How My Skincare Routine Saved My Mental Health in 2020
It’s no secret that Covid-19 has completely changed the landscape of the beauty industry. Pre-pandemic, most consumers — yes even zoomers — preferred to shop for beauty items in store. Not only did lockdown make this impossible, after a year of crises including a massive recession, US political instability, and pandemic numbers that were not going down, the beauty industry was in trouble. Yet despite this, growth and innovation in the skincare industry skyrocketed in 2020 and is unlikely to slow down in 2021. Experts have guessed that being at home has decreased the demand for makeup, causing the increase of skincare as an alternative. While this may be true, I believe a lot of these explanations miss the comfort that routines bring into our lives; and how skincare helps provide just that.
Life has changed significantly for us all. Namely, Zoom has become a large part of our daily existence. The normal routines that used to provide structure to our lives, a morning walk to the gym or afternoon classes, are almost nonexistent. Going to class or work in PJs and sweats has become the new normal. Don’t get me wrong, I love my fuzzy PJs, but that routine structure that I sustained myself on disappeared when I began to roll out of bed to be in class in a manner of minutes. Skincare and beauty more broadly gave a sense of normalcy to my life while the world had been upended and was, and still is, in chaos.
Every night and every morning my skincare routine, something I never followed as religiously until 2020, provides a welcome constant. Of course, skincare is a great form of self-care. But it’s not just skincare itself. It’s the normalcy the routine brings into my life that brings me the most joy. Those first ten minutes of my morning where I wake-up and those final ten minutes of my night where I unwind while listening to music or a podcast are some of the most important moments of my day.
There is a multitude of psychologically backed reasons that routines help us cope in the time of social distancing. Managing healthy daily routines is really important for our mental health especially during the Covid-19 pandemic where our world came to a halting stop. Almost everyone lost their daily routine and was forced to form new ones in these uncharted times we live in. Quarantine routines ground us, provide structure, and predictability when it feels like the world is at its most unpredictable.
I’ll leave you with a video of AOC’s campaign volunteers trying her skincare routine:
Cover via
