COVID-19 has forced me to develop new routines, whether that be adjusting to working from home, changing how (and where) I workout, to what I eat. One of the biggest changes was developing a skincare routine that ACTUALLY WORKED (for me)!
Prior to the start of quarantine life (aka before the second week in March), I really only used micellar water and occasionally Noxzema as a method for washing my face. I decided that it was a great time to try something new. In addition to that, my CrossFit gym was closed at the time so I could test out a theory that I had about the source of my breakouts (which you’ll hear about below).
Here were the specific things I did that helped me through the process of clearing up my skin:
Find the source of my acne. My breakouts seemed to be related to exercise and sweating. Since my CrossFit gym was closed and I wasn’t working out at the same intensity with at-home workouts, I knew I would see an improvement in my skin because I wasn’t sweating profusely (lol) for an hour to an hour and a half everyday.
This gym situation also set me up start a second test of the skincare products when my gym opened back up for outdoor workouts in June. The most interesting part of this is that outdoor workouts would seemingly be harsher on my skin—the weather was HOT, thus meaning more sweat, plus I would need to protect my skin with sunscreen. Spoiler alert: The products I ended up using were great on my skin, even under these conditions.
Start a regular routine with quality products. From March until the beginning of June, I started exclusively using this SLMD skincare kit that I found at Target. It comes with four products to use and I almost immediately noticed a difference when I started using it. I’ve also recommended this product to several friends who were talking about their acne acting up because of wearing masks (check out this article on “maskne“… it’s a thing).
Around June I started as an ambassador with Athia, a skincare company that is target toward those with an active lifestyle. At that time I incorporated the exfoliating probiotic clay cleanser (which I use as a face mask) and the hyaluronic and vitamin daily moisturizer from their product line in addition to using the SLMD skincare kit. This seemed to be a winning combination for keeping my skin clear and smooth, even with the aforementioned sweaty outdoor workouts I have not been doing since June.
Make adjustments to the routine. While this seemed to be the winning combination of products for my skin, I did make some slight adjustments. For example, the lotion that comes in the SLMD skincare kit made the oily parts of my combination skin (namely my forehead) a little too shiny so I decided to not use as much when I applied it. The SLMD kit ran out pretty quickly because it’s more of a trial size kit, so I ended up buying the larger versions of the items, which will last a while.
Because I like the SLMD products so much, I also tried several of body products, which also worked wonders. The glycolic acid body scrub and the corresponding lotion have worked exactly as described, which has been great to help treat any ingrown hairs or bumps that show up on the back of my arms or legs.
Test with makeup. Working from home meant that I wasn’t getting ready for work in the same way that I normally would. Most days I didn’t wear a ton of makeup into the office, but it was still more frequent than it has been over the last six months. Getting ready for blog posts photos or the occasional socially distant get-together with friends meant I had several opportunities to see how my skin looked with makeup after using the new skincare products. There was a big difference with my foundation in particular. Now it looks so smooth, which makes my other products like blush, bronzer and highlighter go on smoothly as well.
Since this process, I’ve seen an amazing improvement to my skin—my skin is brighter and my acne scars are less visible, my pores look smaller (with or without makeup on), and I feel less oily. If you’re looking for some new skincare products to try, I highly recommend trying SLMD skincare, which you can find at Target, as well as Athia, which you can get 15% off your purchase with the code Destiny15.
Have you incorporate new beauty products into your routine recently? Let me know in the comments.
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