The Seven Deadly Sins of Skincare

The face is a delicate flower that can sometimes be set off by even the smallest thing. Sometimes we can pinpoint it, think clinging your phone to your cheek while talking to the BFF while shopping or "forgetting" to change your pillowcase, because let's be honest, adulting is hard sometimes. 

These Seven Deadly Sins though are ones you should absolutely pay attention to, especially if you have blemish prone skin.

1. Not Washing Your Face 

Do an experiment for me real quick. When you wake up tomorrow, don't wash your face. Just take a cotton ball spritzed with Illuminating Toner and look at all the dirt that comes off your face. Think about it - you're sleeping and rolling around for hopefully 6-8 hours (when we're lucky). Your body is detoxing while you sleep, getting rid of toxins, and cleaning out your pores. Not to mention dust aka dirt and dead skin cells, have a chance to land all over your beautiful face. Mornings are the perfect time to remove all that gunk from your pores and start the day fresh.  

At the end of the day? Girl, that's a given. Pollution, dirt blown around by wind, touching your face, makeup? If you're not washing your face before you go to bed, I'm gonna need you to start. Your face will thank you. Your confidence will thank you. If you tend to get too tired to wash your face before bed, for the love of the skincare Goddesses, please purchase some all natural makeup removing wipes, or saturate a cotton pad with Illuminating Toner and wipe over your face until the cotton pad comes clean. Makeup traps free radicals in your skin cells, which damages them and causes you to age faster. We're talking about prevention here, so when you're in your 40's or 50's, you don't look like you're in your 60's or 70's. At least there won't be anything on your face to clog your pores or trap harmful substances. 

2. Water Consumption 

You should be drinking at least half your weight in water (fl oz) everyday. So if you weigh 130 lbs, you should be drinking 65 oz of water. This not only continuously allows your body to flush toxins and keep your organs happy (happy organs contributes to happy skin), but it also hydrates your skin. Hydrated skin means glowing goodness from the inside out. 

If you have a hard time drinking enough plain water, throw in frozen fruits. Not only do you get the antioxidants and vitamins from the fruit, it also flavors your water to make it tastier, and easier to drink.

3. Too much Alcohol, Dairy, and Junk 

 Your body is only as happy as you treat it. It's like when you use a really cheap razor and it gives you awful razor burn, and you're stuck with the red bumps, painful itching and all around discomfort? That's what too much junk food, alcohol, and dairy can do to your skin, especially if you're struggling with cystic or hormonal acne (I'll get really scientific and hard core about this in another post)

Your body is a vessel that helps you accomplish your goals. Instead of trying to perfect it, treat your body like you would your dream car. Keep it clean, have fun with it, and only put the best oil aka foods into it. Not only will your physical and mental health thank you, but your skin will too :)

4. Not Changing Your Pillowcase/ Sheets Enough 

Going back to the dust and dead skin cells again. That stuff builds up on your pillowcase. Look at it this way, think about all the products you put on your face before you go to bed. Think about the products you use in your hair. All of those products are also seeping into the fibers of your pillowcase, harboring dirt and bacteria. Your face is pressed up against it for extended periods of time, allowing these dirt and bacteria gnomes ample time to set up camp in your pores. No one wants bacteria gnomes living on their face. Which is actually kind of creepy right? The reality is that it's mites, but I won't go into any more detail for the sake of your imagination. But, don't allow them the space to move in.

5. Stressing the eff out

Life. Life happens. It's part of being humans. Stress can wreak havoc on not only your body, digestive system, and over all well-being, but it also triggers chemicals called cortisone that tells the glands in your skin to produce more oil, which in turn can clog pores.

So what, just like stop stressing? Girl, I know it's not that simple sometimes. Life can be crazy. The idea though is that after a while you start to notice when you're starting to get stressed out, and have a plan in place to combat it. You're not you when you're stressed. You're not able to function at the highest level that you deserve. 

My de-stressing plan always includes a hot bath with a ton of epsom salt - inexpensive, gets circulation moving in the body, and releases toxins which is great for water bloat or a quick fix for when skin is acting up - along with one of our Veíse Organic Herbal Bath Soaks and Pore Perfection. I'll soak for about 15 minutes, get out and wash off Pore Perfection, then put a hydrating mask on like Coffee Dream. I leave Coffee Dream on until I've decided to get out of the bath tub. Sometimes 30 minutes, sometimes 2 hours. It depends on how much I really need to destress.

Put on a calming album that relaxes you, and allow your mind time to let everything go. Negative feelings you're harboring towards others. Anyone who's wronged you. The insecurities you feel. The daily stresses you've been allowing to consume you. Let it all go. You deserve to. You deserve to feel like the best version of you. You deserve to be happy. You really deserve it all. Allow your mind to let that happen. 

6. Using "Cheap" Skincare/ Makeup

Chemicals. That's what it comes down to. Cheap skincare and makeup are typically made with cheap ingredients. Now, I'm definitely not saying that expensive skincare and makeup aren't chemical laden, because that's definitely not the case either. Walk into any department store and start looking at the long list of ingredients in them and see if you can find more than 5 ingredients that help your skin. Its hard. I've tried.

Chemical laden skincare and makeup that hold no benefits for your skin, are just that. They don't give your skin anything beneficial to help heal, renew, or revive your skin cells. 

The idea behind Veíse is that every ingredient has a purpose. Every ingredient holds a different benefit for your skin. If you're spending money on things, you want them to benefit you in some way right?  It makes the most sense to me, and that's why we do that. Results. Put products on your skin that benefit you, and put foods in your body that benefit you. It's #SelfCare at it's core.

7. Utilizing Negative Self Talk 

Seems like this one wouldn't make the sins list right? Well, have you seen the video of the fruit where the scientists are talking positive to one fruit and negative to the other fruit? The positive fruit looks great. Shiny, vibrant, and healthy. The negative fruit rots much quicker, looks wrinkly, and sad. It's the same with the way we talk to ourselves. At the core it's manifestation. If you put negative thoughts and negative energy out into the world, the universe mimics that and throws it back at you. If you put positive thoughts and actions into the world, the universe mimics that and gives you more positive things. Constantly thinking you're going to break out, or your skin is going to look bad, or picking at every single pimple that pops up on your face, accentuates the problem and makes it worse. 

Write love notes to yourself and put them on your mirror, so it's the first thing you see when you wake up to check your face, and the last thing you see before you go to bed. Write calendar reminders in your phone that pop up when you wake up, and at noon, and at 7 pm, reminding you that you're a strong, intelligent, beautiful woman. Tell yourself positive things, even if you don't believe them in the beginning. Tell yourself these things until you start to believe it. 

Now, you're going to have your doubts. And that's ok. But don't let those doubts pull you back into negative self talk. Acknowledge the doubt, and then let it go and replace it with a positive thought. Positive thoughts are much more powerful than negative ones. You can do this. You got this, you beautiful woman!

xoxo,

angelica