Travel SOS: Taking a 10 Step Skincare Routine on the Road with Poor Planning

While having a Multi-Step Korean Skincare Routine is awesome for customization whether it's the Winter or Summer, it also means that travelling is a bit of a nightmare.  Last week I was out of state, and since we would be gone a full week, I mistakenly assumed that we would be checking a bag and thus figured I could pack the full-size bottles that make up my current routine.

The night before we flew out, I got ready to pack and was was advised by my bewildered spouse that we would not be checking a bag.  Cue panic!  How was I going to fit my routine in a carry-on?!

The dreaded 3-1-1 TSA guideline.  Image from here
If you aren't familiar with the American TSA rules for carry-ons, anything liquid has specific rules, namely:
3-1-1 for carry-ons. Liquids, gels, aerosols, creams and pastes must be 3.4 ounces (100ml) or less per container; must be in 1 quart-sized, clear, plastic, zip-top bag; 1 bag per passenger placed in screening bin. The bag limits the total liquid volume each traveler can bring.
A quart-sized ziploc bag is not a lot of space when even your "pared-down" Summer routine looks like this:

Image from my Updated Multi-Step Korean Skincare Routine Summer 2015: Sheet Masks Galore post
If I had planned ahead, I could have purchased all the airless pump bottles I would need to decant everything I wanted, and played tetris until I had the perfect combination.  Sadly, I had time for neither.

In this post:
  • The 411 on my 3-1-1
  • My 'dry goods' and makeup
  • What I took with me and why
  • What I regretted not bringing

So with no time to order bottles, what did I do?

Updated Multi-Step Korean Skincare Routine Summer 2015: Sheet Masks Galore

Today I'm finally posting the Summer version of my routine, as a follow-up to my in-depth discussion of the Korean multi-step skincare approach post which includes all my Winter/Spring 2015 products ... all 30 of them.

Even though scorching, sticky summer has arrived, the guidelines of thinking in steps, not products, how to add in or remove additional products, and their order of use have not changed, but as always my skincare has shifted to match the season.

Even though there are quite a few products here, this is a far cry from the 30+ in my Winter/Spring routine here.
However, just as I mentioned in the Winter/Spring routine, I use only a few products per day, and tailor my selections to how my skin is feeling ... but let's be blunt here.  I barely use anything these days, because it's TOO DAMN HOT.

As I mentioned in the post: Science Meets K-Beauty Wisdom: How Keeping Cool May Be Good for Your Skin, temperatures here are climbing rapidly and when it gets hot enough that I'm peeling off my office chair with the sound of duct tape being ripped off the roll, I don't want to do a full routine.

In this post:
  • It's too hot for layers
  • My AM & PM routines
  • Cleansers
  • Actives 
  • Hydrators
  • Top 3 Summer Sheet Masks
  • Occlusives
  • Treatments/Sunscreen
So, here's the updated version of what my Summer 2015 routine is looking like these days!

Beginner's Korean Skincare Routine: Dehydrated Combination-Oily Skin Type

You know how you can be in the middle of working on something, and then you find yourself helping out with a question that you answer so regularly that you wish you had something you could just send them instead of hurriedly and badly explaining things?

That's the hijack reason inspiration for today's post.  Before we get started, I would just like to remind everyone that I am not a medical professional and the thoughts in this post are purely based off my own personal experience and approach to skincare.

Image from my Multi-Step Korean Skincare Routine: Winter/Spring 2015 post.  I also have an Updated Summer 2015 Routine Post for a hot-season example.
So here we go: if you have Dehydrated, Combo-Oily skin like me, this post's for you, skin twin.

In this post:
  • The first step: find your skin type
  • Dehydrated: the hidden skin type
  • Clearing the way: ditch 'The Shell'
  • Build your routine: splurge on water, skimp on oil
  • Find your Blogger skin twin: a list of routines by skin type
The basics of any routine are, in my opinion: cleanser, moisturizer, and sunscreen.  But when you have Dehydrated or Combination skin (or both), your skin isn't likely to fall in love with a single moisturizer, leaving you with an extra step needed (or several) when it comes to building a base routine.

I've more or less made peace with my Dehydrated & Combination skin and its quirky preferences, and I wanted to share it with my skin twins out there.

Science Meets K-Beauty Wisdom: How Keeping Cool May Be Good for Your Skin

I started this post planning to do a Summer update to the in-depth discussion of the Korean multi-step skincare approach I posted in the spring.  In that post, I used my Winter and Spring routines to demonstrate how I choose from the as many as 30 products available for me to select a bespoke lineup for that morning's (or evening's) routine.

I had planned to do a Summer Routine post this week, now that the weather and my routine has changed.

Skincare on ice: does cooling your face help your skin?
But we're not going to talk about that today, because while researching one of the elements of my summer routine, my mind has been blown and we're going to talk about that instead.

In this post:
  • A Korean beauty show's warning: keep your skin cool
  • Keeping cool in the desert; my summer survival kit
  • Keep your skin cooled: heat isn't just hype?
  • Brace yourself, science ahead
  • My final grain-of-salt personal conclusion
Ready?  Let's get down with science and sheet masks.