Find Balance in Skincare: Nourish vs Workout

Are you guilty of being a skincare addict? Do you keep buying and adding to the products and then get frustrated because you’re not seeing the results you’d like. Maybe it’s time to find balance in your skincare approach.

But how do you find balance? What does that look like?

I always aim for finding balance between nourishing my skin and “working” my skin. By working, I mean using technology or ingredients that push my skin to do more. By nourishing, I mean using products with ingredients that hydrate and feed the skin with gentle ingredients.

You can do too much no matter how wonderful your products are. If you are piling on products without understanding what your skin needs, you could be wasting your money or sabotaging your results. And, you risk damaging your skin when it comes to overuse of technology.

How do you know if you’re overdoing it? Your skin will let you know.

You’ll notice drying effects, worsening of wrinkles, your skin just doesn’t look healthy. This can happen if you’re stripping the skin barrier with harsh cleansers, too many chemical peels, and over exfoliating. Stripping too much leaves skin vulnerable to bacterial infections that show up in tiny little bumps, over production of oil, and over exfoliating will make skin red, blotchy, and sensitive.

Remember more is not always better. I love experimenting with special treatments and when I demonstrate them I am never suggesting they be done often or that they are for everyone. You have to pay attention to what your skin needs – and doesn’t need.

We all get busy, and feel stressed and tired and we might be tempted to skimp on good self-care. This is where we might swing the other direction and do too little. If we’re not careful one day will turn into two days and two days into more and our skin suffers. Skip cleansing too often and you will wake up to dead skin cells sitting on the surface of your skin. Each time you skip a cleanse, you’re allowing dead skin cells to pile up. Your skin starts looking dull and grimy, and this can lead to over production of oil and pores that look dirty and oversized. So doing too little isn’t the way to go either.

We also need to find balance with the technology we’re using. I love the devices I use and they make a BIG difference in my anti-aging game plan. But that can be overdone as well. Again, our skin will let us know if it’s time to rest. Pay attention. Over worked skin will go from looking great to gradually looking lack luster, dull, and flat. It’s kind of like inflating a balloon. You can only fill it so far before it pops. Plumped skin looks wonderful but if you go too far it will go flat and lose it’s glow and radiance. Again, more is not always better.

Finding balance between nourishing and working the skin should always be the goal. You’ll get there with practice and making adjustments based on how your skin speaks to you.