Current morning skincare routine

I've spent the last few months experimenting with a skincare routine to try and add a little self-care spice into the monotony of 2020 days, and to sort out the skincare problems I've been ignoring for years.
When I was a teen I had a few spots, but nothing too bad: I hit 22 and my skin exploded in a fiery volcano of rage. Over the past few years I've been dealing with these breakouts on the lower half of my face and totally ignoring the crusty dry skin on my forehead. I absolutely used to wake up and think 'huh, my skin feels tight and weird' and then going about my day without doing anything except a face wash designed to dry things out a little in the hope of appeasing my spots. I mean? C'mon Steph.

So I figured it was time to develop a routine that works for me in making me feel good whilst not being too spendy. These aren't the cheapest products, but they're by no means high-end and they've definitely helped my skin. 
Here's my morning skincare routine:
Step 1: 
Wash my face with warm water and pat dry. 
Step 2: 
Spritz my face with a toner water. I use the Breath of Fresh Air water from LUSH (£6). This has got seaweed and rose absolute in to help tone and balance the skin, but I find it's a nice refreshing start to the products in the routine.
Step 3: 
Pat on essence. I've got the Drops of Youth Essence Lotion from the Body Shop (£15), which is a nice lightweight formula to help hydrate my skin. 
Step 4: 
Put a few drops of serum onto my finger tips and pat in. I use The Ordinary's hyaluronic acid (£5.90) and I honestly think this is the key part of my routine that's made the most difference in my skin. It makes my skin feel plumper and more hydrated and it felt like this really helped that horrible 'tight' feeling of dryness on my forehead.

Step 5:
This one I only do a couple of times a week because I have really sensitive eyes. This is one of the better eye creams I've found for my sensitivity, and actually works as an eye mask. Traditionally this is more of an evening skincare step, but I find that I move about in my sleep so much I end up rubbing it all into my eyes and waking up with them sore. This is a step I also only do on no makeup days (which is pretty much every day at the moment, let's be honest). I use The Body Shop's Drops of Youth Bouncy Eye Mask (£18) for it. 

Step 6:
This is a little bit of a cheat, but I roll moisturiser and SPF into one product. I find that when I separate them out I tend not to bother with SPF and it's such an important part of a skincare routine that I need to stop doing that. It's something that for the first time I'm actually doing through Winter even when I'm not really leaving the house, after reading up on how necessary it is. I use The Body Shop's Vitamin C SPF 30 moisturiser (£15) and find it really makes my skin feel bright and hydrated. The SPF aspect doesn't leave any residue and this is now a constant repurchase for me!
And that's it! This is just what I've found works for me at the moment, and I'm always up for skincare recommendations that you think are great!
Follow me on Bloglovin | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook