August 2020 Emptying Everything!

For my August Empties, I am throwing away everything. No, I’m kidding. But not really. Ok, I’m half kidding. But I really did finish the L’Occitane Perfecting Purifying Foam in the cover photo! I don’t have a link though, as I think this product is now discontinued.

As I mentioned before in my post about breakouts in my 20’s, I’ve been plagued with more breakouts (speculatively hormone-driven) in the past two years than I’ve ever had in all my teenage years. I don’t believe my skin is “acne-prone”, but definitely combination and sensitive. I’m not sure if it’s just skin changes that come from aging, but I’ve noticed that my skin doesn’t bounce back and heal from acne scarring as quickly as it used to.

I’ve also learned that there are three main types of acne “scarring” or the after-effects of acne, but two milder after-effects that apply to my skin type. There is post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation (PIH), which is a melanin overproduction in response to inflamed acne. I notice these mostly on my chin (where hormonal acne usually strikes). I mainly deal with post-inflammatory erethyma (PIE), which are the pink-red dots of discoloration post-pimple. People will get PIE when the capillaries underneath the surface of our skin are ruptured or damaged by inflammatory acne. I think I’m prone to this because the skin on my face is very thin. You can almost always see blush underneath.

I am totally guilty of over-treating my skin out of frustration, and my skin has gotten the worst it has ever been in the past few months (luckily, or not so luckily, in quarantine) so I’m trying to be more gentle to my skin now. That’s why I was kidding-not-kidding about throwing everything away. I love trying and buying new skincare and makeup products, however constantly introducing new ingredients to your skin can actually do more harm than good. Although I’ve painstakingly earned Sephora VIB Rouge for the past couple of years, I’ve started to go back to browsing sites like Peach & Lily or Sokoglam again. Generally speaking, K-Beauty has gentler ingredients that are probably more suitable for my sensitive skin, and they are specifically formulated for Asian skin. There is a new trend (isn’t there a new one every year?) in the beauty world called “Cream Skin”. Before this was “Glass Skin”, which is basically clear, smooth, dewy skin that is so translucent that it mimics glass. Before this, there was also “Dewy Skin” or “Honey Skin”. You get the idea. Anyways, “Cream Skin” is built around the idea of gently treating and simplifying your skincare routine to get a healthy and smooth complexion.

I had joked about this to my friends last week, and said that Tim could literally wash his face with mud and still have his perfect, clear skin. Boys don’t do anything and have perfect skin, like how?? My friend’s boyfriend laughed and said that skin knows how to take care of itself. Maybe they’re actually on to something… Tim suggested that I take a break from using my Foreo Luna brush, masks/facials, and other treatments to see if my skin can re-balance itself out. So for the past few days, I’ve just been using a gentle cleanser, maybe a drop of hydrating serum or vitamin C, and a moisturizer.

I’ve also been limiting my dairy intake for the past several weeks, and have switched over to Oat Milk - both by itself and in my coffee! As someone who likes soy milk, oat milk was easy to get used to, as they have a similar consistency and nutty flavor profile.

Hopefully, some of these little steps I’ve been taking will help bring my skin back to normalcy, and I can report back with positive results soon! XO.

Dreaming of the Spa

Daydreaming about the next time I can go to SoJo Spa again! I’m curious about their facial treatments!