37 part 2 - skincare

Because skincare is super pertinent to 37, isn't it?

Sito happened to comment on how 37 seemed to feel very different from 36. I didn't think much of it then but the next day, I was like, SHIT. Haha! Well, I'm not afraid of ageing but I still want to look youthful!

So for some reason, The Little Book of Skincare by Charlotte Cho showed up on the recommendation page on the NLB homepage on Overdrive. I was queueing for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child so I borrowed the skincare book to pass some time. (I've read three other books since! Yeah!)

IT WAS LIFE CHANGING!

Or at least, face changing.

That sounds wrong. Haha! Anyway, so I have been pretty nua since Yu arrived - I kind of stopped washing my face in the morning, or I washed but left it neat. Save time! After all, my face was so dry that it didn't feel oily in the morning, even when I put on moisturiser the previous night. Sometimes, I could even feel my skin stretch and threatening to crack! But that's just a wrinkly disaster waiting to happen.

Even before I was done with the book in mid December, I started washing my face, AND putting on my neglected products:

1. Homemade cider vinegar toner at 50% concentration - it's really good for me!
2. Vitamin C serum, my secret to zero blackheads, in combination with the toner 
3. Eye cream but its effectiveness is iffy at best; 10 seconds of concealer has proven to be more effective than 10 years of eye cream
4. Moisturiser - I just use a light one now though I should really use a heavier one at night
5. Sunblock

After a few days, I even added makeup - a little blusher and lipstick - when I went out with Sito :)

Sample - dewy not?? :p

Dewy, the epitome of good skin, is....hard to describe - the skin shines but not in an oily way. But it's so hard to achieve as it needs really good skin. So I'm not ditching my loose powder even though matt is apparently passe. It's all about balance and finding out what look is best on myself.

And another important part of skincare is the lips. Some may take their lips for grants but not me. Since having a series of horrible ulcers in primary two that went from my lower lip all the way through my cheeks to the back of my teeth on I think the right side of my mouth, my lower lip no longer looked normal. I couldn't help picking at the peeling bits. For years, I tried various balms to no permanent effect.

Then over Christmas weekend, as I was nursing Yu one evening in the dark, I felt my lips getting dry and starting to peel for the first time in two days. I realised that I had been googling for the wrong search terms - my lips were not chapped, not as much as they peeled ALL THE TIME.

I googled peeling lips instead of dry lips, and learnt about exfoliative cheiliti, where the lip gets inflamed when the top skin is removed, which caused it to regenerate too quickly only to peel off again - or something like that. But after reading more, I don't think I have exfoliative cheilitis, which look pretty serious. Since the symptoms and causes are similar, I decided to give the remedy a try: STOP PICKING AT MY LIP!

Gosh, it was so difficult! Two days later, as the skin on my lower lip started to peel off, it took all my might to not pick at it. I started to have skin drooping off my lip *.* So I cheated and kept pursing my lips so the loose skin came out. Two days later, more peeling, more pursing. Two weeks later, I'm looking at pretty lips in the mirror!

Droopy skin - before and after lip balm

A bit of skin came off after I applied lip balm and pursed my lips! 

(PS: Now I think my lips look like Mother's!!)

I still peel here and there but less often and less peeling. Of course I still put on lip balm all the time - I'm now more conscious of the need for lip balm than ever as I think it helps the skin recover. I'm not hoping for lips that don't need lip balm forever. I'm just happy that my lips are looking normal - no red areas due to peeling and picking. So happy!