My Tried and True Philosophy, No Matter Your Skyn Type
It’s important to have a philosophy in life and your routine.
Philosophy is the study of fundamental questions about existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language.
In order to have a good philosophy, I believe you have to have a good understanding of it. If you’re wondering how this applies to your skyn, don’t worry. I’m going to teach you the foundation of my own philosophy, and how it shapes everything I do in my skyn and beauty routines. And while this may serve as a starting point I highly encourage you to tweak it to your own unique needs if needed.
Every few months there’s a new hack, trend, or product that hits the market with promises to give you whatever result needs to be sold. To make things harder, we live in times where people blindly trust what’s been seen on social media. With their only research being a google search, or going to another social media app. No tried or true processes. I fear we might’ve forgotten what it means to conduct research. The next best thing is to consult a professional, but even in the professional world of skyn, there are some providers that make you question if they’re primary concern is your skyn, or their sale. This can make the world of beauty overbearing and feel like something you prefer to opt out of.
My role as an advocate of intentional vanity, is to drown out the noise, make sure you always get the chunk of what’s important, and most of all, ensure you understand the why behind it. Which brings me to my skyn philosophy.
From the definition of philosophy above, we’ll focus on three key components; fundamental questions, reason, and language.
When it comes to your skyn and it’s care, my philosophy is simple
Know what you’re using by asking yourself fundamental questions
Know why you’re use it by defining the reason it’s in your routine
Know when you’re using it by understanding both the language of instructions and ingredients
Having a deep understanding of each sets you up for a foundation that will keep your skyn healthy, and get it back on track even when it’s not.
Fundamental questions; “What does my routine consist of?”
About a month ago, I looked into my skyn care drawer, assessed my routine, and ended up throwing away around $600 of skyn care. Some would call me crazy, however I was able to admit to myself what most can’t. No matter how expensive it was, my routine wasn’t serving a clear purpose to my skyn.
It’s as simple as asking yourself, “what’s in my current routine, and what’s the function of the product?”. For example, I had a glycolic cleanser in my routine. The cleanser itself is to brighten and help with anti aging, but why would I need that when I don’t suffer from hyperpigmentation and at this time have no major concerns centered around aging?
This is why it’s important to know what’s in your routine. Next we move to the why.
Reason; Know why you use it
The what and the why may seem similar but there’s a key difference in how you answer. Think of the “what” as the input; what the product is supposed to do, and think of the “why” as the output; the results you’d like to achieve. The function is the need of your skyn. Again, I’ll apply this to my own routine and the glycolic cleanser. The cleanser is supposed to brighten and smooth, however my skyn routinely needs more hydration and balancing the oil production, and I would like smooth, healthy skyn that is hydrated and balanced.
So you see how the input doesn’t operate well with the function or the output? Meaning it shows that we need to change the input to match the function and achieve the desired outcome.
If you have a hydrating cleanser in your routine, the why behind should be because your skyn is dry and needs to be supplemented. If you use a clay mask, the why behind it should be to draw out impurtites and oil build up. It wouldn’t make much sense to use a clay mask on dry skyn or skyn that has under active oil glands. This is why understanding why you use a certain product goes hand in hand with understanding what you use.
Language: Knowing when to use your products
Once you understand what you use it, and why your skyn needs it, the final step to a solid routine is knowing when to use them. The language of skyn care is important to know because most times, people aren’t using their products enough to see progress and results.
Each product comes with a recommendation of use, but what it doesn’t come with is a break down of the language. So here’s what I think when I see some of the terms of use in skyncare.
Daily: an essential part of your routine and shouldn’t be skipped, like cleansing in the morning and double cleansing in the evening.
Weekly: a regular part of your routine and can be adjusted to your skyn’s unique needs. Steps like exfoliation and masking are based on your own goals and needs.
Monthly: this will apply more to your treatments than at home care, but these treatments will help with deeper exfoliation, stimulating cell turnover, cellular renewal, repair and even more.
Common things I see in the treatment room
Some of the most common things I see in the treatment room are:
People don’t know what they’re using or what benefit it would have for their skyn
People don’t know why they use it and assume it aligns with their skyn’s needs
People don’t have a regular rhythm that they stick with and are either overdoing it or not doing enough
And I help people strip away what’s not needed, replace it piece by piece with what is, and find their own philosophy to apply in their routines.
