There’s a hot new skincare movement in town that may have the capacity to forever alter your way of life. What do you have to do? Well, nothing.
Editors of various outlets have recently been embracing “skin fasting” the act of allowing your skin to nourish itself on its own, without the help of your plethora of cleansers, creams, masks, and oils. The science is simple: our skin produces natural lipids and oils so that it can take care of itself—so why don’t we let it?
This means no toners, or expensive moisturizers—merely washing your face with water (and cleanser if you can’t go full monty) and leaving it at that. It’s a move that could prove revolutionary for your wallet, obviously, and Japanese have studied skin regeneration and found that skin fasting on a monthly basis “improves your skin’s condition and [detoxifies] skin impurities.”
Both Refinery29 and ManRepeller experimenters have reported positive results from holding off on their regular routines, presenting one truly memorable insight: all these potions may have just been masking the body’s dehydration. But the resetting quality of fasting (think your dry January attempt or that one time you tried to do a week on just water), is very much applicable in this case—and could prove very helpful to your skin in the long run with the change of each season.
So, what are you waiting for?