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K-Beauty Routine of a Working Mum

4th Apr 2019

K-Beauty Routine of a Working Mum

Time to listen to a new story about a journey into discovering k-beauty and how it changed another life. Today we have a great pleasure to post a story of Jasmin, a working mum, passionate K-beauty blogger and most importantly another person who can not live without k-beauty.

Life of a working mum and a passionate blogger

Karolina: Jasmin, Thanks for finding time to share with us your k-beauty journey. Tell us about yourself.

Jasmine: Hello everyone! My name is Jasmine and I’m 27 years old. I was born and brought up in a small city in the North of Scotland with my mum and two younger brothers. After I finished studying HNC Music Performance in college, I moved out of the family home and currently live with my fiancé of nearly 4 years and my 2 year old daughter.

K-Beauty Discovered: K-Beauty routine of a working mum
K-Beauty Discovered: K-Beauty routine of a working mum
Photo source: Kkochsongi

I currently work full time as a waitress and social media manager for the restaurant. When I’m not working and parenting, I’m usually spending time blogging or looking into new products to try. I started blogging about my love of Korean beauty products back in 2014 on my blog, Kkochsongi, wanting to share my views of the products I had tried and which ones I loved the most. I had always enjoyed reading reviews from other people and wanted to join in!

Daily activities

Karolina: That sounds very busy. How does your day look like as a working mum?
Jasmine: I’m typically an early riser, so I find myself usually awake somewhere between 7-9am. I then use a little time before waking my daughter up to do things such as cleaning, exercising or taking the time to do a thorough skincare routine and really pamper myself. Though some day, I like to just sit and relax without having to worry about doing anything for an hour or so. Once she’s awake, the majority of my time is dedicated to playing with her or continuing to tidy the house if necessary and if she’s happy playing with her toys.

Some days, I end up going round to my mum’s, as she’s my childcare during the time that I begin work and my partner finishes. So what I tend to do day to day often changes based on where I am, but I usually try to keep myself busy, but a lot of it centres around my little girl.

Being a waitress, I’m an evening worker. So I usually start work 3-5pm and I work until 11.30pm the majority of the time. Sadly, this means I don’t get home until after midnight and I’m often too tired to do anything. So, it’s usually time for a cup of tea and then going to bed.

K-Beauty Discovered: K-Beauty routine of a working mum
K-Beauty Discovered: K-Beauty routine of a working mum
Photo source: Kkochsongi

Lifestyle

Karolina: How does this lifestyle impact your skin?

Jasmine: Due to the fact I’m home so, so late at night, I find I can only muster the energy to do my double cleanse and if I’m lucky, moisturising my skin. I do try to use my evenings off to make up for it, but I feel like my skin doesn’t have as good a texture when I have a lot of these late shifts in a row. Especially during the winter when my skin suffers the most.

Jasmine on K-beauty

Karolina: How long has it been since you started your experience with k-beauty?

Jasmin: I began using K-beauty products in 2010 and started using them exclusively since about 2014.

Karolina: What was the reason you started experimenting with Korean cosmetics?

Jasmin: It was a struggle for me to find a foundation shade that was light enough for my skin without having an orange undertone to it. I feel like at least back then, the lightest shades of Western make up available to me were quite pale, but were orange toned which didn’t suit me at all. So, after seeing BB Cream being spoken about by beauty gurus on YouTube, I tried one out and found that it fit me a lot better. While it was light enough, looking back at the one I used religiously, I realised that it gave off quite an unattractive grey cast. Now, I’ve found my perfect shades in K-beauty products for both the winter and summer!

K-Beauty Discovered: K_Beauty routine of a working mum
K-Beauty Discovered: K-Beauty routine of a working mum
Photo source: Kkochsongi

It was after a year or two of experimenting with makeup products, I eventually started using skincare from the brands I had familiarised myself with and it was then that I gradually changed to a solely K-beauty skincare collection.

Jasmin on the 10 step routine

Karolina: You probably do not have time to use all 10 steps. How did you adjust your routine to your lifestyle and still tackle skin needs?

Jasmin: I do occasionally do manage to do the full 10 steps, but this is a very rare occurrence when I feel up to it. I use anything between 3-8 or so steps on a regular day. But if I was to line out my full routine that I do the most often it would look like this

Oil Cleanse > Regular Cleanse > Toner > AHA (3 times a week) > Serum > Oil > Moisturiser > (Sun Screen if Day Time)

I also try and do a sheet mask once a week and a wash off/scrub mask once a week too.

My skin is quite normal, but I used to suffer from oilyacneprone skin as a teenager and I’m left with the deep set acne scars to show it. I have to thank the cystic acne that took 10 years to treat for that! To make sure I get the most out of my routine even on days I don’t have much time, I recently added in AHA/BHA/PHA, using products from COSRX to do so. I feel like the addition of these really help the appearance of my skin and it’s texture to reduce the severity of my scarring.

K-Beauty Discovered: K-Beauty routine of a working mum
K-Beauty Discovered: K-Beauty routine of a working mum
Photo source: Kkochsongi

My skin also suffers from dehydration in the winter, so I make sure my toner and my serums are moisturising and I tend to do sheet masks a little more often than normal. For sheet masks, I recommend the Abib, Dr.Gand Atoclassic ones! I especially recommend the Dear Klairs Midnight Blue Calming Mask when you have a sudden hormonal breakout!

Impact of K-beauty on skin

Karolina: How did your skincare change since you started k-beauty?

Jasmin: I used to do the typical cleanse, tone and moisturiser. Using very cheap products that weren’t actually all that good for my skin and if anything made my skin a lot worse. With very little thought and no consideration into the ingredients. I also did have a lot of spot creams and such that ended up not doing anything. Thanks to K-beauty I definitely use more products and a bigger variety and use skincare as a form of self-care for myself and not just a necessity. I take the time to use each product with though to what it’s going to do to my skin and how the result I get from it makes me feel about myself.

I’ve definitely learned more about what ingredients work well for my skin, which ones to highlight when I’m looking for a new product to try to help with a certain skin issue. I very rarely get acne now and my skin is definitely in the best condition it’s been since before I hit puberty. I feel a lot more comfortable in myself because of it and I’m happy to go out of the house without make up. Whereas before, I hated the appearance of my skin so much

K-Beauty Discovered: K-Beauty routine of a working mum
K-Beauty Discovered: K-Beauty routine of a working mum
Photo source: Kkochsongi

Jasmin about ingredients

Karolina: What are your favourite skincare ingredients for tackling your skin concerns?

Jasmin: I usually look for products targeting acne scarring as this is my main concern. So, I usually look for ingredients such as Centella Asiatica, a fantastic ingredient for those with acne and scarring. I also mentioned earlier about adding acids into my routine and while I do look for these when searching for new products, I don’t want to make them the focus as I don’t want to over exfoliate with chemicals.

I also like to look for products with some natural ingredients in them such as fruit and floral extracts in particular and the benefits of each differ.

Jasmin about favourite products

Karolina: What are your two skincare must-have products? What impact did they have on your skin?

Jasmin: The Dear Klairs Supple Preparation Unscented Toner is a godsend and is suitable for all skin types. It’s incredibly gentle on the skin and doesn’t leave you with a feeling of dryness after. Tonersshould generally be moisturizing in my opinion for my own skin, and this does the job perfectly. Even during times that my skin is highly sensitive, I can barely feel that this is on my skin. So, it’s one I highly recommend adding in if you suffer badly from sensitive skin.

K-Beauty Discovered: K-Beauty routine of a working mum
K-Beauty Discovered: K-Beauty routine of a working mum
Photo source: Kkochsongi

Another go to for me is the By Wishtrend TECA 1% Barrier Cream. As soon as I get a spot, I attack it with this and it works amazingly! Whether it’s a spot come to a head, a spot under the skin or one that has already decided to pop, it works so well to reduce the size and redness of the spot. It also works great as an all over treatment to help reduce overall redness without drying the skin out.

Skincare tips

Karolina: If you were asked to give one advice on skincare for people who like you have time constraints and face similar challenges, what would it be?

Jasmin: Take advantage of the current “skipcare” trend that is circulating in the K-beauty community. Find products that are targeted towards your main concerns and use those. Add in extra steps on days you feel like it, but as long as your core products help with those issues, you’ll find maintaining a skincare routine will be a lot easier and less stressful and time consuming.

If you have days that you have absolutely no time and can only manage a cleanse and moisturise like I only manage some nights after work, make sure your cleanser and your moisturiser are the most beneficial ones you own. For instance, my moistuiser contains PHA, which is a super, super light chemical exfoliant while moisturising the skin a lot. So I know I’m tackling both of my main concerns of acne scarring and dehydration with this.

K-Beauty Discovered: K-Beauty routine of a working mum
K-Beauty Discovered: K-Beauty routine of a working mum
Photo source: Kkochsongi

Don’t stress about it either. Be kind to yourself and don’t make yourself feel like your skincare should be a chore, or you won’t want to do it. Take it step by step and find a short routine that works best for you and your skin. Always listen to your skin and treat it kindly.