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Hola! It’s been a while since I’ve had a chance to sit down and write again. My goal from now until the end of the year is to do things that make my soul feel free and happy again. (Not that my soul hasn’t been happy, but you know we all have our moments).
I decided to get back into writing starting off with my second favorite topic in the world, SKIN! I’m thirty years old and can sadly admit that I’ve dealt with acne prone skin for as long as I can remember. I can attest to how detrimental bad skin can be for your self esteem, self confidence and overall mood. Believe me, my husband knew to avoid me when I was in the bathroom crying over my skin back when we were dating. A few years back I posted about my daily skincare routine, but like life, skincare concerns start to change. I still strongly believe in all the products I mentioned in my last skincare post, but I think this post will be geared more towards my ladies (and gents) in their 30’s and 40’s.
Let’s start off with, what is skin cycling? Well, skin cycling is not only a trend on TikTok with over 3.5 billion views, it’s a nightly skincare routine where you use active ingredients on your skin two nights and then follow it by two nights of recovery aka moisturizing nights. Then, you basically repeat this process over and over until the end of time. Below I’ll detail how each night typically looks for me so you can get a better idea of skin cycling and see how easy it is to do.
Night One: Exfoliation
It’s super important for the first step of your skin cycling to be exfoliation because you want to begin with the cleanest layer of your skin when it comes to applying acids later on. I use this exfoliator below after cleansing and drying my skin completely at night. It’s super easy to use with a cotton pad or on my lazy days I literally just use (clean) fingers and dab it all over my face. Before applying moisturizer, I wait for this exfoliant to dry. This exfoliant has 2% BHA, which sheds old skin cells and in turn reveals younger and smoother looking skin. This makes it the perfect base for night two. 😉
Night Two: Retinol
Now that we have a smooth and exfoliated face from the night before, we are going to apply a retinol. You can use any type that you like, but I choose to use this French one called A313. It’s much more affordable than other retinoids and a little bit goes a long way. After cleansing my skin and waiting for it to completely dry, I apply a few pea sized amounts all over my face and neck. I, then, wait a few minutes for it to dry before applying my moisturizer.
Night Three & Four: Recover
These are probably my favorite of all nights because they’re pretty simple and ultra relaxing: recovery nights. On these nights I focus on using extra hydrating cremes on my face to ensure my skin is extra moisturized, especially after using a retinol the night before. I LOVE this moisturizing cream from Khiels and use it on both of these nights.
If I have a little extra time on recovery nights, I’ll even use a face mask before I moisturize. Mediheal is my favorite Korean sheet face mask brand and now they’re available on Amazon for the same price!
Results.
I’ve been skin cycling for a couple of months now and have noticed my skin feeling smoother, softer and looking more clear. I was never the type to get complimented on my skin and now whenever I go to work, I get 1-2 compliments from strangers. Keep in mind, it took my skin almost a month to see any kind of results so if you begin skin cycling, be patient and know that the results are 100% worth it. I also think this is cheaper than getting botox done sine you’ll start to see fine lines and wrinkles start to disappear. My favorite part about skin cycling though has to be the fact that I haven’t had any crazy break outs. No more cystic acne. No more wearing heavy amounts of make up. My hopes in sharing this simple routine is to help others who have dealt with low self confidence due to acne and to share that there is a solution out there for them. Keep in mind, what works for me might not work for you, but you have nothing to lose in trying.
Below is just a little skin progress I’ve had throughout my skin journey:
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