You remember the movie Death Becomes Her? Madeline Ashton the main character sits in front of a mirror and says – wrinkle, wrinkle little star. Hope they never see the scars. Sadly, this is the reality after you turn 30. Maybe not thinking hope they never see the scars but wrinkle, wrinkle definitely.

Did you think that going through puberty is dreadful? Waking up every morning with lovely new pimples on your face? Yeah, after turning 30 you wake up, look in the mirror and think… hmmm that line wasn’t here yesterday. Then you run to the closest store to buy expensive anti-wrinkle creams with donkey testicles extract hoping that IT will return your baby face. That won’t work. Unfortunately, with age the skin loses collagen, becomes thinner and becomes less smooth. We start noticing wrinkles and dark spots. As nowadays the world got obsessed with eternal youth no wonder that cosmetic industries are a pure gold mine. Now, I have no intention in shaming the cosmetic business, not at all! Point is that we start doing something with our skin when we notice the first lines on our forehead or around the eyes. By then it’s too late. Taking care of our skin should start years before that, ideally in the early 20’s.

1.     Makeup removal

Yeah, didn’t always do that. Sometimes after studying for exams, I fell asleep on the sofa. Woke up in the middle of the night and went to the bedroom to continue sleeping. Makeup stayed on. The morning after not only were my eyes swollen from the mascara that was there the whole time the pillow had disgusting black stains on it. Bleh… Or another way of removing make up was to wash my face and remove the mascara with the towel while drying the face. No using any makeup removal stuff or a toner after washing. No no no and no! This is not the way how makeup should be removed. Luckily, I didn’t damage my face skin badly with those practices. Makeup should be removed with a cotton pad and a makeup removal product. Also, the face needs to be washed properly to remove all that shit which got stuck to your face over the day. Then toner + crème and presto! Now I never go to bed without removing makeup. If I feel like I wanna do an afternoon nap I remove the makeup before 😛

2.     Skin care daily not once a week

Monday is exfoliant day, Tuesday hydrating day, Wednesday sleeping mask etc. Think that works. I do occasionally get pimples but that’s mostly after a diving trip – seawater and sweat contribute to it a lot. Point is that I don’t invest hours to do that. In the evening when Netflix is on I put on a face mask. I set the timer for 20 minutes, watch Squid Game for example and the skin is absorbing all that good stuff from the snail essence sheet mask 😀 Easy!

3.     Sunbathing 

Until my 30’s, summer or beach holidays without a proper suntan were wasted and could be considered as never happening. I was lying on a deckchair from 11 am till 4 pm. After the first two days I was red like a lobster. Sunscreen 15 or above was non existing in my opinion. Two weeks later I returned home being crisp brow. My last sunbathing adventure was in Kenya in 2017. During this trip although I used spf45 I came back home dry and brown like a resin.

Well, now I know much more about basic skincare than ten years ago. Luckily, I had a very good skin care mentor – my bestie PRS. She was kind enough to share with me some cool tips and tricks. Like the benefits of acids and vitamin C. One time when I told PRS that I don’t use a toner as this is a waste of time. The look she gave me could kill an army of people. Then I heard, how can you not use a toner? It’s essential to keep the skin moist before applying any other products…. Yyyyyy OK, fine. 

After that incident, PRS recommended a book. Yes, a book. The Little Book of Skin Care: Korean Beauty Secrets for Healthy, Glowing Skin by Charlotte Cho. Not only is it a cool book where Charlotte describes her adventures in Seoul, she also gives useful skincare tips and tricks. Recommend everybody in their 20’s and 30’s to read that book. Read it in two evenings. Two as somewhere in the middle of the book got up and spent a long time in front of the mirror to take a closer look at my skin. Result, it wasn’t as bad as I thought 😉

On top of that, what I do at home, once a month is to go to a cosmetic salon to get a facial. I’ve been going to the same beautician – Agata for the past eight years. She knows my skin and always recommends what should be done to keep the wrinkles away. My next appointment is scheduled for coming Monday… I can’t wait! 

Ageing isn’t easy, especially when you notice wrinkles or ageing spots on your face or a growing double chin… yeah thanks Mum for that genetic feature 😛 Ideally, I would like to press a stop button when I was 25. My skin looked more radiant than now but that’s impossible. On the other hand, I don’t plan to go crazy with cosmetics or cosmetic procedures to keep my skin looking like I was 25. It has no point. What I can do and what I can recommend to you is to keep a reasonable approach towards skincare. Have a morning ritual which doesn’t take longer than 10 minutes and an evening ritual which can take a bit longer. For example, every morning I wash my face, apply toner, eye crème and a couperose skin crème around the nose area. Then I go to make my bed, put on the cattle, make coffee. Five minutes later I apply a day crème on my face. The whole procedure doesn’t take longer than 10 minutes. In the evening depending on the day, I either scrub, hydrate or brighten my skin. That takes a bit longer but as mentioned I can watch Netflix in the meantime. Think it works as sometimes when I buy wine, I get asked for my ID. It mostly happens when I don’t wear makeup. Then the shop assistant looks at the birth date on the ID and doesn’t believe that I’m 35 😛 It’s funny. When I was 16 and was buying alcohol, nobody asked me to show my ID. 

However, I noticed something else. The way we feel has a huge effect on our skin. When I meet my friends who I haven’t seen for a long time every time I hear – Alice did you do something? You look so radiant! Well, I got divorced was the answer. Since then I try to keep up the good mood 😉