#3

skincare

‘Skincare’ has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember and not in a positive way. I never had ‘good’ skin (I’m probably going to keep saying good skin but I really mean healthy, happy, calm skin you feel confident in.  Watch this before we continue) growing up and it was an extremely traumatizing experience as an already very strange tween. I tried every product, device and dermatologist I could find but where I really started to see a shift in the health of my skin was when I started to trust my intuition and take matters into my own hands. Not that my professional opinion is ‘fuck a dermatolgist’ but honestly fuck a dermatoligist.

We’ll kick things off with some of my universal skincare tips that everyone can benefit from. These really have very little to do with ‘skincare’ but more lifestyle changes that will lead to the overall better health of your skin. Then we can get into favorite products, routines, all that shit that you’re here for. 

merm’s tips for good* skin

1. Be nice - if shit burns, stop! So fucking simple but for the majority of my adolescence I was in tears every night layering prescription on prescription. Looking back it’s so obvious why my skin was so angry with me but at the time I thought ‘beauty was pain’, major eye roll. Be nice to your skin.

2. Cut it out - from the toxic boyfriend to the irritating vitamin c serum, lose all of it. If your skin is in an active or reactive state go back to the basics. Cleanse, hydrate and focus on yourself. Once your skin chills out, slowly start to re-introduce your favorite treatments. I went from being on multiple prescription topicals and an oral antibiotic to washing and face buttering my skin for an entire year before I touched a single acid, retinol, etc again. It was so worth it. Coincidentally or not, I had finally gotten rid of my extremely chaotic ex-boyfriend right around time my skin cleared up. So…you tell me. 

3. Pay attention to your triggers - I have a moral conflict with promoting food restriction on the internet BUT dairy and sugar absolutely caused redness and inflammation in my skin as well as eczema so it made sense for me to cut down on my consumption of those categories. For me, it was a combination of dairy, sugar, stress and hormones that caused my acne to flare up. Once I was able to see what the issues were I was able to change my lifestyle, diet and birth control to keep my breakouts and redness on the low. For me, my skin was a huge cause of insecurity so it was worth it to save a cheesy piece of pizza for a special occasion. If you’re confident enough to know that dairy pisses your skin off and you’re able to deal with a few pimples without spiraling into a self-esteem abyss, you’re an icon and go eat your cheese. Now that my skin is pretty consistently happy, healthy and clear, I can eat an entire birthday cake and walk away with only a little red dot or two. It’s a dream. 

4. Chill - I stopped wearing foundation to hide my acne, stopped caring if boys would think I was gross (they didn’t), and accepted that I would have acne for the rest of my life and decided that it was hot and cool to have pimples. My skin cleared up.

morning routine

1. Splash with water - in an ideal world you went to bed with clean skin on a clean pillowcase so just give yourself a refresh with a splash of water when you wake up. 

2. Rice Power Essence - this is a treat! An added boost of hydration and antioxidants. My skin feels even, dewy and bouncy after I apply this essence. Plus it’s by a local Chicago brand! I’m on my third bottle now. 

3. Face butter - duh. Always. Twice a day.

4. Sunscreen - eye roll. I’m over it. Mad about the money I’ve spent on all these sunscreens and then learned that none of these brands SPF claims are actually accurate. So whatever, sunscreen everyday. I have no recommendations.

nighttime routine

1. Soap - I wash my face with a natural soap every night. Scratch Goods honey rose is my soap of choice if I can get my hands on it. 

2. An active - I never layer actives. It’s a personal choice. I do one a few nights per week and take a night or two off each week.

   1. Mandelic acid - my favorite way to exfoliate is with this gentle AHA. I use it once a week max, usually once every other week.

   2. Differin - this was the first prescription I ever was given, I’m pretty sure it was in third grade. Now it’s available at Target. The active ingredient is adapalene which is a retinoid, it’s super gentle at .1%.  I use it a few times a week in conjunction with their scar gel. The scar gel has bakuchiol which is a ‘natural retinol alternative’ there’s not a ton of studies on those claims but I do like it. I feel more confident about my skin’s texture after consistent use.

3. Face butter - seal in all the goodness with face butter on damp skin. I let my actives dry then splash with a little water and butter up. It’s the only product I’ve used that I wake up still feeling hydrated.

Simple! I do my best to do a weekly (monthly) charcoal mask, throw on a starface pimple patch when I have a pimple instead of picking and I love to treat myself to a dieux eye mask, coffee eye butter combo after a good cry.