Skin Routine

Skin health is very important to me. I tend to have thin skin... literally. All that means is it gets easily scarred and damaged if not well taken care of. 

Over the years I have learnt A LOT about what works for my skin through constant experimentation. 

Now it is very, very very important to note that what works for my skin may not work for you, but I write this in hopes that these couple of tips may give you a starting place. 

There are many things that contribute to skin health, from gut health, hormonal balance, intolerances, vitamin and mineral deficiencies, stress and list goes on and on. I am only going to go as far to talk about what I do topically but make sure you stay connected because I will talk about the inner work for great skin later. 

When I was younger all I knew about skin health was a cleanser and sunscreen. That is all I understood. When I started to develop more pores skin, I went to a dermatologist who gave me products like differin, a bunch of different skin exfoliators, serums, clean and clear and after using all these 100000 different things on my face, all I noticed was dry skin. 

I do have to say that I am very grateful that I have never experienced severe acne, except or a certain period (will talk more about this when I write about the inner work). The point of saying this, is that all the products that I was given were not necessary for what I was trying to achieve and exacerbating something that was not even “that bad”. 

After years of using expensive and honestly unnecessary products to try to get my skin more plump, hydrated and smooth I started experimenting with just cutting it all out cold turkey. 

What I noticed was that nothing happened. At first my skin stayed the same and over some time I stared to notice the moisture start to improve.

Once my skin started to rehydrate and get back its healthy oils, I decided to experiment more. This time I bought a trusty cleanser bogavia, a random sunscreen and a good old bottle of olive oil. Here’s the thing I am middle eastern and something that I am always told is to lather my insides and outsides with olive oil. Now listen, I know what I’m going to say is going to sound extremely controversial but hear me out. All I did was wash my face in the morning then put a drop, just a drop of olive oil on my hand and massage that onto my face. Once I felt like my skin absorbed it I would then put sunscreen. I did the same thing at night, but without sunscreen. After only a couple of days my skin started to look and feel a lot younger, more vibrant and had a healthy glow. 

This routine lasted for 2 years. What made me switch it up was the fact that after doing more research I discovered that overtime olive oil can make your skin become dull. I don’t know if I allowed that to get in my head or if I actually started to notice my skin get dull but regardless, I switched up the routine SLIGHTLY. I knew I loved the simplicity of my routine so I decided to investigate more into brands that I trusted like Cocokind. I ended up buying a vitamin c serum, cocokind sunscreen, texture cream and a lower cost, but great hyaluronic acid serum. So my current routine is washing my face with bogavia cleanser, patting my face dry, massaging and using gua sha with a drop of olive oil (or any facial oil) on my face. I then mix vitamin c serum and hyaluronic acid into my palm massage that onto my face and finally when all is set on my face, I add sunscreen. At night all I do is wash with the cleanser and massage some hyaluronic acid mixed with the textured cream to lock it in. I also love to roll an ice cube on my face after washing it in the morning because it just feels very refreshing. 

This is my current routine and I have noticed such huge difference in how my skin feels and looks. Please remember this is what works for me. Try it out and give it time. Something to note is that when switching to non-toxic and natural products, you will most likely break out because your skin will start to detox, just keep that in mind. 

Hope you can pull something out of here that is helpful and if I would take away anything at all is that sometimes less is more xx