The Beauty of Simplicity
Recently the term “self-care” has become both a necessity to help cope with what is happening in the world around us, and a mantra to break up the mundane of staying home. The phrase is used to categorize anything and everything related to what we do to care for ourselves, including discovering new ways to up our skin care routines and at home spa treatments.
Self-care is essential for both our physical self and especially our mental health. Although the term has become widely overused, there is a beauty to the moments where we take time to focus on ourselves, whether its soaking in a tub, putting on a mask or even just some quiet time to give our brains a rest.
Other terms that have become standard are “skin care routine” and “skin care regime”. The word “routine” is defined as a “sequence of actions regularly followed, a fixed program” and the word regime is reminiscent of history gone wrong and a calculated regiment typical of drill sergeants. We are not robots. There is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to you so why would there be one for your skin care? Shouldn’t these moments of taking care of ourselves be ones we look forward to? “Self-care” is about enjoying the moment, relaxing, and most importantly, rewarding yourself for being the amazing woman you are!
These moments of beauty, these moments where we take care of our skin aren’t a routine or a regime, but a ritual. The word ritual implies a focus on a deeper, more spiritual meaning to our actions. A ritual of caring for ourselves that we do because it centers us, or makes us happy, not because society has told us it is essential for something more. We should celebrate these little moments of precious time where we honor ourselves, we take care of ourselves, we re-center and refresh.
As restrictions lift and life begins to return to its normal craziness, it seems to be harder and harder to find time to take care of our skin, and ourselves. Caring for our skin should be that sacred time when we reflect and recharge more than just our skin.
Simplify by finding multi-targeted products
Timesaving can be found everywhere, and when it comes to our skin care, it’s all about finding products that are multifunctional. Let’s just address the giant elephant in the room and say that mutli-targeted products are just as effective as putting on the individual ingredients, even more so when they enhance the benefits of each other. Some combinations are power couples for skin and work together to deliver faster and more effective results according to research. We’re not here to tell you to play mad scientist when it comes to combining willy-nilly, and percentages play a big factor with ingredients and skin safety. However, when it comes to products that target different areas, sometimes more is better. Think of these genius formulas as the little helper that gives you extra time to enjoy a few more minutes for an uninterrupted cup of coffee or catching the last five minutes of your favorite show.
Time for reflection
The moments we spend with our beauty and skin care are sacred. This ritual is all about you, and what your skin, body, and mind need. Skin is affected by so many factors, both internally and externally. What we eat, where we are, and what we feel can all manifest itself as breakout city or gorgeous glow, but don’t fear because that choice is something you have the power to control. While we can’t always control our surroundings, we can control our thoughts and feelings. Things happen, but when we take our beauty ritual as a time for reflection we are better prepared for our day and whatever factors we may face. Re-centering your focus can happen in a variety of ways, but at 3 Graces Beauty we’ve included little reminders on each product. This way, that moment of grace is at your fingertips, reapply accordingly. When you take the time to pamper yourself, even if it’s a total of 60 seconds, you are rewarding and treasuring the incredible powerhouse you are.
Mom-life can be especially trying on finding moments to reflect and refresh. Who has time to use an entire line of products, and wash our makeup away, and take care of bedtime, and brushing teeth, and finding the treasured stuffed bunny that somehow hopped away in the last five minutes. Wow. But these moments must be sacred, and the bunny is clearly still in the house somewhere so it will be okay for 5 more minutes. Lives are busy, and there are so many things that rush to the top of the ‘absolutely most important thing ever’ list, but if we don’t take care of ourselves, we can’t take care of others. These little moments are essential to being able to function, to breathe, to think, to stay calm during all these chaotic, stress-filled, amazing precious times. Taking a moment to remind yourself of your purpose, of your journey, of your strength by doing something as simple as washing your face, or applying a multi-targeted serum, or swiping on a radiant lip gloss and declaring “Love Yourself”, is your moment of grace.
Extra ways to add to your ritual
- Play your favorite song – Whatever your jam, turn it up and dance. Research has shown that both music and dance can affect our mood. It’s not about only listening to cheery songs, no need for Alexa to blast out Pharrell’s Happy on repeat, but whatever makes you feel good. Whatever song brings a smile to your face, be it a bible hymn or Hip-Hop hymn, press play.
- Read an uplifting quote – At 3 Graces, we are all about reading a little inspiration throughout the day. In fact, each of our products are inscribed with an uplifting quote to help you find a moment of grace. Life gets busy, and so does our mind. These little sayings are a way to refocus on what matters and reflect on our strength. Let them empower your beauty, mind, and mood. Enjoy them on our product bottles, print them out and tape them on your fridge, write them on your bathroom mirror in lipstick, wherever you’ll see them most. Read and repeat.
- Put away your phone – In times when we are transitioning from unrelenting quarantine to sweet freedom, our technology devices have been our constant companions. While studies have continually shown the downside to this attachment, we’ve ended up in a co-dependent relationship with our phones. But beauty time can benefit by being screen free and disconnecting from the world around us. Gasp! Yes, we said screen free time (the world didn’t break, and neither will you). When we recenter ourselves, it is important to clear our mind from outside stress and other factors that are out of our control and focus inward. We are powerful, but we need to take time for ourselves to powerup too.
- Light a candle – Candles have become synonymous with self-care and for good reason. With a little flame, our senses can be treated to pleasant peony or warm eucalyptus and any other such luscious scent. When we add a candle to our ritual, we tend to take a few extra minutes to ourselves to breathe and enjoy the calm.
- Journal – Take a minute to write down 3 things you are grateful for - when we reflect on things that have made us happy, we are more likely to notice when new moments like these happen throughout the day. Life is a blessing, and these little moments help us focus on what is truly important.