Beauty Tips For Body Care
Happy December! I thought it might be fun to do a Holiday Advent calendar of skincare tips and tricks that, for the most part, are FREE OF CHARGE, i.e. not specific product recommendations and things you could try right away. I've been active on Skincare Addiction and Asian Beauty (along with the wider internet skincare world) for over 7 years now, and along the way I've collected a treasure trove of tips and tricks that transcend specific skincare concerns and are more about fundamental knowledge then trend and hype! So Happy Holidays, and hope you find a tip or two useful!-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Day One: How to gently wash your face! Hint: Do not use a washclothTL;DR - Don't use a washcloth to wash or dry your face. Use your hands. No, you won't drown your bathroom in torrents of water. To wash carry the water to your face, don't "splash" like in commercials. To dry touch your eyelids lightly on a towel to avoid water dripping in your eyes, and then use your hands to wipe off excess water. Dry your hands on towel. The proceed to pat and press the water into your skin. When your skin is still slightly damp proceed with your routine.Expected Results: Less red/splotchy/blotchy complexion. Strengthened moisture barrier. More hydrated skin. A more glowing, healthy complexion.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------"BE GENTLE with your face"Ok so this falls into the category of things-we-all-know-but-kinda-don't-do. I like to watch Susan Yara's reviews of the "Go to bed with me" type shows on Youtube, and it's interesting how often a celebrity says "you should be gentle and not tug or rub your skin" while they have a make-up wipe in hand and are absolutely going to town rubbing their faces like a damn Genie is about to pop out. "Be gentle" is one of those phrases that we all think we follow.... but do we? Dun dun dunnnnnnn!I think part of the issue comes with what our particular definitions of gentle are. If you had asked me a few months ago if I was being gentle with my skin I would have said "totes" cause I was going through a phase but that's beside the point anyway I thought I was following the Ten Three Commandments of Gentleness:Thou shalt not overly scrub thy face with physical exfoliantsThou shalt not useth Cloths to wash that scratcheth thine skinThou shalt not picketh at thine skin, nor pusheth it together in hope of expelling the Devil's puss...but I really really wasn't. Then one night after cleansing my face I noticed how red and splotchy it looked. I had been trying to nail down for a while what my "skin concerns" were because it didn't really feel like hyper-pigmentation, or discoloration, or just "uneven" skin tone. It also wasn't redness caused by like rosacea or anything- just a general faint red splotchy and/or blotchy effect.As I was examining my face in the mirror the lights suddenly sputtered and went out, while a soft whisper filled the room: Be Gentle. With that ethereal voice still echoing, my body- of its own volition- walked slowly towards my open laptop. Like a Ouija board from the tech age, my fingers started flying across its keyboard, typing in all sorts of gentleness buzzwords, until I landed on r/AsianBeauty, and specifically the many posts about NOT using a washcloth to wash your face.I had seen posts like that in the past and I always thought pfff what am I some sort of mermaid spalshin water everywhere like come on that's crazy. ALSO like how the hell do you get clean if you're not doing a little scrubby scrub with the washcloth?! There were too many plot holes and I had never taken it seriously, but given that my face did look irritated I figured I'd give it a try in the morning. This is the point in any blog where the writer is going to say something cliche like- OH. MY. GOD. You guys this changed my skin.But seriously, OH. MY. GOD. Yeah, it dramatically improved my skin. Ok so I'm one of those people who Googles shit like "how to get glass skin" and loves Glossier ok sue me but I've always wanted that look of just radiant, glowing skin. Not using a washcloth has legitimately given me that. So here is what I do:Pull hair back and put on a headband. If you really hate the water running down elbows thing (doesn't really bother me and doesn't happen super often) you can put scrunchies around your wrists, or wear some of those like wrist sweat things that were popular among Aaron Carter-esque boys in the early 00s)Put cleanser on the FACE AND NECK skin (I double cleanse which is so important but that's a separate post, also don't neglect the neck people!)GENTLY massage it into skin ( make sure not to tug. I like to apply cleansers dry first, but if you're tugging your skin get your hands wet so that you glide and slide)Fully wet your hands and massage the cleanser alllllll around, making sure you get places like the sides of your nose and into your hairline. It'll dry, trust me.Bend over your sink (whoa skin and sink have the same letters- coincidence?). Make sure that the counter space is clear of objects you don't want to get wet since they might. Begin by cupping your hands to fill with water and gently splashing water around your face. Ok now keep in mind this isn't like commercials where they like take water and splash their face while standing up and it just goes like everywhere? Keep your face over the sink and vary how much water you have in your hands with where you're targeting. Middle of face? Sure get a big ol' scoopin' of water. Side of jawline by your hair? Get a lil bit, not a lot baby gurl just a lil bit, (dude I listened to that song as a what like 11 year old? it's not even like one of those "haha it's a euphemism for sex!" songs like Candy Shop just straight up talking about having sex) and don't really even splash, just carry the water to your face and gently rub it (heh). Continue this all along your face and neck making sure to get your hairline and places like around your eyes and your nose cracks until you've removed all the cleanser (which honestly is the part I never thought possible without a washcloth but it's like pretty easy to do actually).Now here is where I DO like to have a dedicated face towel that I change daily that I use to wipe my hands after washing them when doing my routine, AND to dab my eyes because getting water in your eyes is stupid. After I've barely touched my eyes to the towel I start to like wipe the excess water off my face with my hands and dry them on the towel. I just do this once or twice until my face isn't like dripping, and then I get to patting. I gently pat and press the water into my face which like.... why didn't I do this before? It makes your skin SO MUCH more hydrated!When my skin is still damp I start applying my hydrating products (toner, serum, etc.) Do note though that on days when I follow with an active (BHA/AHA/retinol whatever) I do dry it a little more by fanning my face for a few seconds because damp skin absorbs product better, and I don't really want those quite as strong. Then I go along with my routine!Seriously I'm amazed at how it like frankly takes me about the same time to not use a washcloth as it took me to use a washcloth. Like I bet a lot of your are in the same boat where for some reason we think if we don't use a washcloth to dry our faces that they'll just be sopping wet for like 45 minutes, but by pressing/patting/wiping my face with my hands I can get it to slightly damp state in about the time it took to wipe with a washcloth. From THE FIRST time I used this cloth-less method I noticed a difference. My skin looked more hydrated and, most importantly, the splotchy and blotchy-ness were gone. Looking back I think holy shit I was being so rough with my face. Especially when my face was still wet and I'd go in with the wet washcloth to "get the cleanser off" (which in hindsight I actually think washcloths do a shitter job of then hands) I would really rub and tug without meaning to.I would HIGHLY encourage you to just try this method once or twice and see how it feels for you, but if you MUST use a towel to dry I'd recommend only using patting motions and to never rub your face at all.This is free to try and you have nothing to lose, so I really hope you will! There are a ton of other posts on this in the Asian Beauty subreddit, and if you have any other technique questions please let me know!
Girls Blog 2015
Submitted by MySkinsRedditAcct
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