Monthly Beauty Buys - May Favourites

I'm a little earlier on my Monthly Beauty Buys this time around. Hopefully next month I'll be even earlier! This month 2 of my 3 products are skincare items with 1 cosmetic item; I didn't really purchase much in the way of makeup in May. Let's go check out what I liked from the items I did buy!

Washing your face before bed is extremely important in caring for your skin, especially if you wear makeup. Normally I would wash my face with a foaming cleanser and my Clarisionic to make sure any makeup is definitely removed. But, since I decided to try the Garnier SkinActive Micellar Water it's really changed the way I cleanse my skin, and how it feels afterward. I tend to have pretty dehydrated skin with random dry patches at times, and I've found that cleansing with my Clarisonic really helped with the dry patches--not to mention I feel it is responsible for finally achieving clear skin--but recently I've felt my skin has been extra dry. I figured that my usual foaming cleanser could be contributing to my skin's dryness, so in order to not use it so often, I decided to try the Garnier Micellar Water. I've heard some people say that they don't even wash their face with regular water anymore, they just use the micellar water. While I don't feel comfortable doing that with my skin, I do like to use it before going to bed to remove any makeup and cleanse my skin. Then, if I feel I need it (or I'm not too lazy), I follow up with the next product in my monthly favourites.

I've been through a long line of cleansers over the past several years, mostly due to acne beginning at the age of 24 and trying to find something that would help keep my skin clear. It's been a tough 10 years in that area, with lots of ups and downs - perhaps I'll discuss that journey further in a dedicated post. My biggest issue these days, as I mentioned above, is dehydration and dry patches. Looking for a gentle cleaner I decided to try the Foaming Forumla of this cleanser, but it seemed to make my skin even more dry even though it's a gentle formula. I had tried the a different brand cream cleanser in the past but found that it didn't leave me feeling like my skin was completely clean of makeup after using it; the removed makeup wouldn't rinse away from my Clarisonic afterward so how could it be rinsing off my skin, right? Once I started using the first product in this list of favourites--which did seem to be taking away all the makeup--a cream cleanser now made more sense, especially to keep my skin from losing too much moisture. Once my makeup is mostly removed, then I use this Neutrogena Ultra Gentle Daily Cleanser - Creamy Formula with my Clarisonic. Now I feel like I'm left with a more balanced moisture level and it's great to use again in the morning to refresh my skin; why use a soap or foaming cleanser when my skin is already clean, it just needs the overnight oils and sebum rinsed away. So far this combination of products has been working well for me - yay!

I've bought a couple of other products from this Essence brand and they were fine, but I usually just skip right over their products at the drugstore because they are so inexpensive that I think they can't be that great. I really should know better than to think things like that, especially since I have tried and liked a few pf their products in the past. I decided to try out this Essence Say No to Dark Circles brightening stick in Bright Rose #20 because it was recommended by another YouTuber (and fellow Canadian), and I actually do really like it! It does what it's supposed to do; brighten your under eye area and it feels nice and light, it doesn't do any significant creasing, and you can't beat the price at $3.99 (CAD). If it's out of stock online and you want to try it, check in store at Shoppers Drug Mart or Superstore (in Canada) or Ulta (in the U.S.).

Those are my favourite beauty buys for the month of May. What were your favourite purchases? Anything you think I should try? Let me know in the comments!

Sam ♡