My Current Skincare Routine - Evening

This is part two on my skincare routine,which will cover my evening routine. You can read about my morning routine here, but for a quick recap about my skin, I have oily, acne-prone skin.

Evening Routine:

Confession: I'm lazy. I know I should probably remove the bulk on my eye makeup with an eye makeup remover before I wash my face, but I don't. Instead. I wait and wash my face in the shower. I remove what remains with an eye makeup remover after I get out of the shower and I'm sporting what my fiance and I fondly refer to as my Courtney Love look.

For a while now, I've been using a backlog of facial cleansers that I'd accumulated. The backlog is nearly gone, and I plan on going back to using Silk Natural's Kiss Foaming Cleanser with their foaming bottle. I talk more about this cleanser in my morning routine post, so I don't plan to repeat myself here. Instead, I will mention that this cleanser does a pretty good job at removing makeup. I may have to take care of some waterproof eye makeup (particularly eye liner) after my shower, but it removes everything else easily.

After I get out of the shower and make sure that all of my eye makeup is gone, I use my eye cream. Just like with my morning routine, I apply my eye cream before my acne treatment because I don't want to have to wash my hands between my acne treatment and my eye cream to prevent getting said acne treatment in my eyes (remember, I'm lazy). As mentioned, my eye cream will be changing after my current one is gone. It is primarily in the picture above to signify that I use an eye cream. I'm looking for recommendations if you have any.

My evening acne treatment is Neutrogena's On-the-Spot Acne Treatment 2.5% benzoyl peroxide. I would love to cut benzoyl peroxide out of my routine. I tried to cut it out a few years ago, but my skin freaked out, and I stuck it back in. I'm glad that I've gotten down to only using it at night though. I've read that 2.5% is really all you need for treatment, and a higher concentration can have the tendency to irritate skin. This BP cream is the only one I can find in the drugstore with this low of a concentration, so I stick with it.

My night moisturizer is relatively new too. I picked up the Neutrogena Rapid Wrinkle Repair Moisturizer - Night back in the fall because I wanted to add retinol into my routine. Retinol is, of course, a good anti-aging ingredient, and I've read that it can be good for acne as well. If you haven't used it before though, take it slow. When I first got it, after a few night my skin was burning slightly because retinol is strong stuff. I stopped using it for a few days, and then I started using it every other night for a week or two. After my skin adjusted, I was able to start using it every night. I haven't noticed any major differences in my skin, but I know that retinol is good for it, so I plan on sticking with this for the time being.

Extras:

I regularly use an exfoliator on my skin when I'm in the shower. I LOVE Kate Somerville's ExfoliKate, but it is expensive, so I've been using this sparingly since I got it over the summer. The .5 oz size retails for $19. I have a feeling I will end up repurchasing when I run out though. It's a strong exfoliator, so I typically only use this about once a week. Other days, I might grab for the Giovanni D:Tox Purifying Facial Scrub. This is intended to be used daily, and I do use it most days. It is likely this I will pick this one up again as well.

Face Masks

I don't use face masks regularly, but I have a bunch on hand. I don't love any of them. When I do use them, I use a makeup remover wipe to get the bulk of my makeup off, put on the mask, let it sit for the required amount of time, and then remove it in the shower. I like doing it this way because it is easier to get the entire mask off in the shower. I hate having little green flecks left on my skin from a mask that I used.

What are your must have skincare items? Are there any that you feel are good enough to splurge on (like ExfoliKate)?