Skincare junkies far and wide, could you be putting too much on your skin? Would you let your skin breathe?
Before I get started here, let me state that I love skincare, I love makeup, I love that time in front of the mirror. But sometimes you can be putting too much time and product into your skin. Recently, I was speaking with someone who had just spent €350 on her skincare. This was her routine skincare and what she would presume are her necessities. The regimen included 9 products to apply throughout the day, so 5 products in the morning, 4 in the evening and 2 masks to use together. They would probably last for 8-12 weeks but is this just too much stuff?
Nature is amazing
Your skin has natural conditioning agents and the most amazing in-built mechanisms to keep it in optimum condition. Don't get me wrong, it's important to give your skin a helping hand and nourish it with ingredients it loves. The modern environment we live in throws free radicals at our skin all day long so we need to protect it and replace lost nutrients. However, it's important to give your skin a chance to use it's own defenses.
Our skin has a natural exfoliation process. Where it sheds dead skin cells. Skin also produces a certain amount of sebum and natural oils to keep it healthy and hydrated. If we keep serums, creams, moisturisers and makeup on our skin 24 hours a day every day, over time we are telling our skin it needs less sebum and the natural balancing process is disrupted.
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How to let your skin breath safely
I am not saying you don't need products. If you take one look at my dressing room you would know that would make me a hypocrite. Sometimes, even if its just once or twice a week, it won't do any harm to leave your skin naked. Go to bed with your skin bare one or two nights a week. I don't advise to leave it bare during the day. Skincare and makeup actually protect your skin from the sun's radiation and other free radicals in the air. At night your skin regenerates itself while you sleep. So let it do it's job that it was made to do so well all by itself. Routine can resume the following day.
What do you think? Would you be willing to take a skincare break on occasion or would you literally feel naked without your lotions?
