When I was in my 20’s (omg, seems forever and a day ago!) I used to spend at least an hour getting ready for work in the morning. I’d wake up at some ungodly hour (like 5:30am) just to shower and put my face on before skidding out the door!
These days, I have definitely made it a rule to spend no more than 30 minutes getting ready. Anything more than that, is just waaay too much time. Do you ever feel that way? Seems there isn’t enough time in the day to do everything you want or even need to do, so who wants to add unnecessary time well if hey, it’s unnecessary?
We all want to look well groomed and fabulous, just maybe getting there in much less time. Here are some tips for shortening that time.
1. CUTTING DOWN THE AMOUNT OF PRODUCTS YOU SLATHER ON
Okay, so do you really need to apply 15 different products on your skin before your day begins? I think we know the answer would be a big fat NO. If you list all the products you use on your skin in one day, you could probably shrink it down to half the amount if not more. If you take a good analysis and inventory, you can probably see some products either won’t add any benefit to your skin (i.e. don’t need) or multiple products are being used for a specific concern (hello! could you be using too many products??). Hmm, is it overkill to have an anti-aging cleanser, toner, moisturizer, 2 serums and night cream? If you have that kind of time and money to devote, then more power to you! I personally don’t have that kind of time or money, plus I’d be worried about clogging my pores with too much product. Then I’ll have to worry about what to use to make my breakouts go away!
2. MAKE SMARTER USE OF YOUR TIME
I know we’re all creature of habits and we like our AM/ PM rituals. How many of you take your showers, only to come out and perform another ritual of either putting on your daytime face or performing your nighttime ritual before bed? I myself did this for years both in the morning and nighttime. Boy, did I waste a lot time????!@#$%^&
Nowadays, to shorten time, I limit showering to once daily unless of course I need to (saving me an extra 15 minutes) and combining my facial regimen while in the shower (like duh why didn’t I think of this before). I make sure to use my facial cleanser and scrub before coming out of the shower, so I only need to apply my serum(s) OR moisturizer after, which takes no more than 1 minute! (saving me an extra 10 minutes).
3. SKIP THE DAILY HAIR WASH
Yes, I was indeed guilty of this as well! Unless you have specific scalp issues, you don’t need to wash your hair daily. Too much washing can activate more oil secretion or dry your scalp. Try skimming down to every other day or even every 2 days (without blow drying, saves 10 minutes, with blow drying, saves 25 minutes!).
4. FOCUS ENERGIES ON IMPROVING YOUR HEALTH, OVERALL SELF AND SKIN
You may or may not be aware of this but I am gonna share a little secret. Why is it we spend so much time putting on product and make-up? I know we all want to appear beautiful but sometimes, we apply and put on so much because we don’t feel we have fabulous skin or we don’t feel beautiful. I have found this to be true for SO MANY OF MY PATIENTS. This in part is due to society and cultural reasons but I will say time and time again I have found this to be true. When you feel like your skin is glowing naturally, feels amazing and is downright radiant, you don’t want to put a thing on your skin. No make-up, no product, NOTHING.
So the better you take care of your health and your overall self (remember this means spiritually, emotionally, physically), you’ll find yourself simplifying the amount of product you’re using.
As for my morning routine, instead of using greater amounts between 5 products, I tapered it down to 3-4 and in minimal amounts and 10 minutes! Amazing right?
I used to use a cleanser, moisturizer, primer, liquid foundation with SPF and finally my make-up (blush, eyeshadow, eyeliner, all equaling 30 minutes!).
As it turns out, I only wash my face IF it’s oily, I certainly don’t need moisturizer, I use a miniscule pea size amount of liquid foundation after sunscreen and keep all make-up to a minimum. So what happened?
After devoting the past year and half to focusing energies on my health, my overall self and of course my skin, I have truly felt my skin feeling the best ever. My skin and health are in such better shape, I wind up not putting a whole lot on my skin anymore. Simplifying my regimen was an extra plus that came as a result. Not to mention, I saved 55 MINUTES of time a day, nearly 6 hours a week!
Just to recap:
1 shower daily saves 15 min/ day 105 min/ week
PM regimen saves 10 min/ day 70 min/ week
AM regimen saves 20 min/ day 140 min/ week
Washing hair 3 x/ week, skipping 4x
Saves 10 min/ day 40 min/ week
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Total time saved 55 min/ day 355 min or 5.92 hrs/ week!
How about you? Share any tips you use for simplifying your skin care regimen.
What do you do to shorten the time?
Do you also feel it to be true, the more your skin shines naturally, the less you want to put on it??
Share with us !
Till next time skin ravers!