Five skin care rules I always break

Hi guys!

Firstly I want to confirm that I am still alive. I'm back at uni now and these last couple of weeks have been devoted to exams, pushing blogging and other such activities onto the back burner.
My exams finished a couple of days ago so I'm now free to do whatever I want (until my lectures start tomorrow - boo!). Of course I've used those days to relax and recoup from the intense (ahem) studying I have been carrying out. Now it's back to business. I figured I neglect my blog too often (although I did write a short update on the happenings of my life, but my iPad decided it wasn't going to let me post it), so here I am with a new post. January favourites and wish list will be coming up shortly, but for now I will be revealing my skin-care-bad-habits.

I always preach about good skin care routines. I wrote a very lengthy post on dealing with breakouts a few months ago, and in that post I revealed a number of steps to achieving good skin, although some of them were less of a quick fix and more of a long-term commitment. I'm sure you all know there are no quick fixes when it comes to problematic skin, but if you're like me you will constantly be on the lookout for such a thing. For me, the long term commitments are the hardest. I get lazy or forget or (like these last few weeks) too drained to do anything other than crawl into bed and sleep.

That brings me to the first issue.




1. Getting the right amount of sleep. I'm terrible for under- or over-sleeping. When I was at home, I was staying awake until 4 or 5 AM and waking up at 12. My parents thought I was being lazy for sleeping in so late, but in actual fact I was only getting six or seven hours sleep and, despite being physically incapable of keeping my eyes open whilst put of my bedroom, as soon as I got into bed I would be wide awake once again. After arriving back in Wales, I was no longer being woken up by my parents, so I could easily sleep until two or three in the afternoon. Not good when you have revision to be getting on with. This led to me staying up later and later to try and cram for my exams, which in turn resulted in a reversed sleeping pattern. For example, I woke up at 6 PM yesterday and, as I need to get myself back into a normal sleeping pattern for my lectures, I haven't yet slept. My skin is going to hate my for this and I have already started breaking out, but I need to start sleeping on a night time again.

2. Eating junk food. This is another one that is particularly relevant at this moment in time. I'm not sure if it's just me, but when I have deadlines and/or exams, all kinds of proper meals go out of the window and I begin to rely on fast food and snacks from the 24 hour shop on the corner of my street. Being vegetarian, my snacks are nowhere near as unhealthy as my boyfriend's, but cheese on chips and ramen are still not good for my skin (frustratingly, he still has better skin than I do).

3. Not removing makeup/cleansing skin. Recently, I haven't really been wearing makeup as I've been sitting in the flat buried in textbooks and PlayStation games, but this one applies to my entire life. It's linked to not getting enough sleep - sometimes I come home from an all-nighter in the university computer rooms and just collapse straight onto my bed, not moving until at least 14 hours has past. Seriously, when you're that tired, you really don't want to be cutting into your precious sleep time by scrubbing your face. Another thing that comes under this rule is forgetting to moisturise. I haven't really had a problem with dry skin lately, but I should keep on top of moisturising to ensure that a problem doesn't develop.

4. Not drinking enough water. This will change when I start my lectures again as I always take a bottle of water with my as the air conditioning sucks the moisture out of the air in a lot of my lecture theatres and without water I will be reduced to a coughing, teary mess. I also drink out of boredom (seriously, who cares about molecular systematics?), so I can easily get through two litres in one day. However, recently I've been relying on Dr. Pepper and ice pops. If neither of those options were available, I just didn't drink anything. Not only did my skin rebel against me, I also felt like crap most of the time.

5. Popping pimples. As gross as it is, I am guilty of this. Whenever I feel a pimple forming, I try to refrain from squeezing it but it plays on my mind (it often feels much bigger than it is and paranoia sets in). I have to do something to reduce the swelling. I may manage it (sometimes), but I am then left with a sore, often bleeding, unconcealable scab. I hate myself for doing it, but I always feel like it will make it look better. It never does.

I hope you enjoyed reading about my weaknesses and learned from them. Maybe you could tell me about your skin-care-weaknesses?

Just as a last note, I want to thank everyone who visited my blog in my brief absence. I will reply to your comments and follow back as soon as I get round to it.

Don't forget to look out for my next posts!

Bye lovelies!