4 Personal & Unexpected Secrets To Having Great Skin At 36

 

 

 

 

When I turned 30, I thought I was a freak. I didn’t know how to properly apply makeup like all the other cool girls out there. Yes, I had a couple of lip glosses from my local beauty supply store, but words like contour and highlighting were a foreign language to me.

So, I spent my time and money figuring out how to have a perfectly “beat” face and I mastered it. I even made a couple of Youtube videos on my regular routine for my Youtube channel.

Fast forward to the age of 34. I got to the point were I started to feel I wouldn’t dare leave the house without some sort of concealer or foundation.  I woke up early before heading to work to make sure I had time to apply a bit of makeup all between getting my son dressed and making breakfast.

Who the hell had I become?

Deep down, I hated it. I despised the products that I once coveted and all the time I spent looking for the newest this or that to trump the last product I purchased the month before. It was stressful.

Not to mention my lifelong clear skin started to break out on a regular basis. At the time, I couldn’t explain it and did the exact opposite of what I should’ve done by putting more products on my skin.

It was with this and a couple of life changes that made me commit to living a cleaner life. And my skin has thanked me for it.

At the age of 36, my skin is clearer, more moisturized and even toned than ever before. I’m not tooting my own horn, but I quite often get complimented on my skin during the last couple of years.

I’m also asked what I use or do to keep my skin in the condition that it’s been in for the last couple of years. And while I have used a couple of products that worked well, it was more about routine than a specific item.

So here are a couple of routines and beauty secrets that I’ve been using to keep my skin in tip top shape.

1. Stop Wearing So Much Damn Makeup

Easy enough, right?

It took some time, but I started weaning myself off of the hardcore makeup and simplified my routine. I scaled back my entire regimen to something I could easily accomplish within 5 minutes using the least amount of products as possible.

I realized I did not need a full face of foundation to look refreshed. By using a quarter of the amount over a good moisturizer gave the same effect of having wearing a tinted moisturizer without having to buy another product. However, I opted to only wear this when I was going out to dinner or somewhere special. But, overall I started going cold turkey…no makeup most of the time.

I quickly learned that my skin flourished when it was free and uncovered. It was almost like the makeup was stressing it out. After a while, I started to notice my skin getting irritated when I did wear the products I wore before. It was almost as if my body started to reject them and my skin reached a new clear and non-blemished standard. So, try to start scaling back on the amount and frequency when you wear makeup and see if it starts to help. You may also notice that you may start to feel more comfortable wearing less as time goes on.

2. REALLY Learn How To Manage Stress  

I know, I know. Lower your stress levels. We hear it all the time. But I know I truly didn’t know what that meant for the better part of my life. Given, stress management is not something that comes easy to the women in my family. In fact, excessively worrying about almost everything is something we just grew up doing in the name of love.

However, after a certain amount of time, stress becomes a way of life. Your body stays in an state of fight or flight which raises the hormone cortisol in your body.

In fact, cortisol is one of the major hormones used in the production of skin cells. So, when you’re stressing out about anything and everything, your skin could truly be taking a toll. PLUS, stress has been said to collect in the body, so this superwoman crown we often pride ourselves on could actually be doing major damage. For more information on that part, check out one of my favorite Ted Ed videos that explain the connection between stress and our skin.

So, after finding this out, I got really serious about learning and applying stress management techniques.  Breathing exercises such as meditation and Breathwork have become my go to methods of choice. Breathwork is a practice thats quite varied depending on the type (stay with me for a second because I know it sounds a bit crazy).

The easiest way to get into Breathwork is with a 4-7-8 breathing technique as demonstrated below by Dr. Weil. The basic concept is to breathe in for the count of 4, then hold your breath in until the count of 7, then exhale slowly to the sound of 8. This simple technique is my go to when I find myself in stressful situations. Its quick and efficient. However, there are more advanced techniques that can be researched if it works for you.

 

3. Give Less F*cks 

This is really just an extension of number one, but it’s that important to give it it’s own bullet. There are some of us that care too much…about EVERYTHING. About what people may think, if we say the right thing, why our friends do the things they do, what our favorite celebrities are wearing, it’s crazy.

Our obsession with social media and reality shows surely does not help by making everything seem so important. It’s easy to get sucked into dramas of the day without knowing how the constant bombardment will affect your body in the long run.

These stressors can show up as skin irritations and breakouts, inflammation, and more throughout the body. This is what contributed to my mission to start caring less on an everyday basis.

I know this sounds harsh but it truly is about self-preservation more than anything else. And this does not mean I do not care about the important people in my life, I just choose to be very selective about the things I care about instead of allowing my life to be bombarded leaving me with less choices.

The easiest way to do this is by setting boundaries and learning to say no…even to yourself. I often joke with friends that the reason why I mostly wear black and white is because it allows me the freedom of not worrying about what to wear. When I only have a handful of colors, I know the outfits will easily go with each other. A couple of years ago, I realized that having too many choices in my closet was stressing me out and was leading to overspending. I had this “come-to-Jesus” moment and realized that despite what society was trying to sell me, fashion was making MY LIFE harder. I had to do what was right for me and streamline by cutting back to classic pieces that I can wear for years that can easily pair with each other.

What does this have to do with the skin? EVERYTHING. Remember the body is a system and is completely interconnected. So, by caring less about what society thought and sold me in this one aspect of my life allowed me to lower my stress levels tremendously. It kickstarted a bit of a domino effect in my life and made me re-evaluate what other aspects of I could streamline. This overall effect helps to lower your cortisol levels which is basically the stress hormone. So think about it and see where you can make changes.

 

4. Diet

This one is a no brainer. We all know this one because we’ve read it. But, how many of  us adhere to that in real life?

I grew up eating a pretty traditional American diet which includes a good amount of processed, greasy, and less than nutritious foods. Everything centered around eating was choosing what tasted great but could be picked up quickly because a lot of my childhood was on the go. But don’t get me wrong, I have to give it to my mother for keeping me away from too much candy and sugary drinks, so that habit never really stuck…until I got older.

With the stressors of adult life, I started to eat even worse than before. That was until I started on my healthy journey which was initially only about hormonal balance, but I saw how the change affected my skin. Not only did the tone of my skin and general irritations improve, I’ve also noticed the moisture in my skin increase along with a decrease in undereye puffiness.

The easiest way to think about the relationship between your skin and food is by understanding your skin is another method of elimination. That’s why we sweat and smell the garlic we eat through our pores (if you eat a good amount of it that is). So, it only makes sense that eating poorly will result in an increase in skin irritations. So, try eating better to see your skin flourish.

These are just a couple suggestions I have for better skin that has nothing to do with a product and are low cost or free. I hope this helps even though it is not as conventional as what other sites may recommend.

Want a couple tips on herbal stress relief solutions? Click the picture below to check out my post.