Skincare: Good skin, good self

Have you ever heard of “skincare” before reading this essay? I bet so because skincare is a common term that has been become very popular over time. It had its heyday in early 2020, or at least, this was the year in which I began to investigate more about how to take care of my skin in general and what the benefits of skincare are. I wanted to look prettier in a healthy way, and the principal reason of this increase in its popularity was due to the amount of content that we had access to on social media and the influencers and famous people who made such content. So in this essay, I’m going to tell you about my experience and difficulties I had with acne since my adolescence; then, I’ll explain to you the importance of going to a dermatologist and skincare professionals; and finally, I will tell you how the advertising of some brands in this area can affect our self-esteem due to the beauty standards of society.

When I started my pre-adolescence around 12–13 years old, I remember that I started to have black spots on my face at that age. It was not common for me to get them, just one or a few from time to time. This situation became worse when I turned 14 and 15 years old, and obviously, this was because I started puberty and growing up. Now that I consider those times, I could tell those years were horrible for me and my self-esteem because I felt so ugly when I looked at myself in the mirror. My face hurts a lot and felt swollen, I had a lot of itching and irritation because I had a lot of acne then, but I'd never seen a dermatologist or a doctor. With the passing of the months, my mom and I discover it was only for seasons, mostly when I had stress episodes due to school, and after months of trying to search for ways to stop my acne I found a peeling mascara of natural clay, and it was my salvation. When I started to use it, my acne decreased a lot that year and I discovered that what works for my face and skin is natural products.

Many people believe that our skin is only a "way" to protect our bones and vital organs, and they're wrong. Our skin is a vital organ too, the largest, the most sensitive, and the most beautiful to not take care of it right? But some people don't know the importance because our society, is not informed about this topic, and this last point is very common, even for me, a few years ago, as I was saying. There are a lot of ways how to take care of your skin, and you can try and try all of them, but they won’t work if they are not suitable for your type of skin or your face; this is where the importance of going with professionals comes in because nobody knows more than them when it comes to skin health problems. They will know what the best for you is and how to treat you in the best way. Although it is known that it can be expensive and not within everyone's reach, it would be good to take visiting a skincare professional into consideration in the future.

It is widely known that our society has an ideal model of how we should look, a standard of beauty that most people cannot meet. It's a kind of prejudice that people think but don't say out loud, and the only way they can throw up all their hate speech is through advertising, and that is not a secret. Some brands use their power in the world to sell their products, of course, but with a negative perspective of our bodies and faces that only their products could solve, like acne, wrinkles, circles, excess fat, and age spots just to give some examples. These ads criticize our body and skin as if it were our fault to have these "defects" in it, coming to affect our self-love and self-esteem. Is it a big problem that, fortunately, some brands are already avoiding doing again because who are they to make us think our body is wrong? That's right, no one.

In summary, we can say that taking care of our skin is important for all the benefits this can bring to our lives. We have to strive to make them become part of our daily routine. We should take care of our skin, but not to please someone else or a toxic society that wants everyone to be perfect and fit into their unrealistic model, as everyone has ever tried, including me. Make it for ourselves and our health instead, because if we don't take care of ourselves, who will? With the help of professionals who tell us what is best for us and our skin, we can look and feel better about ourselves.