Friday, December 10, 2010

My Experience: Stress, Caffeine, Irregular Sleep and My Skin

Stress, Caffeine and Irregular Sleep
I just went through a period of high stress and deadlines, which also means a high caffeine intake and irregular sleeping hours. The results on my skin was bad. As caffeine is a diuretic, it drains your body of water and if you do not drink enough water to replenish moisture, the skin becomes very dehydrated. Because I was taking in a lot of coffee, my skin became very dehydrated (not dry, there is a difference), became rougher and more dehydrated. There was also some peeling on my nose area. Although I was sleeping at irregular hours, thankfully I did not breakout, not even during the time of the month, which I think was due to the microdermabrasion.

Currently, my skin is dehydrated, lines under my eyes are more pronounced and sensitive to certain products like Clinique's Moisture Surge Extended Thirst Relief.

How I tried to remedy my skin
When skin is dry, one has to load up on both water and oil. But when skin is dehydrated, it needs water. So this is what I have been trying to do. I applied a thick layer of Clinique Moisture Surge Extended Thirst Relief but my skin reacted with stinging and redness. Although Clinique Moisture Surge is meant for dehydrated skin, it did not work for mine at all. Clinique Moisture Surge Extended is really good for my skin when it is in a normal condition, and provides an extra moisture boost but does not work well when my skin is in a sensitive, dehydrated phase.

Even my trusty Neutrogena Deep Hydrating Mask did not work and I had the same stinging and redness from this mask.

Luckily, Laneige Water Sleeping Pack EX worked really well. There was no sensitive reaction or redness on my skin and was really soothing. What I did was I applied a thick layer on my skin for the last step and it provided a nice relief for my skin.

In addition, I loaded up on Hada Labo Super Hyaluronic Acid Moisturizing Lotion. Hyaluronic Acid is an excellent humectant. It retain moisture 6000times its weight, that is 1gram can hold up to 6 litres of water. It moisturises well and is gentle on my skin.

My skin is slowly getting back to normal and I have been drinking more water as well. I find that lack of water intake has tremendously bad impact on my skin and this is a very good lesson learnt for me.

4 comments:

  1. I have the same experience with Moisture Surge. :(
    But I also found that Hada Labo (and using ONLY Hada Labo) helped my skin a lot - I usually get clogged pores from regular moisturizers, especially at night, so the lotion was a godsent for me.

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  2. Have you tried Laneige Water Sleeping Pack? It works like Moisture Surge and is gentle on sensitive skin. =)

    Many people rave about Clinique Moisture Surge (the SAs don't even know why it made my skin react that way). I don't usually read about Moisture Surge causing stingng and redness, so we might have similar skin type.

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  3. I really, really want to try some Laneige skincare, and the Water Sleeping Pack especially has had my interest for quite a while. I just need to get some money into my bank account again. ^^; Plus, at the moment, I fare quite well with Hada Labo lotion only at night - I do suspect my skin to be sensitive to too many products at once. On the other hand, winter is harsh over here, especially on the skin...

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  4. Hi Julia, perhaps it might be good to try getting a sample of Laneige, if possible, to try if you are sensitive to it so it won't be a waste of money if you are (hope not!) =)

    winters can be horrible on the skin. I broke out when I was living overseas during winter. So it might be a good thing i'm in a tropical climate ^^

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