My skincare journey - entry 1

Hello! I am Maria from the WIMJ team. I’ll share my skincare journey with you. I grew up in Ukraine. I have an older sister, and my mom has always been interested in skincare, so I grew us watching these two beautiful women do DIY face masks. The thing is many skincare products were not available in Ukraine at that time, or they just couldn’t afford it. This is where my love for skincare comes from.

I also have a little bit of hate towards some skincare:). When I approached my teenage years, menthol-enriched anti- skin acne washes were, unfortunately, already in abundance. And an older friend told me that “blackheads appear because the skin is dirty”.  So yeah, I was off to a great start in facing the hormonal rollercoaster of adolescence:).

Things got sad when I started college. Stress, alcohol, lack of sleep, and I’ve got hit with moderate hormonal acne. I was still using menthol washes, trying to “dry out” blemishes, and scrub away acne marks. I was very surprised when my friend told me she was using a moisturizer (if I remember correctly, it was Vichy Aqua Thermal). I thought creams were for old people in their thirties (I'm 32 today :) ). 

About this time I’ve developed a fear of living the house without a full face of foundation on. While my foundation habits improved overtime, it still took me about 10 years to get rid of this life-limiting and self-hurting attitude. It persisted even through the time when my skin was very clear because of a birth control pill. 

I wonder where this fear is coming from? Is it the unrealistic expectations of how a beautiful skin should look like set by photoshopped pictures? A function of general insecurities? The result of believing that skin care is work (not self care), so if your skin is misbehaving, it’s because you are not doing what’s due? I'd love to hear if you had a similar experience!