Everything I do to My Skin at Age 43
(It isn't just about SPF and staying hydrated)
For today’s paid letter, I am sharing (in extreme detail) exactly what I do to my skin. I’m going to be a little vulnerable and share that at the beginning of the year, I felt so extremely bad about how I looked. I’d gained weight, and just felt totally blah. Even though I’m really disciplined about my skincare routine, it felt like nothing I did made much of a difference. I felt like I looked old, tired, and puffy. I feel vain and silly admitting this, I know there is more to my worth than what I look like, but I felt how I felt, and I know most of us have been there.
“Enough is enough,” I thought! When I got home from the holidays in California, I booked a) a personal trainer (more about weight lifting here), and b) scheduled a Botox appointment. I overhauled how I eat, got rigorous about supplements (more on both of those things in the weight lifting post), and got to work on what I have been internally referring to as “Project Glow-Up.” I’m about 4 months into this “journey” and feel much better. Not perfect, but like I’ve made some progress.
I wanted to include everything I do, so some of it is pretty basic (SPF and water DO make a difference), but some things are a little more high-tech/invasive.
Sometimes, I feel a little guilty for caring so much. I think a lot about America Ferrera’s monologue in the Barbie movie. We are expected to look perfect but do not care about it. We spend hours working to look “natural” and “effortless” when it’s anything but. It is exhausting.
Sometimes, I want to say a big “fuck it, I don’t care.” That’s probably why I relish my “troll days” where I don’t shower and hang at home with frizzy hair.