For those of us that celebrated Thanksgiving over the past weekend, we might have overindulged...just a little bit. And listen, that’s perfectly fine! After a long year, what better time to overindulge in some feel-good treats than the holidays, right? The most important thing to remember is to have mercy with yourself. What you can do instead of shaming yourself for eating, is to just prepare yourself with the necessary tools to help combat any skin woes that might happen! The holiday season is not over yet, so prepping your routine for these overindulgent days will give your skin the best care it deserves.
Too Many Treats?
The majority of foods at the Thanksgiving table are feel-good foods you enjoy without thinking of the aftermath. Dessert and sides alike, your sweet potato casserole, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pies are full of sugar and dairy (like butter and milk.) While these yummy ingredients seem harmless, they are a huge contributor to acne. The proteins and hormones from dairy may affect genetic information in the skin, causing inflammation or affecting oil production that may lead to acne. (Source) Sugar is known to stimulate inflammation all over the body, not just on your skin. Acne is a natural byproduct of ingesting too much sugar— and (surprise!) that includes dairy as it has a form of sugar called lactose. So… what can you do?
Aside from trying to control how much sugary food you consume, knowing the effect that it’ll have on your skin and what products to reach for will significantly help your acne journey. Let’s first tackle acne, which can be treated with an antibacterial essential oil! Use tea tree essential oil, diluted with some kind of carrier oil like castor oil, coconut oil, or add 1-2 drops in your moisturizer to fight acne-causing bacteria at the source. Cleanse your skin with WOW Skin Science Aloe Vera Face Wash, as aloe vera works to tone and refine pores. This gets the gunk out of your pores to help prevent acne from forming!
Food Coma
Whether it’s due to exhaustion of cooking a special meal, or the tryptophan found in turkey, an expected part of the holiday season is the impending food coma you'll slip into. While it may seem harmless, a lot of people fail to realize that they might still have a full face of makeup on. Just like you remove your makeup before sleeping at night, sleeping with your makeup on during the day is NOT good for your skin. Sleep is when your skin repairs itself, so clogging your pores with makeup and oil can lead to acne or even infections in your skin! Over time, this causes dull and sallow looking skin.
Here’s the fix you need - a deep detox face wash like WOW Skin Science Activated Charcoal Foaming Face Wash with Brush digs deep into your pores to absorb impurities, and excess sebum built up in your pores for a much-needed skin reset. If your in need of a glow booster, try the WOW Skin Science Ubtan Foaming Face Wash with Brush. Ubtan is a holistic blend of natural exfoliators like turmeric, chickpea flour, saffron, and sandalwood powder to remove dead skin cells to reveal your glow. All in all, when it comes to taking care of overwhelmed skin, strip your skin down to the essentials and make sure to moisturize!
Holiday Skincare: How to Deal With Holiday Stress
The holiday season can be a source of anxiety for some. With all these expectations during an unexpected year, there’s a lot of pressure to keep traditions alive. You have so much to plan, decorate, cook, people to shop for, all on top of your usual responsibilities. As we know, stress is a huge cause of acne, inflammation, and a lower-functioning immune system. One of the most popular ways this stress can manifest is to obsess over certain things, like picking pimples or any other dry patches. Stopping this outright is down near impossible, so equipping yourself with the tools to deal with the aftermath is the best immediate approach.
We would recommend making a DIY face mask to help to soothe inflammation, brighten acne scarring from pimple picking, and helping you de-stress from the holiday season. This can all be done naturally, with 100% therapeutic-grade essential oils like geranium, cedarwood, or frankincense. Any of these essential oils are known to combat skin discoloration, skin texture changes, and help rebalance the pH of the skin to try to reset your skin as much as possible. As for the DIY face mask recipe, mix 1-2 drops of one of these essential oils in a base. This can be any mixture of aloe vera, yogurt, clay, or oats mixed with actives like antibacterial honey, lemon juice, or turmeric. The addition of essential oils will only boost the effects— just make sure to not add too much to your mask or the high concentration of the essential oil could irritate your skin.
In the end, we can all agree that the holiday season brings happiness, an excuse to bring people together, and STRESS — whether this is emotional, physical, financial, spiritual, etc. The tense aura that the holiday season is shrouded in means it’s very important to be kind to yourself. Let’s finish the year strong without regret, guilt and shame associated with overindulgence. Just realize that we all do it and you’re allowed to do so, especially during the holiday times! What’s more important is being prepared and ready for any possible side effects so you don’t create long-lasting damage to your skin. Happy holidays!
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