Should we be ditching the Moisturiser?

Can we really live without moisturisers?

I can’t believe I am tackling this subject, since I have been obsessed with moisturiser all my life. It is something which is ingrained in us all: To moisturise in order to avoid wrinkles, dehydrated skin, and an over-all healthier look. The time has come; however, when skin doctors are telling us to ditch the cream completely. The main reason being that, our skin becomes dependent on our various products and gets lazy. It stops producing the hydration we need, despite most moisturises only touching the surface of our skin. (Unless you have done your research and bought a penetrating product)

Serums seem to be the new thing which are in at the moment. This is because most serums contain glycerine. Our skin likes glycerine, it adds to the skin's replenishing features instead of replacing them. I used Nip and Fab's serum for the next few days. Below are my results:

Deciding to do a few days without my creams… *shocked face* gave results which I did not expect.

Day 1:

Skin felt like a shrivelled prune. Seriously, hated every minute of it. But I guess that’s because of the earlier point I made, my skin has got lazy and consequently has stopped the natural function of self-hydration. The biggest use for face moisturiser is quick gratification. By this I mean, your skin will feel instantly re-vitalised after using the product: that our minds convince us we need it. I decided to continue through the struggle. (Although, I have bad eczema on my face. I refuse to solve my broken skin issues with zero added moisture, so E45 was applied to my problematic areas. Which for me, is under my eyes.)

Day 2:

I felt weird washing my face and leaving the bathroom. Slabbing my face with 1000 creams daily does become addictive. Have you ever noticed that some men have the softest skin? Despite us ladies doing all we can to minimise wrinkles, dryness etc. Some men have the softest skin and do absolutely nothing to achieve it! It has got me questioning, is a moisture free life the answer? My face felt thin if I’m honest, which I know is a slightly weird reference. I think the extra layer of creams, I am normally adding daily, is the answer to that.

Day 3

I can’t say I have forgotten my old best friend, but I can see improvements. My skin is looking rather normal? I can’t believe it. Although, it must be said, my make-up is not sitting as I would like it too. I like my foundation to appear super dewy and give me a glow… It looks slightly less shiny and more matt on my face. This is not going to help my eczema one bit. So, I scrapped the foundation for the next few days, and only used eye makeup. This has got me questioning the durability of a moisturiser free life.

Day 4

I’m hungover, so today is an invalid entry. We all are so dehydrated after a night of consuming alcohol, it would be un-fair to compare my skin to a normal day.

Day 5

Again, I am adapting to my new cream free life. I have been using face masks alongside this process, which will have helped the texture my skin has. But so far, it’s still looking OK. Despite friends telling me my skin looks normal, it feels tight. It looks great in the mirror, but it feels wrong still.

People who suffer from dry skin, should bare in mind that 90% of cases will be because your body is dehydrated. I am a complete water fanatic. I go through three litres daily, and with ease too. I don’t drink any other fluid in a day, beside my coffee in the morning (which I don’t advise, as caffeine is the devil for our skin). I sometimes see people in the street, and more disturbingly, in a 9 AM lecture downing energy drinks… Not water. I do not know how people do it, with everything we know about fizzy drinks, people are still drawn towards them instead of water! The other 10% of people with dry skin suffer from eczema and dermatitis. My problem is Eczema, which I said before, I haven’t been ignoring my problematic areas within this time. However, this whole challenge has been eye-opening.

It is safe to say that I won’t be ditching the moisturiser, because I'm an instant results kind of person. I do believe if I was to see this through for a while longer, that I would be able to go without my creams.  If I didn’t have the WORST eczema too, I think this experiment would have shown more results. I will not; however, be relying on my creams to give me my daily hydrated feel. I am keeping the ‘more is less’ memo in mind, and little by little I think, just maybe, I will reach a cream free life.

Give it a go yourself!

Tamara x