I changed my skincare habits during the lockdown and here is what I discovered
For years upon years, skincare has always acted as my second language. In fact, I will go so far as to admit that I was once truly fanatical about buying beauty products. My skincare routine, up until quite recently, was jammed pack with every product under the sun used to attempt to treat every skin concern on my face. At one point, ashamedly, I was regularly rotating 4 different types of facemasks in a bid to restore hydration and glow to my almost crumbling complexion.
It was only until lockdown was implemented that I decided to take a step back and re-evaluate my skincare routine. This is what I found out:
Firstly, I started by experimenting with the number of steps I had in my skincare routine. Instead of my usual non-essential 8-step routine consisting of a cleanser, toner, 3 types of serums, eye cream, moisturizer, SPF/overnight mask, I made a drastic decision to try using a routine which only contained 5 basics (or my version of the basics, at least). Here’s what made the cut: CeraVe Hydrating Cleanser, 2 types of serums (Hyaluronic Acid & Niacinamide PM/ Vitamin C AM), eye cream & moisturizer for PM/SPF for AM. Simply by removing a few products from my routine did my skin a world of good, I finally felt like my skin could breathe.
Secondly, I adjusted the time in which it usually took me to apply products. Instead of quickly slapping on everything all in the space of 5 minutes and rushing out the door, I tacked on an extra 10-15 minutes every day to really make sure each individual product was absorbing in efficiently and effectively before applying the next one. Truthfully, I found that by using fewer products I could spend more time ensuring that I was being gentler and kinder to my skin which did, in fact, greatly improve my skin’s barrier function, thus halting breakouts and irritation.
Thirdly and lastly, I also adopted the mantra that perfect skin is an impossible feat to achieve. We can work on individual concerns but at the end of the day it is truly hard to try to fix everything at once. With this in mind, I decided to create a skin diary. I wrote down a list of goals I wanted to try and achieve for my skin over the duration of lockdown and with this, I was able to monitor to see which products worked, how my skin was behaving and to see any patterns forming so I could learn the ways of tackling skin concerns head on. And believe it or not, I found this very effective.
All in all, I feel very glad to have had this chance to stop, realize and reset my skincare habits. Time is the biggest obstacle we face when it comes to self-care and even our daily life. As writer Matt Haig said, “Remember that feeling you have no time, doesn’t mean you have no time”.
So, with that in mind, what’s an extra 5 minutes in the morning, right?
Opening image: photographed by Aiony Haust on Unsplash
