De-cluttering Your Skin Lightening Regimen

Photo Credit: Organic Beauty View

Having too many products that we don't use or have accumulated over the years is something we all experience. Regardless if you are on a skin lightening regimen or not - any skin care regimen can produce such a disaster. I can definitley say right now at this very moment that I am drowning in products, lol. Drowning.

Being a very organized and efficient individual I just cannot tolerate clutter. I don't mean skin lightening products or beauty products that clutter my bathroom sink or cabinet (though that is becoming the case...) but just too many products to deal with. Most of the products I own are sample sized, or I have gotten them from companies sending them to try out or just an accumulation from two years ago. It's too much and it's got to stop. If you are on the same boat as me (and I know someone out there is!) then let us begin to de-clutter our regimen so it goes back to basics and less frustrating.

The first thing to do is to get rid of products with active ingredients that have been around for more than three years. Generally active ingredients (especially skin lightening ones) are very sensitive to external stressors like sun light, heat, air etc. Overtime this can really degrade the products, and in the case of Vitamin C can just make it useless. Speaking of vitamin c serums, if the product has changed color since you first bought it - toss it.

I will say though, that if the product is unopened then it should be fine. But if you have opened it and tried it, and it's been 3 years now - let it go.

If you have any products that break your facial skin out, try them out on your body. The skin on our bodies has less oil which usually results in smaller pores there and less chance of acne forming. I have been using many products up on my body as of late and they are working wonderfully. This is a good way to work around the whole buyers remorse notion.

Products you plan on never using again because they give you very severe reactions or have awful fragrances - discard them. If you disliked them in the first place, chances are you'll never get around to using it again. You need the extra room any way.

Once you get rid of a lot of the 'junk' or make use of unused products, you can start re-organizing and simplifying your regimen. Here's what I mine will be:

- one sunscreen for the face (or neck)
- a seperate sunscreen for the body
- a serum or moisturizer for dry spots or dry skin
- a skin lightener to use either day or night (and this can be anything from a vitamin c serum to a plant extract based product. There can be 2 if you use a seperate one on your body which is very ecoomical)
- a couple (now you need a couple, lol) of weekly treatment products (peels, masks) that you can space out and use up monthly (so a peel one week, and the next week a mask etc.)
- cleanser (2 if you use a seperate one at night)

...this is going to be my skin inventory. It's going to be so much cleaner and easier once I get all this junk out of the way. I can now feel like I got my money's worth and actually be using every product I own.

I understand it's hard to discard products, especially skin lightening ones since most are so promising but if you honestly do not use it, or it gives you some type of reaction - it's the best thing to do. I know the reason alot of us accumulate products because we know skin lighteners work differently on different people. Trial and error is the reason why I have so much and it's become overwhelming. I cannot stand having all these products (which are wonderful) just laying there and feeling guilty about it. Either they get used up somewhere or they go in the trash.

This will really help make things easier and even help you reach your skin lightening goal since you have less chance of deviating from a regimen. Sticking to a solid one and being consistent with it is what ulimatley gets your skin right.

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