What Happened To Loving the Skin You’re In?
You know you have to do it.
Skin Cleaning – Not Spring Cleaning
You get off the train, feeling half yourself and half zombie, circles under your eyes, runny makeup, and a growling stomach. The days are long, but the evenings not long enough. There is simply not a sufficient amount of time to properly establish a nighttime routine, one that will leave you feeling perky and refreshed the following morning. If you’ve ever had those days when you could just crawl under the covers until the next morning, this post is dedicated to you. It’s dedicated to all the hard-working women who don’t want to deal with the ‘system’– cleanse, exfoliate, tone, moisturize — but know they should. Here’s the Sparknotes version:
PROPER CLEANSING
We often fail to make ourselves the priority, caring for those around us first. A true nighttime routine takes patience, a virtue many lack as the clock approaches bedtime. But the skin we live in requires proper attention — and not so that our makeup looks flawless — but so that we learn to love our natural state and care for our bodies. We forget that our skin is our largest organ, protecting us from the toxins we can’t avoid. It must be nurtured, and a proper cleansing routine will leave us feeling refreshed, relaxed, and ready for the following morning.
ROUTINE
It’s hard not to take the easy way out when the pillow is calling. We’ve all been there — grabbing a quick makeup remover wipe, swiping it across our face, and calling it a day. We all know that’s not going to get the job done, and morning redness, potential zits, and leftover residue are sure to remind us of that.
We should always be able to find a proper, mostly natural, cleanser in our medicine cabinets — we need to respect our skin’s natural balance, and a gentle cleanser will be sure to do so (Burt’s Bees, Aveeno, Cetaphil are solid choices). Exfoliation is necessary to remove dead skin buildup, but let’s not go overboard — limit this to 1-2x/week max. Toners are our long lost best friend — they brighten our skin and remove deep impurities our cleansers fail to reach. Finally, moisture, moisture, moisture — for both oily and dry skin types, moisturizing remains a key step in the quest for healthy skin. Now, get to work.
