#skincarefasting

[lidcorr-blog]

My Favorite Things in Life #3: Skincare

I don’t know whether this sounds pathetic or not, but I do love doing my skin care routine. FYI, I’m a lazy and slow person, just like a sloth. But when it comes to skin care routine, suddenly I become a diligent expert. I asked myself why I am obsessed with skin care. If I wanted to look pretty, I just have to do my make-up properly.  But I don’t really in to make up. I do love it, but I was too lazy to do it. Seriously. I could leave house with bare face confidently, but I definitely would not leave house without moisturizer and sunscreen on my face. I’d rather be late than skipping my daily skin care routine.

Today, a beauty vlogger help me to find the ultimate answer of my skin-care-reason-quest. She said:

Btw, her name is Liah Yoo. She is a Korean beauty Youtuber, known for her knowledge in skin care.

I do really agree with her. I’m not doing these complex skin care to look pretty in front of other. I do this to appreciate myself, by starting to treat my skin right.

But eventually, I become a little (or much) obsessed with skin care. I have 7steps-AM-skin-care-routine and 6steps-PM- skin-care -routine. It probably sounds crazy for some people, but believe me, there are thousands or even millions of people out there doing more skin care step than I do.

My AM-skin-care-routine are:

Cleanser - Toner - Essence - Moisturizer - Eye gel - Sunscreen - Day Cream

While my PM-skin-care-routine are:

Double cleansing - Mask - Toner - Essence - Eye gel - Night cream

FYI, my face is not sensitive to (almost) anything at all and a very cost-friendly-face. I’ve never experience breakouts before, and I don’t get acne easily. But lately, my face started to grow some acnes, and I got really upset of it. I don’t really pay attention about it first, but I’m eventually getting more and bigger acne(s). And because I always pop it (it’s my habit though), the pop-ed acne leave acne spot and hyperpigmentation. I was so stressed about it that I really look for a solution all over the internet.

Then, I found out about Liah Yoo’s Youtube channel and I started to watch her videos. She experiences the same problem, but hers is much more complicated because she also has sensitive and oily skin. She explain a lot about skin care active ingredients and their function for our skin. For me, her explanation is like an enlightenment because many of us buy a beauty products because of the description in the front of the box. But Liah Yoo tells us to read the back of the box (the ingredients), and knowing whether or not we need that chemical thing on our face.

But among all of her video, I put a lot of interest about this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxEq-UyCXAM&feature=youtu.be

It’s about Skin Care Diet / Fasting. The whole idea of the skincare diet is basically cutting down your skincare routine for one month and adding other products in gradually after one month. In this one month, we are targeting on healing our damaged skin barrier. You have to believe that your skin has the ability to heal itself. Besides, with this minimal skincare routine, we are pushing our skin to do its job. (source: http://aminoapps.com/page/korean-beauty/7433682/i-tried-the-skincare-diet-for-30-days)

In this fasting, we have to simplify our skin care routine in to 3 steps-AM-skin-care-routine: gentle cleanser (or not) - mousturizer - sunscreen ; and 2 steps-PM-skin-care-routine: double cleanser - moisturizer. We also have to leave other skin products we use outside this routine (including acne treatment etc).

I was kinda surprise of this idea. I mean… fasting for skin care?

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That’s a great idea!

The first reason why it’s a great idea because it has a solid reasoning about skin barrier. I also believe that our body is created with it’s own natural mechanism to protect itself from harm. I used to not caring about my skin at all (I only used day cream throughout my teenage days), and my skin is perfectly fine (though it looks dull wqwq). There is no acne, spots, or hyperpigmentation. But now that I gradually obsessed with all those skin care products, my skin is not okay. I think I kinda spoiled my skin so it’s started to lost it’s own way to protect and nourish my skin.

The second and my ultimate reason to do this fasting thing is because I obsessed with skin care, and anything that we got obsessed of is definitely a danger. Fasting is a process which we prove to ourselves that we are fine without it. Just like when I started to obsessed with Instagram, I took an extra measurement by stop using it for a while. Now that I obsessed with skin care routine, I really need to stop and rethink about it (while fixing my natural skin barrier). I spent A LOT of money for this and I got upset because of an acne. This is not healthy, because if anything got us obsessed and drive our heart, our mind, and our existence away from God and more divine things, it could be our idol. And just like Kyle Idleman said:

If I find more pleasure in doing those routines than read His Words, I will only find emptiness. Beautiful face will never makes us genuinely happy. Flawless skin will never lead us to eternity. God will, and He did.

I’m going to try this skin care fasting from July 1st, 2017. And just like the Instagram fasting, I will also share my thoughts after this phase. I really wish this experience is more than just a physical exercise, but another spiritual experience regarding earthly beauty (while saving my money kekeke~).

Soli Deo Gloria,

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