Back to Basics: Skincare


My fairly recent fascination with skincare has been an eye opener. Effects include positive ones, that is, noticeable improvements with my skin, and not so positive ones if we’re going to peek into the realm of the dwindling bank balance.

My interest sparked off food-for-thought when it came to ‘defining’ my own skin type. I think that until now, my instinct was to murmur something along the lines of ‘normal to combination’ when asked by a sales assistant what my skin was like. I came to realize that I, pretty stupidly, had never taken the time to firstly have a think about it nor had I taken the time to decipher into which ‘category’ I fell. After a bit of thinking and a few trial and error’s I came to realize that my skin is actually quite sensitive. Not to the extent that I have to be OTT when deciding on which product to buy, just that it is easily irritated by heavily fragranced products and reacts in far more of a friendly manner to those that are gentle. Whilst my skin isn’t dry, it is definitely dehydrated; this was the big realization. Due to never getting any dry patches or suffering from that ‘tight’ feeling on a daily basis, I never thought my skin was dry. I never took the time to think about why, no matter how much makeup or how many fad moisturisers I slathered on, my skin still had the tendency to be a tad lack-lustre and blemish prone.

An underrated and annoyingly obvious piece of advice that has entirely altered the way I treat my skin and notice it’s changes is ‘drink lots of water’. After swearing to myself that I would really try to drink more water to improve my concentration, stop myself from snacking and hopefully improve my skin, I gave it a lot of attention. After the week was through I saw a noticeable difference. Aside from my skin essentially lacking any blemishes, it was plumper and literally brightened.  Alongside this, (I can’t believe I’m going to say this) I fell out of love with tea. Even Yorkshire Gold. For some reason the caffine and compulsory two sugars left me feeling lethargic. Green tea was always an option but I fancied something different so tried hot water and a slice of lemon. I think a mug of this every single morning has been a main contributor to the change I’ve seen. This is because lemons are so good for us, in many ways. In terms of our skin, the vitamin C helps to reduce blemishes and wrinkles and it also attacks toxins in our blood, helping to keep skin clear. Admittedly, if I ditched the chocolates and took a little more care in considering which foods would beneifit not only my body, but my skin too, I would see even more results.

A post of common-sense, no doubt, but one I felt had to be said. 2013 is the year I'll be good to my skin (inside and out).

No comments:

Post a Comment