With a pandemic happening, staying home has become the norm for 2020. While your skin is on vacation from the usual daily makeup and sun exposure, that doesn’t mean that skin care should be on hold too. According to experts, quarantine skin care is a must even if you are cooped up at home.

You may think that self care isn’t top priority during a health crisis but this is actually crucial during tough times. Taking care of yourself effectively boosts mental health, which results in lower anxiety and a healthier outlook on life.

Feeling stressed lately? Treat yourself to some much-deserved pampering to fight off the blues. Here are some essential quarantine skin care steps you can easily do at home:

Get a good night’s sleep

You’ve probably heard this a thousand times before but it’s worth repeating over and over again - sleep is important. The term “beauty sleep” is real. If you want that “glow from within” look, stop with the late-night Netflix binging and get a full night of sleep.

Sleep deprivation causes premature skin aging. During sleep, your body repairs itself. Stress hormones go down, cells build collagen and the skin’s blood flow increases. This results to faster skin restoration, therefore you get healthy and youthful skin.

While getting a full 8 hours of sleep might be a challenge in the midst of a pandemic, we promise you it is not impossible. You just need to develop a sleep routine that encourages a healthy sleep cycle.

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Help your brain and body induce rest by doing a relaxing pre-sleep routine. Store your phone away to stop yourself from the mindless scrolling, rub lavender essential oil on your pressure points or wash up with a calming lavender soap, do mindful breathing and relax.

Eat healthier

Your diet is another determining factor of how your skin will look. We know, we know. It can be a bummer to limit food intake to just healthy greens and low-carb meals. Because what better way to spend quarantine than snacking on junk food?

While it might be tempting to drown your quarantine woes in food, keep in mind that this will show up in your skin. Unhealthy eating can cause breakouts, dehydration, age spots, fine lines and more.

Remember, quarantine skin care goes beyond just putting creams on your face. Think of it more like a wholistic approach that takes care of your body from the inside out.

Some of the superfoods that are known to nourish skin include avocados, tomatoes, spinach, blueberries, coconut water & oil, nuts, carrots and salmon. Go for nutrient-rich foods that are high in fiber and healthy oils. Avoid too much alcohol, sugar, dairy and caffeine. These can have detrimental effects on skin.

Keep skin care routine simple

Because of trendy YouTube tutorials and beauty gurus, overcomplicated skin care have become a trend these days. Some routines have 10 steps (or more!) that involve mixing and layering different products on top of each other.

While layering products on your face can be beneficial (if you understand what you are doing) and fun, this can be too overwhelming for sensitive skin. We love a good #shelfie of luxurious skin care products too but the truth is – you don’t really NEED all of that on your face.

Ultimately, a good skin care routine needs three important elements – cleanser, moisturizer and sunscreen. A gentle exfoliator can also be great in helping the skin slough away dead skin cells. However, this may not be an essential product for quarantine skin care. Since your skin is on a break, too much peeling and exfoliation is unnecessary.

Stick to the basics that do the job well and you won’t need to layer too much products on your skin.

If you want to experiment with products and switch up your routine from time to time, you can do so too. Just make sure that you have a good understanding of a product’s function so you can avoid irritation.

SPF is still a must

“But I’m home all day, do I really need to wear sunscreen?”

Experts answer this with a resounding YES. Here’s why: most windows do not block out UVA rays – the kind of light that penetrates deep into the skin and can cause harm like decrease collagen production and even cause cancer. Research also says that LED lightbulbs and computer or device screens emit HEV light, which can cause wrinkles and dark spots.

So, unless you are quarantining in a windowless room without any computer screen or mobile device, then make sure to add broad-spectrum sunscreen to your quarantine skin care routine. It will only take a few seconds but will go a long way.

The ideal quarantine skin care routine will depend on your specific lifestyle and skin type but the four listed above are the foundational steps to healthy skin. Make them a regular habit and you will come out of quarantine with radiant, glowing skin.