Jovana Tomin: tips

Flat lay of skincare products representing the best skincare lessons

For as long as I can remember, I've been trying my best to clear up my skin and get rid of spots and scars. It hasn't been a walk in the park, but I've learned to appreciate my problematic skin. If you think I'm crazy, just hear me out. Having skin issues like acne for years and years has forced me to learn a lot about skin and educate myself. I've tried every trick in the book for clearing up the skin, but nothing helped until I truly learned some things. For the past year or so, I've been intensely watching skincare videos and reading up on skincare. I think it's safe to say that I've learned some invaluable lessons which have helped me get my skin in order. Sure, drinking lots of water and eating clean helps, but there's much more to it. So, today I want to share 3 of the best and most important skincare lessons I've learned. I hope these will help some of you.

1. Double cleanse!

I've always known that you HAVE to remove your makeup at the end of the day, no matter what. It doesn't matter if I'm tired, drunk or simply don't feel like removing it - the makeup must come off. For years, I've been using micellar water for removing my makeup and it's worked just fine. However, I've recently learned the importance and beauty of double cleansing.

Double cleansing is one of the most important skincare lessons to learn

The premise of double cleansing is pretty self-explanatory. The idea is that you should use one cleanser for removing your makeup and another for removing the remainder of the grime. It's best to use an oil-based cleanser for the first cleanse. That will remove all the oil-based dirt on your face, like makeup, sunscreen, excess oil, etc. Basically, an oil cleanser will deeply clean your skin and won't leave the skin feeling stripped and dry. Also, make sure to apply the oil cleanser onto dry skin so that it can do its job properly. Oil and water don't mix, so don't ruin its effectiveness by dampening your face beforehand.

Once the bulk of the dirt is off your face, it's time for the second cleanse. You don't want to leave the oil sitting on your face and clogging your pores. Instead, take your favorite cleanser and remove all the dirt that's still sitting on your face. Remember to massage the cleanser into your skin for about 60 seconds so that its gorgeous ingredients can actually do something for your skin. Double cleansing will not only deep clean your skin and prevent clogged pores, but it will also allow your other products to sink into the skin better.

2. Wear SPF every day

Yes, I was one of those teens who wanted a tan and SPF just didn't fit into that plan. Once I realized how important it was to protect the skin from the sun, I simply wasn't able to invest in a more expensive and higher quality SPF. Also, I was afraid that using an SPF would break me out and cause chaos on my face. So, I went without SPF on my face for longer than I'd like to admit.

Two La Roche Posay Anthelios SPF 50 creams

About a year ago, I finally invested in the La Roche Posay Anthelios SPF 50 and there's no turning back now. This SPF is everything I wanted. It doesn't cause my skin to break out and it doesn't feel thick and greasy. I've been wearing it every single day, no matter the season. I've learned how important it is to protect your skin from sun damage. Not only is that the best way to prevent your skin from aging prematurely, but it also prevents sun spots and hyperpigmentation, and most importantly, it protects you from skin cancer. So, wear your SPF babes!

(Drinking game: take a shot for each time I wrote ''SPF''.)

3. Chemical exfoliation is the key to great skin

Not only have I been struggling with acne for years, but I've also had issues with the texture of my skin, acne scars, and an uneven skin tone. Before I started learning about active ingredients and chemical exfoliation, I didn't know what to do with my skin. I guess I just started hoping for a miracle. Well, in my case, the miracle was buying The Ordinary Glycolic Acid Toning Solution.

The Ordinary Glycolic Acid Toning Solution is great for evening out the skin

Using AHAs and BHAs (basically - acids) for exfoliating the skin is a true game-changer! Ingredients like glycolic, lactic, mandelic acid (AHAs) or salicylic acid (BHA) are there to remove the dead skin cell of your face and their small molecules allow them to get into your pores and clean them properly. This will help you with literally everything. Using glycolic acid a few nights a week has improved the overall look of my skin - I get fewer spots and blackheads, my skin is smooth and more even. So, this truly is a miracle worker.

PSA: If you do start using AHAs and BHAs, you need to slowly introduce them into your skincare routine and let your skin get used to them. Don't use these ingredients every day, especially if your skin is sensitive. Also, you HAVE TO wear SPF if you're using these in your routine.

So, these are just some of the most important skincare lessons I've learned recently. I have plenty more where that came from, so I'd happily write more on this topic in the future. These tips have really improved my skin and they've made me enjoy my skincare routine so much more. I now know how to treat my face with the ingredients and products that are actually good and effective. Hopefully, adding these steps into your routine will be helpful to you as well. Feel free to write your favorite skincare lessons in the comments!

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Skincare and makeup for feeling glam in quarantine

The world has been struck with this strange crisis and, in turn, all of us are forced to stay home. And while that isn't all that bad if you ask my introvert self, being stuck between the same four walls every single day can take a toll on your mindset. It's really easy to stay in bed all day without even changing out of your pajamas or brushing your hair. We've all been there.

However, if you want to get things done while you're at home or you want to feel a little bit better about yourself, there are some things you could do to pick yourself up. Because I've been cooped up inside for the past month and a half, I've found a few things that make me feel a little bit more glam and put me in a better mood. Don't worry, I'm not here to tell you to put a full face of makeup on (unless that's what you want). These things are very quick and easy things you can do to feel like a fully functioning person in quarantine.

Skincare, skincare, skincare

Everyone who knows me knows that I'm a freak about skincare. Lately, I've been spending A LOT of time on YouTube learning all about skincare and all the different ingredients. I'm aware that not everyone finds those kinds of videos interesting, but taking care of your skin is super important either way. Trust me, creating a skincare routine that works for you is something your skin will be grateful for even in a few years' time or even a decade.

The Ordinary serums and La Roche Posay Effaclar Duo moisturizer

So, I've been really enjoying spending a good minute cleansing my face both in the morning and in the evening. Afterward, I continue with the rest of my skincare routine which usually includes a type of serum and a moisturizer. These parts of the day are something I look forward to a lot and it always calms me down, makes me feel great about myself, and makes me very happy. Because I'm making sure my skin is healthy and happy, not wearing foundation for the past however many days of quarantine has even been enjoyable.

Curl your lashes

Whenever I'm feeling a little bit drab but I don't feel like doing my makeup, I always turn to my lash curler. By simply curling my lashes, my entire face transforms. I look more awake, less tired and my eyes stand out a little bit more. And even though my mom is pretty much the only person who sees me these days, I love taking this simple step to feel a little more put-together.

Highlighter and brow gel - the dream team

On the days when I feel like going the extra mile and putting on a lil' bit of makeup, I rely on my two ride or die's - highlighter and brow gel. Of course, you can feel glam in quarantine without putting makeup on, but sometimes it's fun to play with some products. So, these two quick and simple steps always make me look and feel cuter and fresher.

I've been using this L'Oreal Glow Mon Amour highlighting drops and I've been LOVING them. They give you that ever so popular ''lit from within'' glow and make your cheekbones stand out and blind all the five people in the supermarket. Other than that, I either use a clear brow gel or a tinted one to make my brows stay in place and give them the shape I want.

Pamper yourself

This one goes hand in hand with skincare, but pampering yourself and making an at-home spa is a great way to feel better in quarantine. My favorite thing to do is apply a sheet masks. I am in love with the masks from the Korean brand It's Skin - they have plenty of different ones and my skin feels reborn after them.

Other than the It's Skin sheet masks, I've also been enjoying pampering my body with different lotions and body butters. I'm usually not the one to use lotion, hand cream, and similar things. However, quarantine is really bringing out the dryness in my skin, so it's been necessary. Luckily, taking this extra step in the evening hasn't been a nuisance - it's quite pleasant actually.

Experiment with your hair

Even though nobody is going to see it, you can spend your time creating a cute hairstyle. I've personally been loving curling my hair and learning how to get the best curls with my new curling wand. Other than that, I've been trying some tricks for getting curls without using heat. You've probably seen some of those videos that are floating around the Internet. If you're a bit more talented and capable with hairstyles than me, you can try and recreate some cool ones or even come up with new hairstyles on your own. I've noticed that I feel much better when my hair isn't a complete mess, so give it a go.

Do your nails

I'm not always in the mood for painting my nails and waiting for them to dry, but some days it's fun to make your hands look a bit better. So, if you're bored, have nothing else to do and you want to feel a bit more glam in lockdown, simply paint your nails with your fave nail polish.

So, these are a few of the things I do to feel more glam in quarantine. I would love to hear what you guys are doing to feel cute and stay sane, so feel free to write your tips in the comments. Stay safe and refrain from cutting your bangs!

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As I keep repeating over and over again like an absolute tool, I no longer live in my hometown, but in Serbia's capital. I am a complete newbie to the whole big city scene - public transport, traffic jams, pickpockets, expensive cabs, etc - everything is new to me, so I thought it would only be right to share some of the things I've learnt the hard way over the past month. This might be helpful to some of you who are in a similar situation, so keep on reading to see what stupid mistakes I've made.

1) Starting with a simple one - always bring a water bottle with you. This sounds dumb and obvious, but you're gonna wish you'd thought of that when you're sitting in a 2 hour long lecture dying from thirst and counting down the minutes to when you can exit the classroom and buy some water.

2) Try to always have a book on you in case you get stuck in traffic or find yourself in a really long queue or if you have a long gap between lectures. If you're not a huge reader, bring some sort of entertainment, even if it's a game on your phone, which brings me to my next tip.

3) Always, and I repeat, always have your phone charged! You never know when you're gonna get lost or take the wrong bus or lose your friend or simply get bored. The absolute best thing would be having one of those portable charger things - that would be a lifesaver for me!
4) If you have a companion (roommate, friend, boyfriend/girlfriend or anyone at all) that you spend a lot of time with, commute with or live close by to, learn their phone number by heart. I cannot stress enough how important it is to be able to call someone in case your phone dies and you get lost or simply need to call or text someone from somebody else's phone.

5) And finally we get to the good stuff - pay attention in buses! Try not to get distracted by your phone, nap or do anything that will distract you too much in buses or any other for of public transportation. Be alert and pay attention to the station you're at.
Storytime: It's 10 pm. Me and my BBF/roommate are sitting in a bus. We have one station left until we need to get off and get into the next bus. I am sitting behind my alert friend and slowly zoning out. I am googling something that must have seemed significantly important as I totally lost track of where I was. By the time I look up from my phone, we have arrived to the station and my friend has gotten out. I realize that I am also supposed to get out and I rush to the door. It closes in front of my face. I see the horror on my friend's face through the door. Oh, I have 5% battery as well. I call my friend and tell her that I'll get off at the next station and meet her in the next bus. I had to ask multiple people how to get to the station where I needed to take said bus and find a way to figure out where I was. Both me and my friend were freaked out and by the time I reached the station and wanted to call her to tell her that I'm okay, my phone died. Luckily, there was a nice girl next to me whose phone I borrowed to text my friend and we managed to meet each other in the next bus.

Moral of the story: have a charged phone, pay attention & remember the phone number of the person you're commuting with.

I'd love to hear everyone else's experiences in a new city because at the moment, I feel like a total idiot. Share your stories and/or tips in the comments below.

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This blog post is really late and I apologize for that. But better late than never, right?

Lately I've been really pushing myself to get out of my comfort zone and start going to school with no foundation on my face. It probably sounds ridiculous if you've got nice skin or if you're just confident and used to not wearing makeup. I don't have the worst skin in the world, but it's not the way I'd like it to be either, so foundation was definitely my safety blanket.

However, I've decided to stop caring about what other people might think and to gain some confidence when it comes to my skin. I used to feel much better about it when I was wearing foundation and I got sick of having to apply makeup every morning. I realized that I could use that time to sleep a bit longer or have a proper breakfast or whatever I wanted.

I'm not saying I've stopped wearing foundation completely, just that I got a bit more brave and went to school without it. Ever since, I haven't worn anything on my face to school and it feels super liberating.

I'd been scared of people's reaction or the way I would feel exposed in that way in front of all of my classmates. Of course, I realized that none of them care if I ware makeup or not, and why would they? What I'm trying to say is, if you've got a problem with your skin, or anything else that you keep covering up, just try and break out of that habit. Obviously you don't have to make a change over night, you can do it gradually. If your problem is like mine, you can first start wearing only concealer, then try and scratch that too. Actually, do it however you want, I'm just trying to say that no one will care if you're wearing makeup or going bare faced. Most people are too self involved to notice and others just don't care, just like you don't care if they do or do not wear makeup. No one will look at you differently or judge you, and if they do, why would you even care about their opinion then?

The point of this blog post was just to give some of you a bit of a push if you can relate to me on this. All I can say is just try it! If you're not comfortable, go back to your comfort zone. I hope this post gave some of you at least a little bit of motivation or reassurance. Feel free to send me some of your experiences in the comments below, I'd love to read them. Bye for now.

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My skin has been much better recently - I still have redness in my T-zone, but I have much fewer spots appearing. Due to this fortunate turn of events, I've managed to find a way to get a really good base which consists of good coverage, natural finish and top notch longevity. Here's what I do...

Step 1:
I use my green NYX HD Concealer in my T-zone to counteract the redness on my face. I apply it with the small angled round brush from my eBay set. As well as getting rid of redness, I find it makes the next layer, which is foundation/BB cream, a bit lighter. This is a massive plus because both all my base products are too dark for me. If you wanna read more about it, do so here.

Step 2:

I've been using my trusty Garnier Pure Active BB Cream recently for a few reasons: 1) it's much more natural, 2) my foundation is running out and I'm using it very sparingly and 3) I think it's better for my skin. I apply it with the big rounded brush from the same eBay set. It leaves a nice natural finish and has a medium coverage. If you wanna read my in depth opinion on it, I've done a whole review so just click here.

Step 3:

This is totally optional (well, so are all the steps), but my under-eye circles are absolutely horrible, so I'm always looking for a way to hide them. Depending on my mood, I use either my Maybelline Fit Me Concealer or the L'Oreal Perfect Match one. I don't use brushes, just my fingers for applying it.

Step 4:
The last step is powder obviously, cause I don't wanna be looking like a shine ball during the day. I'm obviously using the cult product - Rimmel Stay Matte. I have it in the shade 003 Peach Glow, but I'm sure a transparent one would be just as good. I like using it with either the big flat brush from the eBay set, or my H&M BB Cream/Foundation brush. I only set my T-zone and under-eye area.

Extra Step:

If I wanna jazz things up a bit, I use the Maybelline Baby Lips in Peach Kiss as a highlighter.

Here's a selfie so that you can get an idea of how it looks. For more examples, visit my Instagram (@tomin_jo).

I think a nice base and a strong eyebrow game is more than enough for an everyday makeup for school and it's what I've been rocking. Hope you got some ideas from this post and if you wanna read my review on the brushes that I've mentioned a hundred times - here. And excuse the intense use of plugs in this post. Goodbye for now.

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If you haven’t noticed, the colder months are here and, although they have some great advantages, it’s not all good. This is the season of runny noses and scratchy throats, which I’ve been struggling with this week. Here’s what I do during these horrible stay-at-home situations.

○Drink loads of hot beverages

This is something I like to do when it’s cold no matter if I’m sick or not. However, when I am sick, I cannot get enough of hot drinks. Tea, hot chocolate and chicken soup are my best friends at these times. They really soothe my throat and make me feel all warm and fuzzy, which is something I can’t say no to.

○Get wrapped up in blankets

When I’m feeling a bit under the weather I like to stay warm and comfy, so while I’m at home I carry a blanket with me 24/7. Well, except for the time I spend in bed under my duvet. But it’s basically the same thing.

○Waste time on the Internet

If I’m stuck at home and have all the spare time in the world I might as well spend some of it on the Internet. It always ends up with me watching Youtube videos and scrolling through tumblr.

○Watch movies and TV shows

Usually when I run out of things to watch on Youtube and posts to reblog on tumblr, I make sure I have a safe number of movies and TV shows downloaded. To be honest, I do download quite a few movies, but I don’t really watch them, so for me TV shows are a winner. I always like to have a TV series that I haven’t previously watched, but if I’m not as lucky, I just go back to Friends. Always. Last weekend when I was a bit under the weather I really enjoyed watching Chasing Life, though. I absolutely loved it, you should check it out.

○Listen to music

Pretty self explanatory, but I would just like to use this as an opportunity to mention the new 1D album – FOUR. I’ve been listening to it and only it for the past week and a half, that’s saying something.

○Read

If I don’t feel too exhausted and sleepy, I like to accompany my tea with a book. I’m currently reading something for school so I haven’t had time to finish Under the Dome, but that’s definitely something I’d pass my time with while coughing and blowing my nose.