Up until a few years ago, I never went to a dermatologist. I just managed to find my way around the internet as most of us do, read up as much as I could, and of course, learnt from experience, making mental notes every time something did or did not work for me. My skin was fine, but not really the best version of what I imagined it to look and feel like.
And I tried just about everything; the DIY nuskhas, the free beauty tip from a friend, all the popular products in store aisles, the newest viral skintok trends, and there’s a lot of them – glycolic acid, slugging, tretinoin, snail mucin – the list goes on… There’s no denying we’re being inundated with information today and I’ve found that listening to all that noise never worked well for my skin. The more I got lost in the chatter, the worse things got.
So when did things start looking up?
When I started looking in.
While I had naively assumed that I had started caring for my skin the first time I applied something on it, my skincare journey really began when I started to listen – to the way it looks, and the way it feels, at any point in the day. What it’s trying to tell me when I travel to a place with a different climate, or when it says I shouldn’t have eaten that extra slice of cake! Maybe there’s a zit that’s about to sprout, or mask-ne crawling in; a dry patch that’s showed up, or simply dullness setting in.
Our skin has a personality of its own, and moods that change with the day, the season, the place, the internal workings of our system, and many external factors. Moreover, we tend to forget that we’re blessed with melanin-rich skin and not everything blowing up on the other side of the world might be suitable to us. We also live in the tropics, where, love it or hate it, sunlight is omnipresent, even indoors. Add to that an urban lifestyle, with increased exposure to particulate pollution and free radicals, translating to skin damage on the regular. And since all these factors are central to the skin barrier, that’s exactly what gets compromised.
So, what exactly is the skin barrier? Think of it as the outer film that protects the layers underneath, and regulates what enters and leaves the skin. Although powerful, it can be quite fragile. So, when you expose it to the elements or overindulge in enthusiastic skincare, it can wreak havoc.
What does one do then, to achieve that healthy, glowing skin one dreams of, and then keep it that way?
Step back, drown out the noise, and treat one problem at a time. A targeted approach with a few performance products combined with your daily nourishing fail-safes, is all you need.
The goal: Build the skin barrier. Keep it balanced. And don’t forget to defend it.
That’s our skin philosophy at Akind.
- The BUILD range, featuring the Clean Slate Hydrating Cleanser, the On Cloud Nine Lightweight Moisturizer, and the Sleep Tight Firming Serum, focuses on repairing and restoring the skin barrier to its natural state.
- The BALANCE range, consisting of the Fresh Start Oil-Free Balancing Cleanser, the Bounce Back Soothing & Purifying Toner, and the Get Even Everyday Multi-Active Serum, helps maintain the skin barrier’s gentle, equilibrium state, resulting in a healthy, lit-from-within glow.
- The DEFENCE range includes the Bright Idea Radiance Serum, the No Shade Sunscreen Primer SPF 50 PA++++, and the Super Smooth Sun Stick SPF 50 PA+++, designed to protect the skin barrier from external aggressors such as pollution, and sun damage.
You see, everything starts and ends with the skin barrier. And nothing made that skincare-obsessed girl in me happier than creating these products around it. The range was formulated with care, careful trial and error, and extensive research into high-efficacy ingredients that deliver results, for any stage your skin might be in. Right from the genesis of the brand name, learning about and curating the ingredients, testing and improving formulations, to selecting the Pantone shades on the packaging, this has been a most fulfilling and rewarding experience.
I hope these products bring a kind of change to your skin, just like they did to mine.
After all, your skin is one of AKIND. All you have to do is listen.
#ListenToYourSkin
