Unpacking the meaning of skincare

Unpacking the meaning of “skincare”.

When you hear about “skincare” what comes to your mind?

If what comes to your mind when you hear about skincare is cosmetic, i.e. what you apply topically on your skin, then you’re wrong. And maybe that’s why your so-called skincare is not working. This is the reason why the term holistic skincare is being embraced as it is a term that adopts taking care of the whole skin: the inside-out approach. 

Your skin is the largest organ of your body. What does this tell us? It deserves some good care.

Whatever you do, through consumption, internally and externally affects your skin.

People need to change their perspective of what they regard as skincare because it’s more than applying cosmetics topically.

An important factor is that skincare actually works… butttttttt if you want to see quick sustainable – long term changes, one that you are happy with and possibly maybe use minimal skincare then you need to work on your external factor and one I’ll focus on extensively in this post is Your DIET. And if you are one that has acne, then maybe double work on your diet.

Your Diet

I do know that working on your diet is not an easy task, but it’s something beneficial in the long-run. A decision that you will look back and be happy you did. A decision that will save you money too! I remember when I was learning about anti-ageing skincare (I call it healthy ageing, truth be told, ageing is a natural process that occurs, though there are internal and external factors that may contribute to someone ageing faster than their age – premature ageing). I realise how much our diet plays in terms of how our skin looks. Especially, as you’re growing, when you’re young you may not easily see the effect and this is why the earlier you being to care for your skin the better. Cut things like sugar, juice and unhealthy fat. They are high in AGEs (Advanced Glycation End-Products) As a Nigerian, I know one of the challenges with many of our foods is how they foods are cooked, sadly this makes majority of our foods unhealthy.

Tell me about the puff-puff sold on the street, or the yummy akara soiled in oil, or that efo riro that the nutrient has been stripped, or possibly our tasty jollof rice which has spent a whole-time cooking. And I’m not here saying you should completely cut out these food. But watch how you cook and cut some out. I love experimenting with food and that’s possibly one of the reasons why I enjoy making skincare too. Can that puff-puff be swapped for a pancake filled with oatmeal, can the oil dipped akara be swapped for oven-baked (I’ve tried this before, I can’t comment on whether the stress was worth it. Only do this if you’re ready to devote 1hour plus waiting for the akara to be ready), or cook your efo riro cooked with less time – depending on the vegetable used, it can be cooked plain moderately for less time.

You might be here, wondering why I’m laying more emphasis on food. We all eat food. Here’s one things about food. The longer your food takes to cook the more nutritious value is stripped from it, and the more it will increase AGEs in your body. Generally, foods that have been processed such as fried foods, burgers, cereals etc have more AGEs in them than naturally homemade food.  In short now you know why, the best food are those closer to nature: you guessed right, increase your fruit and veg. Buying food on the go are simple basic things to cut out.

If you’re someone that suffers from acne, sugar is definitely something to cut in your diet, I’ll touch more about sugar soon – and I hope you do subscribe for that, cos there will be exclusive content for mail subscribers.

Your water intake

Now, over to water. Water is a key to hydration, cut down on juice. You sometimes look at someone and can guess, this person is not feeling so well due to their skin looks. If you see someone with a dull skin, there’s a high chance that person is not taking enough water. And I have seen this with few of my clients, I had a friend who fell into this category, and I told her, you need to drink water. Yes, some people do struggle to take enough water – but it can be changed by knowing the benefit of water.

With food and water, the quality is just as important as the quantity you consume.

Next is maybe an unpopular one – engaging in exercise. There are studies that prove that exercise helps a lot with maintaining a healthy skin as it aids blood circulation. I’ll like to add a caveat here and possibly re-design what exercise means. This involves taking your circumstances into consideration. The key is to be active, if possible take walks. Engage in house chores, and move your body. If you are a mother who has children to take care of, there are chances you are doing some form of exercise, you’re cooking, looking after the baby, etc. They may not really be termed as exercise but it does not really matter. As mentioned earlier, consider your circumstance before you decide to do something. Being active is a form of skincare.

Now over to you…

What conscious decision will you take to really care for your skin today?

Here are some small action-steps

•  Eat a good meal.

• Reduce the oil and fat consumption – they are better applied topically (more on this to come)

•  Add more water to your consumption

•  Sleep well

•  Exercise

•  Use good skincare.

•  Have a good skincare routine

I decided to start this blog with this content to educate people more on what skincare actually means and there’s more to what skincare means.

Do stay connected

Whatsapp (Females only please) https://bit.ly/Authenskin

Telegram Skincare community: https://t.me/authenskincity1 

Until next time, stay True and Authentic

Your skincare friend

Azeezat.