Dr. Shereene Idriss shares five changes to feel better about your skin: wash your face when you get home, ditch the magnifying mirror, use products that give immediate satisfaction, keep sunscreen by your toothbrush, and reward yourself to build the habit. She frames skin care as self-respect, not problem-solving.
Chapters
Today we are covering five small changes that you can make starting now that are going to make you feel instantly better in your skin. Because it is Valentine's Day and the longest relationship you will ever have is with the skin you're in. Do you guys see what I did there? Because people often think that skin is a problem that we need to fix and they don't realize that it is a relationship. And the way that you approach any relationship, whether a short term, long term, midterm, whatever is growing with that person, if you approach a relationship as problematic, that you are constantly trying to solve for, you're never going to be happy. The same applies for your skin. I'm a 42 year old board certified dermatologist. Welcome back to Pillow Talk Derm where I do this every Saturday morning at 10am so make sure to like subscribe and follow along video that you guys can turn back to to get that motivation to reset you, to put you back on track. Especially when life gets crazy. Which by the way, if you guys have been feeling completely out of whack, if you guys have been feeling completely numb, half helpless, exhausted by the news cycle, they are all just trying to constantly exhaust us with our sympathetic system, our nervous system being on high alert at all times. Love each other, love your neighbor, love yourself. Let's jump into the five small changes that will make the biggest difference for you starting today. Number one, this is such a simple piece of advice that nobody sticks to. But the second you get home, before you sit your ass on that couch and you get too comfortable, get up, go to the bathroom and wash your face. If you know you are not going out for the night and it is 6pm, just go wash your face. Get that day off of your face. That simple step is the most important step for self care. Self love, self respect. Because it's telling yourself that I care about myself, that I want to get the grime off. But it's also going to set your skin up for success later. Because washing your face is one of the most important things that you could do, especially as you get older and wiser in life. Because that buildup is going to damage your skin more overnight and you will wake up looking worse when you don't wash your face. Number two, this is one that I see in my practice every single day now. I treat over 100 patients a week. I am a cosmetic dermatologist and most people will come in and tell me right here, this, you see this line? I hate it. And I tell them, take a step back, does that line age, you probably not throw away your magnifying mirrors. Get rid of them. They are the devil. And you want to throw that in the trash because the magnifying mirror is not going to help you. Yes, I know as you get older, your eyesight gets worse and you need the magnifying mirror to see how you do your makeup. But at the end of the day, it causes more harm than good. So if you find yourself utilizing the magnifying mirror for reasons other than trying to get your makeup on correctly but obsessing over your pore, your fine line, I have hair. I guess you guys just saw it around your mouth, then it is not serving you. It is causing you a disservice. And. And I tell you, you will experience an immediate improvement by getting rid of it. Number three, I want you guys to get skincare that is going to give you dopamine hits in the good way, not necessarily. Crazy, bad, feeling, ugly, horrible. We don't want that. We want happy dopamine hits. Dopamine hits that make your life easier, that make you feel better about yourself because you did something for yourself and you didn't just apply a cream that you spent $500 on that's doing nothing for you. So what do I mean by this? Double duty products. Things that are going to help you in the long term, but give you that hit in the short term. So I'm obviously going to talk about my own products because that's why I made them this way. But for example, the combat cream is a dopamine hit in a jar because it is green, it is thick, it is soothing. It is going to help to minimize the appearance of redness while working on your skin and minimizing that inflammation, or the look of it in the long run. Or for example, my hyper serum, this is going to give you a dopamine hit because it is going to give you an instantly illuminating effect. I have no highlighter on. I have this on my skin underneath the makeup. And so it's going to give you that instant dopamine hit where you feel better about yourself, knowing that you've also tackled a problem like sunspots for the long run. Number four, and this is one that I live by, put your cleanser and your sunscreen, excuse my mess, by your toothbrush. This is my retainer that I'm soaking. I apologize, but I also have my vitamins as well or any kind of allergy medication that I take on a daily basis. This. But this is a very simple win. Why? Because when you have it by your toothbrush. Hopefully you are brushing your teeth every day. It is a very simple reminder. Wash your face. Brush your teeth. Okay. Wash your face or brush your teeth. Put on your sunscreen. So even if you don't manage to do it right when you get home, you will at least have that visual reminder by the time you want to go to sleep or when you wake up. And that way you are making your life easier because there's less burden for you to think about what you need to be doing. And last, this is going to be a little bit fluffier, but I strongly believe it. In order to stick to any routine, first of all, it takes three months. But you need to give yourself rewards. You have to have something that you look forward to. So let's say you wash your face every day of the following week. That's coming up. I want you on Saturday to go get your biggest, most favorite, most delicious, most calorie filled ice cream that you love. Fine. That's your reward. That would be my reward. Okay. Just think of ice cream or sweets or, or desserts, but find something that you absolutely love and reward yourself. Because just like we bribe our kids and yes, we all bribe our kids, don't act holier than thou. Okay, you did this. I'm going to give you this. Oh, it happens. It happens. Bribe yourself and get a reward that makes you happy. Nobody wants to stick some to something that is never ending, that takes a long time to see results without feeling immediate instant gratification. And that's being human. So give yourself something that you feel really good about that makes you feel bring, that brings you joy, especially in this crazy, crazy world that we live in. I love you all. Haven't heard it. If you don't have somebody who's telling you they love you, I love you guys. It is Valentine's Day. We should be telling this to each other. Not just on one day out of 365 days a year, but every day. And I'm so grateful for all of you. And I think the way the world is shifting, we have to be radically human and compassionate with one another because it's going to get, I think, a little bit crazier and I think it's all by design. Anyway, have a beautiful Saturday and I will see you next weekend.
