Skin Care – Lessons Learnt Away From Home

Skin Care – Lessons Learnt Away From Home

By Bhargavi B.

Hello everybody,

My last post on IMBB was more than two years ago! A lot happened over these two years, the biggest development being me moving to Australia for my post graduation.  I was living on my own for the first time in my life and in the last few months, I have learnt a lot about myself (and life in general) than what I have learnt all my life. It is completely my responsibility to look after myself now and I am still learning how to.
Through this post, I wanted to curate all the major skin care lessons I have learnt in this journey. Most points may look like they have been recycled from popular beauty posts, but like I said, this is from the knowledge I gained throughout my journey and I hope it will be a learning experience for the readers.

Skin Care - Lessons Learnt Away From Home

Before I begin, I would like to introduce you to my skin. I was blessed with beautiful skin, which was normal and spotless till I finished my under graduation. I had an odd pimple or two just before my period which would vanish without a trace in 2-3 days. When I started working at a software company, my skin’s condition took a downturn. The frequency of pimples increased and they started leaving blemishes. Blackheads started appearing on my nose and whiteheads on my chin, and my skin type went from being normal to combination (I prefer to call it “moody”).  There are a lot of factors that I attribute to the sudden degradation of my skin, like, stress, the air conditioned environment (did not suit me surprisingly!), lack of exercise, etc. It was more of a vicious circle, with one thing leading to another and so on. I went through a lot of phases where I tried not using any skin care product at all, or just piling too many products in layers, or trying a variety of products, etc. I sometimes saw improvement, but that was only temporary, but there was no significant repair that was being done to my skin. When I moved to Australia, the low levels of pollution had an immediate effect and my skin started to improve visibly. This inspired me to pay attention to my skin and look after it in a sensible manner. It is then that I stopped following fads and started listening to the voice of my own skin to decide what is right for it.

    • Sleeping on a fresh pillowcase is very important. Not only for preventing bacteria from sticking onto your skin, but to also improve the quality of sleep. I am sure all of you know how important “beauty” sleep is! Since I can’t wash my pillowcases on a daily basis, I just spread a fresh towel over my pillow and change it every alternate day.

Skin Care - Lessons Learnt Away From Home

    • Do this experiment. For one day, put an alarm for every 15 or 30 minutes and pay attention to everything that you have touched with your hands in that time. This will give us an idea about how dirty our hands can get and it will a) prevent us from picking on pimples or to just keep touching our face; b) motivate us to keep our hands cleaner. Though I knew that we shouldn’t pick on our skin, it’s only after actually doing this experiment that the prospect of touching my face with my hands during the day, puts me off!
    • This is how I do my CTM and I feel it has been very effective in improving my skin: Splash your face with warm water (you can also use steam if and when you have time), cleanse thoroughly (massage your face with your fingers, in circular motion, for a minute), splash your face with cool water or rub an ice cube all over your face and neck, apply toner, and while it is still damp apply the moisturizer/sunscreen.

Skin Care - Lessons Learnt Away From Home

    • Do not apply makeup unless your makeup brushes are clean. Write this rule in bold letters and stick it on your mirror.
    • Fruits and certain veggies can be eaten raw for healthy skin and a little can be applied on your face. Wash off after you are done eating! This works wonders for your skin. I think I picked up this tip from one of the posts on IMBB.

Skin Care - Lessons Learnt Away From Home

  • Pay attention to what you eat, get to know the ingredients and chew slowly. When I chew slowly, I can feel my food breaking down and if we pay enough attention we will automatically know if what we are eating is doing good to our body or harming it (tip from grandma). Well for me, this way I eat less (yay to weight loss) and if there is some adverse reaction to the food, I can estimate immediately what caused it.
  • Take deep breaths in stressful situations, tell yourself “this too shall pass!” I feel tranquil like Master Shifu when I do this!
  • We all know CTM has to be done before sleeping too. We all know why.
  • Don’t layer the skin with products. Never ever. In spite of what everybody else tells you. It clogs the skin, attracts dirt and bacteria and makes you uncomfortable. And too many products can’t even work together. Use your trusted few and give them time.

These are some basic skin care rules stuck in my head. I saw a visible improvement in my skin in the last four months since I decided to follow these rules blindly. As with any makeup routine, one size doesn’t fit all, but I am sure these tips will benefit most of us.

I hope you found my post useful. Cheers!

Image Sources: 1, 2, 4.

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14 thoughts on “Skin Care – Lessons Learnt Away From Home

  1. Hey Bhargavi , I can completely relate to working in the software company part! So stressful it is. And does take a toll on your skin. Loved your tips.. Hassle free and Simple 🙂 .. Thanks for sharing.. 🙂

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