Oftentimes, I get asked what my guilty pleasure is: it’s my skincare routine. Nothing makes me feel better than coming home after a long day of classes and unwinding with skincare. I’ll flip on my favorite music, have a little dance party in the mirror, and get to work for the night. Â
Even when I come home after a long night out, I still feel the need to wash my face, take off my make up, and put on all my serums and moisturizers. Whenever people ask me why I am so ritualistic about it, I usually laugh it off and say it’s because it feels good to wake up content with how the products absorbed into my skin.Â
To tell you the truth – I’m traumatized from a horrible case of cystic acne in high school and skincare gives me back the control over my complexion I had once lost. I would find myself losing more and more hope after each doctor’s visit that it would never clear up. Every medicine in the book was prescribed to me, and nothing truly worked until I finally agreed on Accutane. That painful year of dried lips and cysts was one of the most emotionally and mentally draining times of my life – but it gave me an enormous sense of self-growth. Â
Being one of the only girls in my family, I have always felt pressured into abiding by beauty standards and making sure I always looked my absolute best. But shit happens. My hormones took over, and I could not stop the abrupt shift in my appearance. That lack of control absolutely gutted me – I felt like things were never going to change and like I was the ugliest person in a room at any given moment. I would cry myself to sleep praying that it would magically go away, I would cancel plans based on how my skin looked that day, and I would look in the mirror every 2 minutes thinking that somehow it would change. Â
Being able to get past that mentality took a lot of emotional strength, something that may be hard to understand without experiencing it.
So, here’s my advice to anyone going through a similar situation: don’t ever lose yourself on the journey to loving yourself. I promise it will eventually get better, and nothing is going to make you more confident. I can now walk around with my head held high knowing I have overcome something so mentally draining. In the process, I’ve learned to love myself even more and have become well-educated about the right products for my skin. Â
So honestly, my guilty pleasure isn’t necessarily caring for my skin – it’s caring for myself. It’s my way of remembering that I can glow beyond just the surface. Â
And having that power? Oh, it’s something only I can control. Â