Had A Long Work Week? Here Are 3 Products You Should Use To Get Your Skin Back On Track
As a registered nurse, I work three days out of the seven day week. Sounds nice right?! It's definitely a blessing to only work that amount of days & then have four days off. But since my commute is pretty far, I usually wake up at 4:30am & get home at about 9pm. Getting very minimal sleep, working hard to take care of my patients, & being exposed to hospital air while wearing an itchy mask can really affect my skin.
One of my favorite products that I use to really help my skin recover after work is the Laneige Cica Sleeping mask. The main ingredient is Centella asiatica (commonly known as Cica), which is a medicinal plant that helps primarily with skin healing & strengthening the skin's moisture barrier by reducing inflammation/irritation & increasing collagen production. This mask has a luxurious fluffy texture that sits nicely on top of the skin & provides a nice veil of hydration when applied onto the face. Other great ingredients in the formula include:
- Tea tree oil (ant-inflammatory)
- Aureobasidium pullulans ferment (anti-aging, brightening)
- Chamaecyparis obtusa leaf extract (moisturizing)
I would highly recommend this mask to someone with dry or sensitive/acne-prone skin due to its hydrating & anti-inflammatory effects.
Depending on how I'm feeling on a certain day, I usually alternate the Laneige mask with the Summer Friday's Jet Lag mask. This one particularly helps with giving me an extra boost of hydration. It's slightly thicker than the Laneige one, has a strong peppermint scent to it, & comes in an aluminum recyclable tube (brownie points). Some ingredients to highlight include:
- Chestnut extract (natural exfoliant, brightening)
- Niacinamide (anti-inflammatory, reduces size of pores, smooths wrinkles & fine lines)
- Aminopropyl ascorbyl phosphate (stable form of vitamin c; antioxidant, brightening, reducing hyperpigmentation)
- Arginine (humectant, collagen production)
One thing to note, this one can have a stinging/minty feel when applied to your face because of the peppermint oil. If you have sensitive skin, this might be too irritating for you.
The last product I use is targeted specifically towards the eye area & it's the Versed's The Fix Emergency Eye mask (gifted). I love this eye mask because it has this subtle cooling effect that helps depuff my entire eye area. As we get older, the skin under our eyes loses elasticity because there are no oil glands to keep it moisturized, so I really try to keep this area as hydrated as possible to really slow down the development of wrinkles. It contains all clean, cruelty-free, & vegan ingredients like:
- Cucumber juice (cooling, soothing)
- Caffeine (not a ton of research on this, but claims to be an antioxidant & constrict blood vessels, which help with under eye darkness)
- Ascorbic acid (antioxidant, brightening)
- Rose canina fruit oil (hydrating, strengthen skin's moisture barrier, anti-inflammatory)
I actually recommend this product to all skin types, especially those with particularly dry under eyes. It gives such a nice layer of hydration that I haven't found in other eye creams or masks.
Alright, these are the three products I highly recommend to helping your skin recover after a long work week! I work this in either overnight or even during the day time when I know I won't be wearing any makeup. These have worked so well for my skin & continue to be products I reach for to soothe, hydrate, & overall, repair my skin. Hopefully you can try one or two of these products when you need a little pick me up. Cheers to happy & glowing skin!
*Some links are affiliate links. You as a customer pay no more or no less when using my affiliate links, only that I make a small commission off of purchases made through those links.
Sources:
Bylka, Wiesława et al. “Centella Asiatica in Cosmetology.” National Center for Biotechnology Information, 2013, www-ncbi-nlm-nih-gov.laneproxy.stanford.edu/pmc/articles/PMC3834700/.
