Every person starting in their late teens is on the hunt for the absolute perfect skincare routine. The one celebrities swear by, the one that will make our face glow in the perfect ‘woke up like this’ hue. But somehow, it’s not as easy as they make it out to be. Here are a few tips to look out for when creating your very own skincare routine.
Get To Know Your Skin
What works for one, doesn’t necessarily work for the other. Therefore, copying someone’s routine to the tee isn’t always the answer. Your hormones, your stress levels, the amount of water you drink, the kind of water that flows through your tap, and even the city you live in affects your skin and your needed routine.
So ‘listen to your skin’, and only offer what is necessary. For example, people who travel a lot will soon recognize that the air and water in different cities affect their skin in different ways. Learn what your everyday life does to your skin, and protect it from harm.
Use Products That Don’t Clash
When choosing products, keep an eye on the ingredients and what that specific product does. A lot of people don’t realize that the products they use cancel each other out.
An example: don’t use water-based products on top of oil-based products, because your now oily skin will repel the water, therefore it’s completely useless. Be aware of what you use, and use them accordingly. If you see that you use both oil and water-based products, pay attention to the order.
Less Is More
The most common mistake people make in their skincare routine is piling products on the product. This can cause irritation, breakouts, or it can magnify the problem you’re trying to battle.
Don’t exfoliate all the time. If your skin is dehydrated, don’t use 34 types of hydrating oils and lotions. If you have breakouts, don’t pack 5 facemasks on top of each other, and please, please, please, read the instructions before using a chemical exfoliator! A lot of people when they see breakouts, or dehydration panic and pack everything on that they can find. This not only shocks and harms your skin but can make said breakout even worse. So be patient, and stick to the routine, maybe add 1 or 2 plus products to those problematic areas.
Don’t Insist On Name Brand Products
A lot of smaller brands have great results, so don’t insist on household names alone.
The main priority is educating yourself. There’s a lot of gibberish written on the back of the box, but what do they mean? If you start consciously looking into various ingredients, after a while you will notice what to look for and what to avoid, and that should be your goal.
Stick To It For A While
We have an epiphany at like 3 am. We want to turn our lives around. We dig into the perfect routine, we write up all the products, we go to the store, buy everything from the morning, day, and night products. Sound familiar?
But then, we start using these products religiously, and after a few days, we see that not much has changed, or things got a little worse, so we throw it all out. But skin needs time to get used to new products and start healing. It’s not a magic serum that fixes us up like Cinderella, and to really see results (good or bad) in the long run, people need to stick with the new routine for at least two to four weeks. At least a few products will prove to be useful, so view your routine as a base, and after a few weeks, tweak it here and there. Exchange, throw out, or buy new products to finalize.
The perfect routine will never be the same throughout our entire lives. Our entire body changes constantly, as well as our lifestyles, and they all crave different ingredients to keep them in balance. The biggest priorities are: drink a lot of water, use some sort of protection before applying make-up, and wash the makeup off before bed, there are no exceptions! After that, just be aware, cautious, and try to stay educated.
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Resources:
https://lensa.com/insights/survive-toxic-workplace/
Photo by Johanne Kristensen on Unsplash