Recent Addiction : Skin Care (Especially Korean Ones)

I used to be that girl who does not care much about skin care. I consider myself quite blessed with (most of the time) acne-free face and no major skin complain. Of course my skin is not of the brightest kind, and it can get slightly oily at times, but hey...I don't really care.

I committed all kind of skin sins in the past. I slept late. I drank less than 8 glass of water every day... heck, it's a miracle if I even reached 4 glass (should have known better since I had kidney problems as a child). I gobbled all kind of sweets and cakes, and left my veggies untouched. I used my daily face wash in the morning and that's about it. I only used moisturizer when I remember to...which means very very seldom. And sunscreen…what sunscreen?

When I had sleepovers with my friends, I watched in awe as they diligently dabbed and rubbed their skincare products before sleep (and more in annoyance when their prepping up took sooo much time in the morning). I thought, I could never do these things.

All the conditions above started to change when Scott and I went to Trans Studio Mall in August 2014. Aside from trying all the rides, we spent a lot of time in the science corner. We were particularly intrigued with "the aging machine", basically a computer that will predict your old face based on your current photograph. You can add filters to the old face picture and see how you would look like if you smoke, have obesity or continuously exposed to UV rays. I took my old face picture, because why not, hahaha.  I put UV rays filter because I am very unlikely to be obese, and I am not going to smoke even if my life depends on it. The result made Scott burst into laughter for around a minute. He kept a picture of it, probably because he liked to collect materials for blackmailing purposes.

Since then, my beauty resolution is to look better than my old face prediction when I actually turn 70. I started minding the SPF in my moisturiser (the only face skin care product I used then) and use it regularly. Well, regularly-ish. It's not much, but it's an improvement nonetheless.

MORAL : USE YOUR SUNSCREEN, PEEPS!
(Taken and memefied by Scott)

The healthy skin epiphany run faster to me when I had major hell-sent breakout of the century throughout the first half of this year. It was one the most stressful time of my life: I had so many things to do, so little time, and well, life has tendencies to turn into a shitfest at the most inappropriate time. It has taken toll not only on my skin condition, but also my health and my self esteem. And it was just so disheartening to face the mirror every day and see a reflection of a pitiful human being, the messy state of her insides (literally and figuratively) showing up on the outside.

In addition to stress, my almost non-existent skin care routine made everything worse. Needless to say…I am in dire need of a good skincare routine.

It started with a seemingly innocent search about how to combat acne and blemishes (my main skin care concern at the time). I found several beauty blogging sites raving about sheet masks with acne-treating property. I thought, this is interesting. Sheet masks sounds agreeable: they looked quite effective (at least from the reviews), they are somewhat cheap, and it feels non-committal because I would only use them once in a while. If I don't like them, I can just stop using them. It's not like the million-steps Korean beauty routine some sites suggested to get healthy and pretty looking skin. I thought, I couldn't stand two-steps beauty routine consisted of face wash and moisturiser, don't even mention 10-steps beauty routine to me!

I wanted to try sheet masks from some Korean brands, like Etude House (known to me mainly because SHINee endorsed it in the past) or The Face Shop (likewise, known to me because Seohyun of SNSD endorsed it). When I contemplated to go to PVJ mall (located quite near to my office) to buy those sheet masks, my lovely cousin Farina Andrea Yudistira told me I can get original product with cheaper price from some online shopping sites. As usual, I followed her trusty advice.

...and then, all hell break loose.

Considering that I was the girl who does not do skincare, this is as special as riding a rainbow-colored unicorn for me. I have AM and PM routine now, as well as weekly home treatment...which are not exactly 10 steps, but close. I filled my bloglovin feed with beauty blogs (particularly those focused on Korean skin care products). I randomly blabber about the skincare properties of niacinamide and snail mucin whenever I have chance, to my friends' astonishment. I don't go outside without sunscreen. I started applying eye cream religiously. I can't even think about not double cleansing in the evening without shuddering.

I also started taking scary selfies of me wearing sheet mask. You're welcome.

Currently I use mostly brightening/whitening products to encourage my skin back to its blemish-free condition. One month after my foray to the unknown territory of skin care, I noticed my skin has improved a lot. I still have PIH (post inflammation hyperpigmentation) but the acnes are mostly gone. The PIH do fade slowly (I will be wary of anything promising too fast results, especially without strong scientific claims to back it)... and if this continue, I am pretty sure that when I reach my 70s, I will look better than predicted.

Performing these routine somehow calms me. Feels therapeutic, if you will. My morning routine prepares me to face the day in a high spirit. After a bad day, my evening routine feels like a soothing spa treatment. In particularly good days, cleansing and moisturising my face in the evening feels like a congratulatory treats for passing the day successfully.

Sometimes people accused women who take a great care of their appearance as vain person, trying to attract attention/admiration/envy of others. Now I know it firsthand, sometimes taking care of your appearance has nothing to do with how others think about you. It is possible to do this just to make you feel better about yourself. Taking care of myself help me feel that I am on track; I am improving myself, outwardly and inwardly.

On the negative side, my wallet cries. So much.

So, blog readers, please don’t be surprised if you see skin care related posts every now and then. I am currently enjoying being that girl who takes care of her skin. Yes the routines added some time to my preparation of the day, also prevent me from directly jumping to bed after a long, tiring day. My travel bag also has become bulkier than before with all the additional bottles and creams. It’s okay. I learned to be more disciplined; since my routine has become quite essential in my daily life, I just need to spare time for it. I also learned to pack more efficiently, so my skincare pouch would fit in my travel bag.

Yes, I am currently enjoying being that girl who takes care of her skin…and I don’t intend to stop.