Do you ever cringe when you think about your old habits? We've all made mistakes, especially when first getting into things like skincare. Here are some mistakes to try to avoid with your skin.
"Looking back at my old skincare “routine,” I can’t believe the things I used to do to my face."
We know that the skincare community blew up in the past year, and that’s when I started diving into the depths of the skincare world- during quarantine.
I used to be so into makeup and skincare wasn’t even really a thought in my mind. Now, I’m all about skincare and natural makeup. It’s crazy how different the trends are now. Read the article Then vs Now: Looking Back at 5 Years of Makeup Trends to see how the times have changed in the makeup and skincare world.
I’m still learning about skincare and will probably look back at my current routine and make fun of it too.
Here are some of the things I did that make me cringe just thinking about it and you should remember when applying your skincare.
Not Washing Your Face Properly
I can’t believe I did this, but I didn’t remove my makeup properly and used one of those microfiber makeup towels. Read Why Makeup Wipes and Towels are Bad for Your Skin to learn more!
After using a towel to harshly scrub my face, I used an overly-stripping cleanser that didn’t suit my skin type. This cleanser made my skin feel tight and dry afterward and gave me that squeaky clean feeling, which isn’t good. Doing this every single day for sure compromised my skin’s barrier.
Double Exfoliating Daily
Before I started to exfoliate regularly, I used to double exfoliate every single day without even knowing it. After I used the microfiber towel to “remove” my makeup, not only did I use a stripping cleanser, but I put it on one of those Foreo Luna Play face scrubbers (similar to the Clarisonic).
My mind is blown that my face didn’t fall off. Just the three things I mentioned so far: microfiber towel, stripping cleanser, and face scrubber daily all contributed to the breakout-prone, splotchy, and uneven skin tone I used to have.
Tea Tree Oil
Because of my damaged skin barrier, I often had breakouts that took a long time to go away, probably because I made them worse by putting straight Tea Tree oil on them. Yes, a moment of silence. No, I didn’t dilute it with water. Yes, it stung my skin. Yes, it irritated and dried out my skin.
I now know that Tea Tree oil is an extremely irritating and potent essential oil, which should not be used as an acne treatment unless it’s properly formulated by chemists within a product.
Not Using A Silk Pillowcase
This one isn’t necessarily a necessity, but I found it helped my skin a lot. I never sleep on my back, so my face is always on the pillow. Before I started using silk pillowcases, I used to actually feel my face tugging on the pillow, causing friction acne, irritating existing acne, causing wrinkles, and wiping off all my skincare in the process. Now, I only ever use silk pillowcases and I recommend it to everyone not only to save your skin but your hair too.
Not Using SPF
Yep, I used to not use SPF. I’ve always used a moisturizer with SPF in it since I was a kid, which we know is not effective enough, but what’s even scarier is that I didn’t even use that moisturizer because of the SPF. I just liked the moisturizer and didn’t care about it having SPF in it at all, that’s how ignorant I was when it came to wearing sunscreen.
Now, you will never catch a day where I'm not wearing sunscreen, and in the summer, I do try my hardest to reapply it all day long.
It was a long journey finding a sunscreen I absolutely love and actually enjoy applying every morning. Read Mineral vs Chemical Sunscreen to find out more information.
As always, If you have any questions, recommendations, or want to share some of your input feel free to DM @Boafo.Beauty or @ninamariemakeup on Instagram.