THE TOP 5 SKINCARE TIPS I WISH I COULD TELL MY YOUNGER SELF

There are so many important things I wish I could tell my younger self. I would sit her down at my favorite coffee shop and tell her so much about her exciting future ahead — and also provide her with plenty of tips for tackling everyday life at a young age. Surviving through each new era of life (middle school, high school, college) brings new challenges and room for mistakes to inevitably happen. Of course, one should not live a life full of regrets, but what if you could go back in time and let your younger self know a thing or two that you do now?

This blog post will cover the top 5 skincare tips I wish I could tell my younger self. My younger self didn’t understand how to properly take care of her skin. I swear, with all of my years of personal experience and continuous efforts to combat my daily breakouts, I could easily teach a class about skincare! However, this is where my blog comes into play. I am more than happy to write out the top 5 skincare tips I wish I could tell my younger self here on my blog with you all! Sharing these skincare tips also allows me to reflect on my past and look at how far I’ve come in terms of taking good care of my face and body. Long gone are my dreadful mornings looking into the mirror to see red spots forming on the surface of my face. Long gone are my tearful nights when I would cry myself to sleep wondering if I could ever feel confident about my skin. I am happy to be sharing these 5 skincare tips I wish I could tell my younger self because I want to potentially help anyone else who is struggling with skin issues feel a little less alone. I remember times when I would purposefully isolate myself because I didn’t want to go out in public and let strangers see what my skin looked like. Those days as a pimply teenager were absolutely some of the roughest days for me. This post is dedicated to my younger self.

1. Stop Washing Your Face Twice a Day

One of the best practices that took me quite a long time to learn is not to wash my face twice a day! Whenever my breakouts got super annoying, I figured washing my face would do the trick. Well, I was wrong. It turns out that there is such a thing as overwashing your face. I was definitely prone to overwashing my face as I would go to sleep with a clean face and wake up to wash my face all over again the next morning. I looked up plenty of beauty articles with quotes from licensed dermatologists that told me to stop washing my face in the morning. Me? Not washing my face in the morning? That was a huge task for someone with acne-prone skin!

On a positive note, ending my morning face washing ritual improved my skin in the best way possible. These days I have fewer acne breakouts than I ever had when I followed a twice a day cleansing routine! Another positive? My getting ready in the morning routine has also been cut in half thanks to eliminating early morning face washing from my life. Now I simply wash my face once at night with a gel cleanser and then the following morning I apply my sunscreen and continue into my daily makeup routine. Don’t be fooled: Overwashing your skin can strip your skin barrier of much-needed moisture.

2. Always Put on Sunscreen Before You Start Your Makeup

This is why you need to wear sunscreen:

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3. Don’t Be Afraid to Talk to a Dermatologist

Talking to a dermatologist completely transformed my skin. My skin would not look anywhere near as smooth and acne-free without the guidance from my dermatologist.

When I began my Accutane journey I was 22 years old. My teenage and college years were spent dealing with acne breakouts every single day. I talked to a dermatologist as soon as I left college and wanted to find a solution to finally stop my breakouts once and for all. I spent way too many years of my life unhappy with my skin to blame for most of my depressed mood and social anxiety.

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Getting help from a board-certified dermatologist drastically changed my life. She recommended that I start taking Accutane pills for about 5 months to see what it could do to eliminate the acne I spent years fighting. Dermatologists do not always suggest this intense option to fix your acne because there are plenty of topical creams and other less aggressive pills you can take to combat breakouts. Since I had suffered for so many years to no avail, she suggested Accutane as a last resort method to treat my skin from the inside. My 5-month journey was NOT easy. I had to stick to a regime to keep my skin (and lips) as moisturized as possible! At the end of my 5-month mark, I looked at myself in the mirror and I will never forget crying in my doctor’s office as I felt a wave of relief pass over me. Clear skin is more than just physical appearance. Clear skin had a shift in my mindset and my self-confidence. If I never talked to a dermatologist, I have no clue what state my skin would be in now at age 25. I wish I talked to a dermatologist much sooner than I did. If I could go back in time, I would have met with a dermatologist at age 15 to really kick the acne issue as soon as possible.

4. Stop Buying Cleansers From the Drugstore Specifically Made to Treat Acne

Before I dive deeper into cleansers, I want to acknowledge and bring to your attention that if you have acne you should NOT be buying harsh drugstore products that CLAIM they will help your pimples! Just stop now! This is also one of my (many) skincare tips I wish I could tell my young self to stop doing. I spent thousands of dollars buying into the idea that skincare for acne-prone skin would be the solution. I only ended up ruining my skin with chemicals and ingredients that claimed to be the magical product I needed. Thanks, marketing and advertising teams for filling my brain with information that only left me with burning and itchy skin. SIGH! These cleansers have sulfates which are terrible for your skin. Sulfates destroy your skin barrier and leave your precious skin to overproduce oil which can, you guessed it, bring on even more breakouts!! Instead, opt for a creamy and gentle face wash that doesn’t include any sulfates on the back of the product.

5. Be Gentle With Your Skin

One last skincare tip I wish I could tell my younger self? Be gentle to my skin! Yes, I was that teenager who picked away and squished her pimples. Is that TMI? Maybe, but I want to get real with you and explain why I seriously wish I could tell myself to stop this habit in its tracks from a young age. Little did I know that picking at my skin would cause so much damage to my face. I am now dealing with the aftermath of my horrible habit and I have been treating my acne scars ever since. I am a huge fan of microneedling to get rid of my old acne scars from my teenage days, even though I’ve spent nearly $1,000 on treatments. The mircroneedling process works best for depressed scars, too.
If there was one more thing I wish I could tell my younger self, it would be to stop picking at my pimples and just let them be.

Photo Credit: The Studio Magnolia