Skincare As Self-Care: The Transformative Powers Of A Nightly Routine
There’s something sacred about an evening beauty routine. I’ve had one since I was a little girl. Every evening, I’d help my mama take off her makeup: squirting cool blobs of cream cleanser onto clouds of cotton wool and handing them over, watching her mascara and eyeliner fade with each swipe. I’d follow suit, smothering the cleanser across my skin followed by a rich layer of moisturiser – we’d massage Nivea across our faces and down our necks in tandem, using the same sweeping motions I’d learned by osmosis.
Back then, I thought it was a bit of fun; simply an act of removing makeup. Now, having developed my own nightly regime as an adult, I realise that it was so much more than that: it’s a vital act of self-care, helping to shed the stresses of the day and carve out an often rare moment just for you – that’s not including those hours scrolling through your phone when you should be asleep (something we’re all guilty of).
As Joanna Ellner – former beauty editor, acupuncturist and founder of beauty brand REOME – explains, skincare can be an important self-care tool to help us wind down each evening. “It’s impossible to over-state the benefits of turning your skincare routine into a ritual,” she says. “By assembling your own ritual, you are signalling to your body and mind that you are being cared for. You are important. Your skin is worth nurturing. Your body is precious.”
This is particularly important during periods when you’re feeling stressed and tired – while fixing all of life’s problems might seem overwhelming, taking a moment to care for your skin is a simple act you can do. In fact, it might be just what you need to help you put your phone down and calm your mind in preparation for sleep.
“Throughout history, beauty routines have always been acts of self-care, but we’ve never really acknowledged or understood [why] until now,” explains Danielle Close, founder of eco-conscious skincare brand My Skin Feels, who understands the mental health benefits a skincare regime can bring. “There is such a huge connection between physical touch and feeling grounded,” she says. While we’re all aware of the soothing powers of physical touch, such as a hug from a loved one, research has shown that acts of self-touch, “such as placing a hand on body parts like the heart, face, or belly” can lower cortisol levels and act as “an expression of self-compassion […] that has been found to improve stress coping”. “So, applying moisturiser, body scrubbing, body brushing or simply feeling your face and your skin is an easy tool for getting back to yourself, your body and your mind,” Close adds.
Brand consultant and beauty expert Kat Towers is well-versed in the healing effects of skincare, having founded the social community @beautyofgrief to explore the powers of beauty as a self-care tool to help process loss. “When I started Beauty Of Grief, I tried so hard not to trivialise self-care with talk of facemasks and hair treatments,” she says. But she came to realise these acts are far from trivial: “It’s not uncommon for grief to take someone away from their daily activities, and that includes their skincare routine,” she explains. “I saw my face change. I couldn’t move forward with such complicated grief until I took time to reconnect with who I was.”
This resonates deeply, having seen the physical effects periods of stress can have firsthand, and in turn how beauty can provide solace. After losing my mum two years ago, I stopped wearing makeup. My multi-step skincare regime faded to a mere splash of cold water, morning and night. As a result, my face changed, too; the telltale signs of grief coupled with a lack of self-care reflected in the condition of my skin. Over time, as I began the slow steps towards processing and healing, one of the first things I came back to was our nightly skincare routine. As Towers understands, beauty is “one of the small acts of service I could do to show up for myself, at home, in the mess of my bedroom. Self-care isn’t always pretty.”
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Taking just minutes to use that same cream cleanser and applying moisturiser using those same sweeping motions not only began to improve how I looked, it made me feel closer to my mum – and began to bring me back to myself again. Since then, my nightly beauty regimes have become more important than ever – a moment to unwind and come back to ‘me’, no matter what has happened that day.
It’s less about the products (although great skincare can be truly transformative), and more about the act itself. As Close says, a beauty regime, however simple, is an opportunity “to wash off the day and start again; a re-set for both the mind and the body”. It’s about inviting the mind and body to relax and carving out a moment in the day just for you, in a way that works for you – it’s your routine, after all.
5 Tips For Creating A Relaxing Wind-Down Beauty Ritual…
- Prioritise Your Time – “Skincare as self-care is more than just a particular product, it’s a ritual to help you get back to yourself,” says Close. “[So] carve out that time. It shouldn’t be a chore, it’s like brushing your teeth. Every day give yourself 2 minutes, 5 minutes, 10 minutes to wash it all off and start again. It’s not about what you do but giving yourself some space to do it.”
- Create The Atmosphere – “It might be playing some soft music in the background, [perhaps] the same song or artist, each day,” suggests Ellner. “Or it might be, as I do, waiting until the rest of the house is asleep, so I can access a different level of peace that I can’t during our waking hours.” “And candles,” adds Towers. “[I find] candles are beautiful for helping me slow down and for setting the right vibe.” We love Neom Perfect Night’s Sleep Candle.
- Immerse Yourself In Scent – “I love Mirror Water [by Estée Lalonde],” says Towers. “[Its] body care products are as sensory and transporting as they are effective. If you don’t have a bath, sprinkle Soak Bath Salts into the shower tray and as the steam heats up, your whole bathroom will be filled with the most incredible scent. I don’t know what magical forest they’re sourcing their Canadian spruce from, but their products smell and feel unreal!”
- Keep It Simple – The goal is to wind down and destress, so don’t put pressure on yourself to follow complex 10-step routines. “My friend, [facialist] Katie Onyejekwe, recommended Medik8 C-Tetra Cream,” says Towers. “On days where you can only manage the bare minimum (cleansing and moisturising), her advice is to choose products that contain results driven actives such as vitamin C and acids to make up for the fact you’re not doing much else in your routine.”
- Try Massage – Ellner swears by this quick massage to elevate your wind-down ritual, while applying a serum such as REOME Active Recovery Broth. “After warming it in my hands, I pat it on the widest expanses of my face using the heel of my palm,” she says. “I then gently push up against my cheekbones and jawline, before finishing with a tapping of fingertips across my face like raindrops. Tapping your skincare formulations into the skin is something I discovered on a trip to Japan many years ago. I love the notion that massage can be as gentle as a fingertip tap, to lightly jolt the skin’s cells into action.”
Olivia McCrea-Hedley is Copy Editor at Service95
