This month, the month of July, I’ve partnered with Pond’s to share ‘Beautiful Habits’ as well as their ‘Expression Lines’ campaign with you. As a 32-year old, almost 33-year old woman, I’ve collected a couple of beauty habits throughout the years – some good and some bad. I think it’s only fair that I share the good with you as well as let you in on a little secret – you can love your expressions, but you can lose the lines they bring . The lines that converge on our faces are a reflection of the lives we’ve lived – the laughs we’ve shared with friends, the squabbles we’ve endured, the sleepless nights filled with worry and the smiles that touched our lips during cheerful moments. We wear these expression lines as a badge of honour. However, that doesn’t mean we can’t age gracefully and prevent those fine lines from taking up permanent residence on our skin.
I can’t imagine the world without facial expressions, but I’d love to be able to express myself without worrying (those damn frown lines!) about how my skin is going to reflect my tempestuous moods. I have a very animated face and tend to not only wear my heart on my sleeve but also my emotions all over my face. Have you heard of a poker face? Yes? Well, I don’t have one. I smile with my eyes and I heartily laugh with my whole face. But I’ve been a good girl and since my early 20’s I’ve been religiously taking care of my skin and here’s hoping that by the time I reach my golden years I’ll look like a well-preserved, graceful old lady and not a decrepit old biddy.
Looking after your skin isn’t just about the products you use, albeit very important, what you put inside your body and how you treat your skin is just as essential as what you put on your skin. I’m sharing my four favourite ‘beautiful habits’ with you. What are yours?
1.Use a Serum
A couple of years ago I introduced a serum into my beauty regime and I haven’t looked back since. If you want to offer your skin an anti-aging boost then serums are crucial. Serums contain the highest concentration of active ingredients, which means that you’ll actually get the results you want, whether you’re looking to brighten, reduce fine lines, firm up or diminish pigmentation. Go ahead and reach for that serum and remember to apply it after cleansing and before your daily moisturiser. Try the Pond’s Age Miracle Intensive Cell ReGEN™ Serum (R200)
2. Get your beauty sleep
In this day and age of Millennials, sleep can be very elusive. We are overworked, stressed and lacking in the Zzz’s department. Did you know that your skin repairs itself at night while you snooze? By committing to 8 hours (when possible) you can discourage dark circles, puffiness and a dull, lifeless complexion from manifesting. This magical commodity called sleep may be the closest thing there is to a fountain of youth. No wonder sleeping beauty had a handsome prince fighting for a kiss. She was positively radiant and rested – he couldn’t resist her. *wink*
3. Drink lots of water
This is probably the most cliched beauty tip of them all. If you Google ‘beauty habits’ almost every article will drill it into you – drink 8 glasses of water a day. I can’t reiterate it enough. If you notice fine lines cropping up on your forehead or around your eyes it could be a case of dehydration. Water helps flush toxins out of your body and hydrates your entire system, which in turns show up on your face as radiant, healthy looking skin. But if you find it difficult to stomach several glasses of (bland) water a day then try adding a bit of flavour to your H20. I thoroughly enjoy a zesty slice of lemon/lime, a refreshing sprig of mint or a few chopped up berries in my water. Sip your way to healthier skin.
4. Take your makeup off every night!
It’s impossible for me to enjoy a good night’s sleep when I haven’t washed off my ‘face of the day’. I’m physically unable to relax knowing that my face is still caked with skin-clogging gunk. Irrespective of your busy schedule, please forbid yourself from removing your shoes and just falling into bed at the end of the day. Your skin will thank you for caring – you’ll wake up fresh, radiant and blemish free. This implies removing all traces of makeup and not just quickly rubbing a semi-wet makeup wipe over your face. You need to spend a few minutes cleansing (or double-cleansing), toning and moisturising your precious skin. I normally double cleanse by washing my face with a cleanser and then following that up with a toner. Try the Pond’s Flawless Radiance Bright & Fresh Even Tone Toner (R80)
*full disclosure – this is a paid for campaign, however everything mentioned in this post is my own opinion and I firmly stand behind everything I’ve said.
This is the first affordable serum that I have come across. I think I will definitely do some research int it and see if it is fit for me because I really want to start including a serum into my evening routine. Thanks for sharing.
x Rivania | The Glam Unicorn
Pleasure! 🙂 It’s a lovely option. A serum is a must in my opinion.
Hi Rivania. This is an okay-ish serum in my opinion.
The ponds age miracle range has been out for many years now- I started using it in my mid twenties (25-26 years old) and stopped using it about a year and half ago. I’m 28 now and whilst I can say the products applied well ( I used the entire range for ±2 years), in retrospect I feel I didn’t actually derive any real benefit from it-least of all the serum!
I’m using different products since a year and half ago which cost more in total price but I have seen major results in my skin-im glad I made the switch, because ponds was useless on me-I’m quite fair for an indian/hindu woman. And have hypersensitive and acne-prone skin which burns in the sun easily… Its hard for me to believe that these things worked on this womans’ skin when I’m quite a bit younger than her and more sensitive in skin type as well..
Ponds make great products and they applied very well on me, but unless they’ve reworked the formula (which I doubt) I find it hard to believe that these products are effective! And I’m talking from experience here! Mind you, 2 years of experience- and I bought with my own money every month…
Please bear in mind, the writer of this post (chicara) hasn’t actually reviewed these products in detail here and was also paid to write this. I’m not trying to deter you from purchasing- go ahead and make your choices, but take blog post opinions with a pinch of salt- most of these women are getting paid and say as much. Also, they are not experts. Neither am I, but I like to think I am certainly more intelligent and able to formulate better quality opinions than most of them… They try to fool the masses with their half baked, two bit opinions, of which the average woman is none the wiser.
No intended offence to the writer of this post. I’m speaking in merely generally terms..
I used to follow you on twitter a while ago (My twitter username is @Angel_Aarthi) -but I’m not very active on social media these days. I know who you are and read your blog sometimes. This is why I took the time to leave a reply to you, asking you to be wary of what you read on the internet..
Thanks for your thorough reply to Rivania. I just need to add that as far as products go it can be a subjective thing. We all have different skins and different needs. One product might do wonders for one person and nothing for another.
Yes, you are right. I haven’t done an extensive review on the serum (above) and while I was paid for the post, I wasn’t paid to mention any Pond’s products. This post was only about my own beautiful habits. I chose to mention Pond’s because I enjoy using their products.
Hello! Thank you for a very gracious response to my comments. I didn’t mean any harm or try to imply that you are stupid. You are not and I read your blog too sometimes and really admire your photographs- they are all very pretty pictures indeed! Also your writing is nice and quite short and to the point. Also, thanks for not deleting my comment-most bloggers would have, because anytime someone posts what they percieve as negative is usually a comment that doesn’t agree with what they (the blogger) has said 🙂 <3 (sadly I see this a lot on social media, and even if you leave a constructive criticism, then you will be branded a 'hater'. Some of these women need to get off their high horse- nobody hates them, they are just fools. Full stop. And not everybody can be fooled.
Taking into consideration what you have said about beauty being very subjective, I fully understand and agree! However, here's a thought- since beauty/skincare is so subjective as we all know, why is the beauty blogging industry blowing up the way it is? What works for one woman may or may not work for someone else, yet brands keep sending tons of free things and also paying any blogger to write up their opinions on a certain product. At the end of the day it is only their opinion to which they have a right, yet they are monetizing their blogs and making an easy living from 'blogging'… Ultimately some bloggers inadvertently become more authoritative then they ought to be imo. And the more authoritative they become the more they get paid! I disagree with this 'blogging' industry because to me its a joke. No one should be able to earn money off their opinion- its not the same thing like a legal or medical opinion, where that advice can be the difference between you sitting in jail or dying from a disease! Also, personalised advice costs more, and I'm aware blogs give general, and highly subjective advice, but still, with all the free products and money bloggers get paid, it makes me want to start my own blog just for that! Furthermore, I've seen some really poorly written blogs where the women who write that bullshit don't even know how to punctuate correctly or even string half a decent sentence together, yet they flaunt their 'press drops' all over social media! This only makes me wonder, do the PR companies even actually read the quality of these womens blogs? Or do they simply get free stuff by virtue of being 'bloggers' and getting some hits on their sites? To me, it's the latter… I just find this so annoying yet want to join the blogging industry at the same time only because it seems so lucrative and easy! I mean beauty blogging is time consuming as every other job, but its not the same as sweeping the streets now is it? LOL 😀
To me, you're definitely one of the few better quality bloggers I've seen! Keep on blogging and have a nice day.