The Small Things Blog

Seasonal Skincare Switch

beauty

It felt like it took an eternity, but we are finally crawling through the dark, cold, dreary hole of winter. Other than soaking in the sunshine and warmer weather, are you switching up your skincare with the new climate?

Wintertime is usually a time that I’m looking for deep hydration, glow, vibrancy, etc. I want my skin to look healthy, and the dryness of winter sort of sucks the life out of it, if you know what I mean? But in the spring, skincare needs change a bit!

The humidity is still light, but I find that I can lighten up my moisturizer a bit and go for more lightweight makeup products. When the dead of summer comes, I’ll be looking for even lighter products and perhaps some that absorb any excess oil to try to fight break outs from sweat, sunblock, and pool chemicals.

I don’t make a ton of changes, but here are a few swaps I make as the weather starts to warm up a bit.

I apply less moisturizer, or will skip one of them. A few months ago, I got into the routine of applying these 3 products to my skin daily. It works perfectly in the dryer, cooler air of winter. But now that it’s getting warmer, I can skip one of them, and it’s usually the Bobbi Brown Face Base. I ALWAYS use that when I’m applying my makeup, even if it’s just around my nose, but on a day-to-day I’ll pare it down to the Vitamin C Serum and the Fresh Lotus Youth Preserve Face Cream.
In winter, I’d happily apply any deep hydrating face mask to my skin and let it sit for 30 minutes. Or I’d use a heavier night cream to do the work overnight! In spring, when it comes to masks, I’m going for skin luminizing and resurfacing options, like the Power Peel by Ole Henricksen. This reveals fresh, soft skin that has zero flakes or patches.
Looking ahead to summertime, I’ll add a charcoal mask into the mix – either Origins Charcoal Mask or Fresh Umbrian Clay Mask. Both are great for combating breakout prone areas and clearing pores. I tend to get breakouts along my chin and jawline, so even if I applied a nourishing mask on the rest of my face, I would apply a charcoal-type mask along my chin and jaw to handle those areas.

I’m still searching for my “holy grail” sunscreen for my face. I have yet to find it, but you can be sure I’ll write a post about it when I do! My foundation has SPF in it so that has gotten me through thus far, or I’ll set my makeup with a SPF powder for extra coverage!

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Summer Dresses

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I hardly have a reason to get dressed up these days, and sometimes I miss it! Don’t get me wrong, I’m a total jeans and tee kind of girl, but I love the occasional feminine dress! I usually dress up a bit more than usual for church on Sunday, but otherwise I keep it casual for the rest of the week.

My brother is getting married later this summer so I’ll have a bridal shower and then the actual wedding to attend over the next few months! Dressing a postpartum body can be a little challenging, but I’ve already been browsing around to see if I can find something that will work for nursing and still be flattering.

The good news? There are so many cute dresses available right now that it’s almost hard to choose!

This orange one from Gap is so dang cute, I love the ruffles around the bottom. And this white one from Anthropologie isn’t exactly appropriate for a wedding or bridal shower (unless you’re the bride!) but I love how summery and light it looks! I’m also loving this dress with a cute tassel detail.

Do you wear dresses in the spring and summer or stick with shorts and a tee? I’m loving all the midi lengths (like this one!) that work well for chasing little kids around while still wearing a dress!

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How do you keep your blonde bright?

ask kate

I’ve switched on and off between doing my own color and going to see a stylist to have it done. I have a great stylist here that I love but it’s hard to find the time to make an appointment! I fear that’s going to get more and more difficult with kids and life schedules, so I’m grateful that I manage to do it on my own!

My background is in cosmetology. I did hair for about 10 years before I closed my studio to stay home with my boys and work solely on the blog. I’m licensed (still) and will keep my license indefinitely! I can’t recommend home hair color because there is a lot of science and factors involved in coloring one’s hair that someone who is not licensed wouldn’t know. So while I do it myself, I can’t necessarily recommend it!

For a brief moment I went brunette shortly after I got married. It was a spur of the moment decision and I switched back to blonde pretty shortly thereafter. Since then, I’ve been a pretty wide range of blonde, from darker blonde with balayage to bright, heavily highlighted blonde. Most recently I’ve settled into a bright, light blonde that I’m really enjoying!

I’ve gotten a few questions about how I keep my blonde bright so I thought I’d share some tips here.

When I lighten my hair, I only use bleach but I follow it up with a gloss (also known as a toner) with violet and neutral/blue tones in it. It’s not as much as a color-depositing toner since it’s quite sheer but has the cooler/violet tones in it to counteract any brassy or warm tones.

It’s normal for hair to go through different color stages as your stylist is lightening it. The darker, richer brown you have to start with, the more color stages it will go through to get to a light, icy blonde. Conversely, if you have naturally light hair, you may find that you don’t have to deal with brassiness or warmth that other women do when their lighten their hair.

Beyond finding a stylist that knows how light to make your blonde, and what toner to use to cut through any warmth, you can also find some color depositing or correcting shampoo, conditioner or treatments to use at home to help! This is particularly helpful if you have well water since the minerals and things in well water tend to show up on blonde hair more quickly than if you use city water.

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I typically use a toning gloss on my hair to keep it on the cooler side and cut out any brassiness, but that’s a service that is typically only performed in a salon. The good news is you can sort of do this for yourself using a purple or blue based shampoo and conditioner, or treatment mask.

I tried the Pravana The Perfect Blonde Purple Toning Masque and loved it. LOVED IT. It made a big difference in how bright and cool my blonde looked and also made my hair feel super soft and healthy. The rest of the bunch are highly rated products that you can find at Sephora or Ulta, so look into those if you need something to cut out warmth in blonde hair!

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