation (in a darker color than you’d usually wear or you’ll look like Caspar; it washes out when mixed with white zinc).
- Neutrogena Healthy Skin (with alpha hydroxy acids).
I am emphatically not someone with naturally great skin; but I get compliments on my skin now all the time – people, it’s the cocktail.Â
