If we asked you “Have you ever kept a skin diary?”, I’m sure we’d be met with oodles of puzzled faces staring back at screens all over Australia (and the world!).
Yes, it does sound a little bizarre at first, but it can be SUPER helpful, especially if you’ve got problem skin.
You see, 99% of problem skin doesn’t just happen on its own. It’s triggered by other things in your life - it might be the food you eat, the products you’re using, the clothes you wear, the places you go. It could be virtually anything. Even how youfeel.
So whether your skin problem is breakouts, dryness, itchiness, redness, oiliness - a skin diary might help you :)
What on earth is a skin diary?
Your skin diary is somewhere that you can make notes each day about how your skin is looking and feeling, and the things that might have happened that day which might have an effect on your skin, whether it’s immediate or in a few day’s time.
The idea is that by writing these things down you can start to look for patterns. You could find some sneaky gotchas that have been causing your skin grief for as long as you can remember!
For Phoebe it took about an eon to work out that legumes were causing all sorts of inflammation (breakouts!), and as soon as we (well, Aaron actually!) worked out that the problem might be the ol’ faithful chickpea and his mates Phoebe removed it from her diet at.... BAM! Digestive nirvana and clear skin paradise. If only we knew about skin diaries then :)
So to save you the trouble of a long and drawn out journey to diagnosing your skin problems, why not try a 28 day skin diary to see if you can nut out your skin issues once and for all?
All you need to do is take a few minutes at the end of each day to jot down your notes. You could use a normal diary, an exercise book, an online calendar, or even an Excel spreadsheet (we’re loving the digital options - copy and paste is your friend!). Or even better... you could download your very own Happy Skin Diary for free right here.
What to write about in your diary
We’ve got 11 questions here that you could make notes about in your diary, but you don’t need to answer each one every day. Just answer the ones that are relevant that particular day.
These are just ideas, so don’t feel bound by these! If there’s something else you want to add, go for it!!
- How did your skin feel this morning?
- How did your skin feel at the end of the day?
- Which skincare products did you use in your morning and evening routines?
- What have you had to drink today? Water (have you had enough)? Caffeine? Sugary drinks? Alcohol?
- Did you eat any of the common foods that can cause skin or digestive issues? Gluten? Dairy? Legumes?
- Did you exercise? (Sweating is good for your skin!)
- How’s your mood today? Are you stressed out or do you have your zen on?
- Are you menstruating?
- How did you sleep last night? Did you have a late night or get woken up 10 times by your 5 year old?
- Did you head outside today? Was it sunny/cold/windy? Or did you spend lots of time in the air con?
- (For the sensitive skinned folk) What did you wear today? And you might want to even think about which detergents/washing liquid you’ve used!).
By keeping track of your triggers and then looking back over your diary you’ll start to work out what has been causing those random itches or terribly inconvenient breakouts. 28 days is a great starting point, but you could keep going for 3 months if you’re able to.
Feeling motivated!? We’d love to hear from anyone who gives this a go - there’s definitely some revelations to be had.
We've even made a Woohoo Skincare skin diary for you to download and use to record your skin's ups and downs. Click here to download your skin diary :)
