My face pre-pandemic always got covered by make-up whenever I went outside (mostly to office). But now I’m at home a lot and I started to pay more attention to skincare. Cause, duh, they don’t see my make up anymore — it’s covered by my mask.
One year after the pandemic hit my country, I saw one of my friend post an InstaStory about her finally having perfect skincare routine after years of trying to get rid of her skin problem. I knew she was always the one with problematic skin especially acnes and dark spots. She stated that we need to look after the ingredients that will fight our main skin concerns. And she was so proud now she no longer cover her face with make up and instead only using skincare products.
Inspired by that, I started to write down: what is my skin type and what are my skin concerns (just realize I have a lot of concerns, hiks) and learn and search what kind of ingredients from skincare that will help me fight all of it. Also I started to watch local beauty blogger, and their recommendation products that contains those ingredients I need for my skin.
These are the list of my learnings and I wish I knew it earlier about skincare:
#1 The Importance of UV Protection a.k.a Sunscreen
Oh, my God, this is definitely my number one 🙄
A sunscreen is must for your morning routine. At your laziest morning, like “Uh, I don’t wanna take a bath, I don’t wanna do make up or layering my face with skincare”. But PUHLEASE.. at least wash your face and put your sunscreen on. Especially when you live in a tropical country, like mine. YES it is important! It prevents you from having skin cancer, premature aging, and hyperpigmentation. Make sure you’re using SPF 50 if you are outside during the day (sun exposure), while at home SPF 30 is enough.
#2 Hydration MATTERS!
I found out one of my skin concern is dull-dehydrated skin. I always thought I have a dry skin type, but I just found out that mine is actually a combination skin type — that I have dry areas around my cheeks, but my T-zone (forehead and nose) plus chin are more into oily areas. I was mistakenly thought my dehydrated skin as dry. But it’s just my skin needs more “water” inside. I now have one active ingredients that I can’t live without, I always use this on my skincare routine, day or night. It’s Hyaluronic Acid. This ingredients also a good for beginner like me, and you can layer it with any ingredients (because some ingredients cannot be layered together, they said).
#3 BRIGHTENING, not WHITENING
I always knew my face is not as bright as I want it to be. Being a Southeast Asian woman, I have a light brown skin and when I was younger I wanted to make them more into fair skin like the East Asian ladies, I want to make it white, hahaha.. But now I love and embrace my original skin color and I want to make it bright, not white. Bright means your skin is glowing and look lively. As I said earlier, dullness is one of my concern. I found out the perfect ingredients for this: Vitamin C and Niacinamide. Both are perfect to make my face brighter, even though not instantly. Remember, the skincare takes time to work. So far, I have no issues with these ingredients. Also, they are hype now, a lot of products contains these two.
#4 Start SLOW
One of the mistakes that I made as beginner in the world of skincare is that I want to try it all. Watching this beauty vlogger recommend products A — I want it. Another one recommend product B, also makes me want to try it. One day I wanted to try to use exfoliating product and a friend recommend a product that already contain high percentage of the exfoliant ingredients, result? Not so satisfying. My skin got so dry and it takes days to make it back to normal. So I need to start slow especially when it comes to Exfoliant products (AHA/BHA/PHA) and Retinol (even though I haven’t try Retinol yet because unsure how and kind of afraid to use it). My current learning is find my perfect exfoliating products and still learning all about Retinol (because they said it’s the most bad*ss ingredient that will get rid almost all of your skin problem, but if not use correctly will irritate your skin too).
Wow, I’m 33 years old and just found out about all of these — “Where have you been, Des?”
But I guess it’s better late than never, right? Wish me luck in my journey to find my perfect skincare regime and say goodbye to pretty filters in social media 😁
🌸 MISS D 🌸 