Skin fasting is one of trendiest new beauty routines out there. It takes the concept of fasting and extends it to the skin. In other words, you’re supposed to take a short break from all of your various beauty products.
The fact that this is so trendy right now makes me smile. That’s because I’ve never used a lot of products on my skin. Sure, I occasionally brush some eyeshadow over my lids. I wear lipstick regularly. I wash my face with a basic apricot scrub every other week or so. However, for the most part, I just don’t get into the whole obsessive skin routine.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not claiming to have the best skin in the world. When my skin looks good, I mostly attribute it to eating healthy, drinking a lot of water, and generally being less stressed than normal. I think that what’s on the inside shows on the outside. Although I don’t need to detox off of a bunch of beauty products, the heart of the skin fasting routine makes sense to me.
What is Skin Fasting?
Skin fasting is rooted in the idea that your body has the ability to heal itself. This is derived directly from food fasting. When you stop putting a bunch of random stuff into your body, it has the potential to heal from within. Likewise, when you stop loading up your skin with makeups, lotions, and products (not to mention services like chemical peels and fillers), then you give it the chance to restore itself.
If you keep feeding things to your skin to make it better, then it comes to rely on those things. For example, if you constantly moisturize, then your skin will be dry when you fail to do so. However, if you take a nice long break from moisturizing, then your skin should heal itself. Then hydration will stabilize on its own.
Personally, I think it’s a little bit more complicated than that. As mentioned, I think what you put into your body and mind is reflected through your skin. So if you’re in a high-stress time and are eating lots of bad-for-you foods, then skin fasting may not result in excellent skin. That said, I also think that focusing less on all of the products you think your skin needs is a great start to reducing your stress, which will indeed help to improve your skin.
How to Do Skin Fasting
People who are jumping on the skin fasting trend approach it in a variety of ways. Here are some of the things that you might do if you’re skin fasting:
- Cancel your next appointment for skin services such as dermabrasion or fillers.
- Go to sleep each night without any products on your skin.
- Skip the moisturizer every day for ten days.
- Take a week-long break from all make-up including lipstick.
- Wash your face with water only.
Skin Fasting Is About Conscious Consumption
Ultimately, I think skin fasting is a good thing to try. It’s not even so much about how your skin looks and feels as a result, even though better skin is a nice benefit. Instead, it’s really about thinking more consciously about your choice in beauty products. More than taking a break for your skin, I think it allows you to take a break from your routine. This gives you a chance to look at your entire beauty routine in a new way.
When doing a skin fast, do it consciously. Keep a journal. Pay close attention to how you look and feel. If and when you decide to start using beauty products again, do so consciously. Don’t just go back to what you did before. Take what you’ve learned and grow from it. Maybe you’ll want to use fewer products, more eco-conscious products, or make some other change. Maybe you’ll realize that your beauty routine has taken up too much of your mental energy and you want to streamline it in order to focus on other things. Perhaps you’ll notice that reducing beauty product buying saves money. Or maybe you’ll go back to your old routine but you’ll be able to enjoy it more knowing that you’re doing it consciously and not just because society has told you it’s what you need to do.
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