The coronavirus has forced us to readjust our lives and that’s been quite difficult for most of us. But, on the other hand, staying at home has been like a vacation for our skin! Protected from UV radiation and dust and pollution, it’s been a great time for your skin to recover and rejuvenate.
Working from home is here to stay, at least for a while. Also, pandemic or no pandemic, many of us homebodies, work-from-homers and stay-at-home-parents still spend the majority of our time at home! So if you haven’t started already, it’s time to make the most of it to help your skin get better! Here are some useful tips to look after and pamper your skin while at home to make it rejuvenated, beautiful, and youthful.
-
Be regular with your skincare routine
Staying at home makes it harder to stick to a schedule. Without the bustle of getting to work or meeting people and the push to follow a routine, many of us have become lazy slobs taking even work meetings in our pj’s in bed!
That won’t work. Unfortunately, your skin doesn’t have hunger pangs like your stomach to remind you it needs attention and that it’s time for care. You just need to follow a strict routine- your a.m. and p.m. skincare regimen- without fail. Make it a habit at a set time, perhaps pre-breakfast and pre-bedtime.
Also, if you’re wondering whether your skin really needs the routine while at home – after all there’s no damage from UV radiation or pollution anyway – you couldn’t be more disillusioned! Your skin still sheds dead cells, there’s still dust in the air even indoors and there’s a lot of grime from the excess oil your skin produces. Also, it still suffers from dryness given the weather and the products you use and many other factors.
Follow your cleanse-tone-moisturize routine twice every day to promote your skin health and keep skin troubles away. Staying at home is no excuse to skip your routine – in fact it’s even more of a reason to develop it!
-
Change your sheets and pillowcases more often
Staying at home for most of us means spending more time in our beds. If you’ve made your bed your office and dining table and entertainment zone and me-time space on several days despite your strict home-discipline, you’re certainly not alone!
Your skin sheds a lot of dead cells every day that land on your bed. In addition, there’s the dust in the air that settles on it even though you cannot see it. And let’s not forget where that excess oil from the skin goes at night (yes, it wipes off on the sheets). All these impurities accumulate on the sheets and pillowcases and more bed-time means more skin contact with them!
If you were changing your sheets once every week earlier, you probably need to double the rate while at home. Even if you don’t see the dirt, it’s there. It’s in contact with your skin, clogging your pores and causing breakouts!
-
Invest in a humidifier
This is a great tip for winters and dry climates, especially if your skin tends to get dry too often. Since you’re spending more time indoors, modulating your atmosphere’s humidity can go a long, long way in improving your skin health.
Even if it costs a bit of initial investment, it’ll definitely reap huge rewards. Imagine – no more flaky hands, itchy legs and cracked feet! Dryness is the cause of a number of skin concerns from sensitivity to inflammation to premature aging. A humidifier will help the skin retain its moisture and keep it supple and plump.
-
Stay-at-home exercise
So what if you can’t go to the gym? Your body, and especially your skin needs the regular exercise nonetheless. Maybe even more so at home given that we become so sedentary and our muscles get barely any movement at home.
Try out stay-at-home exercises – bodyweights, HIIT, yoga, tabata, aerobics – there are tons of them! If you’re really invested, it might even be worth it to build your own home gym.
Exercising gets the blood flowing which means the skin cells get more oxygen and nutrition. This keeps them nourished and vital. Also, more blood flow means that toxins and free radicals released by the skin cells get flushed out more effectively. This means better skin cell function with youthful, glowing skin.
-
Home remedies to treat concerns
While at home, why not spend some time trying out a home remedy with a thing or two from your fridge and pantry! There are hundreds of promising home remedies to treat all kinds of skin concerns – deep blackheads, whiteheads, dry skin, oily skin, pimples, wrinkles, hyperpigmentation, etc.
Home remedies use mild and completely natural ingredients that are mostly safe. They come at little or no cost and they’re fun! Painting a turmeric mask, rubbing tomato juice, using up your green tea remains, making your own moisturizer – they all come with the DIY satisfaction apart from the skin benefits.
-
De-stress
Staying at home is not easy for most people, even those of us who are complete home-bodies. Without the freedom of meeting friends and family, travel, going to public places and events, eating out, etc., stress can build up. In fact, many have suffered from mental breakdowns and mental health has become more talked about since the pandemic.
De-stressing is definitely important for the mind and body, but it’s also crucial for the skin. When the body is stressed, the hormone cortisol is produced in abnormal quantities. Cortisol leads to a number of skin troubles like breakouts, hyperpigmentation and inflammation.
Find your own ways of de-stressing whether it’s with meditation or reading a book, watching a movie, talking to a friend or just anything at all. Even exercise can be stress-busting!
-
Treat your skin a weekly face mask
With more time on your hands, why not indulge in the weekly masks on the faces! No, not the protective mask against the coronavirus, but the nourishing face mask for the skin!
A face mask can help you hydrate your skin, achieve oil control and improve its tone and appearance. Exfoliating masks help slough off the dead skin to remove dullness and encourage rejuvenation. Face masks can give your skin that extra boost and help deal with your skincare concerns for healthy, glowing skin.
