The Blog
Intuitive skincare: How to tap into what your skin really needs
Intuitive skincare seems like a whole mood for 2022, but the truth is that it’s been part of the Skin Creamery philosophy from the very beginning. Ready to tune into your own skin? Let’s go… WHAT IS INTUITIVE SKINCARE? Ever heard of intuitive eating? It’s a dietary style that does away with obsessive rule-following and restrictions, and instead advocates for tapping into your body’s actual hunger cues. No, not the cues telling you to eat a bag of Chuckles every five minutes – the ones that are more like, ‘Brain fog alert; I need more protein in my life’. If this were the Metaverse, we’d probably call it a user-led nourishment experience. Intuitive skincare is the same concept. Forget robotic adherence to a daily routine and instead nourish your skin with what it needs in that particular moment. The really cool part? Unlike bodily hunger cues, which can take some practice to tune into, your skin is an open book just waiting to tell you how to help it out.Let’s be clear: intuitive skincare is not some woo-woo, unscientific exercise. It’s about conducting an empirical investigation of your own face in terms of moisture levels, oil balance and texture, then linking what you observe to a probable cause and choosing products accordingly. WHY PRACTICE INTUITIVE SKINCARE? Because it’s unlikely that your skin is the same every single day Your skin is the barrier between you and the rest of the world. It faces a constant onslaught of environmental (and dietary) factors and it fluctuates accordingly. Another thing? We tend to think of skincare in terms of am and pm routines, but if you’re someone who menstruates, your skin is set on a monthly cycle – not a 24-hour one. For better or worse, we’re at the mercy of our hormones, which means you could cycle through dryness, sensitivity, a radiant glow, acne and oiliness, all in the space of a month. In short, your skin is constantly changing to meet life’s challenges, so your skincare should be equally agile. Because it’s a golden opportunity for genuine self-careIf you’ve joined the Slow Beauty movement, then intuitive skincare will be right up your alley. That’s because rather than racing through a routine, intuitive skincare forces you to slow down, notice, assess and respond lovingly. It also helps you to practise answering the question ‘What do I need right now?’ (Hot tip: take this questioning practice into the rest of your life – to work, to the kitchen, to your relationships. It’s not selfish. You’re not prioritising your needs over others’. You’re just reminding yourself that you have needs in the first place.) Because it’s good for the planetThe more mindfully we buy and use products, the less waste we create. Happy skin, happy planet. Win-win. Because it worksSaved the best for last, didn’t we? Too often, the skincare industry is focused on skin beauty rather than skin health. That’s putting the cart before the horse, because the glow-up we’re all looking for is actually just a byproduct of helping your skin barrier to function optimally. Opt for skin health, rather than piling on products to target surface-level imperfections, and say hello to the glow. This is also the philosophy behind well ageing. By nourishing your skin, rather than trying to ‘combat the signs of ageing’ (you know, the marketing spiel we start receiving in our pre-teens), your skin will look happy and healthy no matter what stage of life you’re transitioning into. HOW TO PRACTISE INTUITIVE SKINCARE Take a good lookWhat’s actually going on on your face? Are you excessively oily come 3pm? Maybe your cleanser is too harsh. Do you have a lot of very fine lines (not wrinkles)? Time to up the hydration. Are any areas rough or bumpy to the touch? Might want to reach for the exfoliator. Do you have sensitivity, possibly caused by an impaired lipid barrier? Skip the actives and bump up the moisture. In short, try to really notice what’s going on with your skin (with as little judgement as possible) then feed it accordingly. Curate a collection of interchangeable productsYou don’t need an entire cosmetics aisle’s worth of products, but you do need a small selection of hard-working heroes that you can cherry-pick from based on your skin’s current needs. Make sure you’ve covered the basics: cleansing, toning, exfoliating, hydrating, moisturising and protecting (SPF). Psst… The Skin Creamery range can be used interchangeably without the risk of adverse ingredient interactions, because our products are formulated with gentle ingredients that help to maintain a healthy skin barrier. And while we don’t use active ingredients in our formulations – because not all skins can tolerate them – our range can safely be used with products that do contain actives. Try a skin fastIt’s the good advice that you won’t hear from a lot of beauty brands. When things are getting a little out of hand, resist the temptation to go in with the big guns, which will probably just wreak more havoc. Instead, try a skin fast. Strip back to gentle cleansing, moisturising and protecting to allow your skin to reset and rebalance itself as naturally as possible. When you’re practising intuitive skincare, you want to know that you’re giving your skin the best. We’re so grateful that a lot of you out there think that ‘the best’ equals Skin Creamery. In fact, so do the judges at The Beauty Shortlist Awards 2022, which celebrates the best products and brands in the natural beauty and wellness arena. Skin Creamery recently took home not one but two Editor’s Choice awards, for our Shower Oil and The Balm. Reason enough to give them a try!
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So long 2021.
Hey you! You made it!In case no one has congratulated you, well done for showing up every day. It was another year of navigating the endless intricacies of this COVID era while trying to maintain our relationships, families, work, health and some degree of sanity. We all flexed that resilience muscle (and some of us pulled it). It's time for a collective sigh right about now. Breathe in. Haaaaa.We are very lucky to have a wonderful team of women who steered through this year with grace, humour and patience. The beauty of a close-knit team is that you experience the highs and lows together. Here are some of the wins we celebrated this year: We moved into our office in Westlake, Cape Town. We used to run ALL our operations out of a small converted garage in Fish Hoek Cape Town until a year ago so this was a major step up. If you’re in Cape Town, you can now select a pick up option for online orders. We launched The Balm The beauty editor of Modern Beauty Magazine (SA’s first all beauty mag) called it ‘the beauty innovation of the year.’ The Balm is a blue-it-all wonder, your blue best friend, the one you can take everywhere and use for everything. We were thrilled with the overall response. Our whole team all got to be in the same room for the first time ever! We enjoyed a fun team-building day with a yoga session, some eye-gazing (please look this up if you don’t know what it is!) and a delicious lunch. The Wildflower Water-Cream was the overall winner in the Prestige Category at the P&C awards! The judges said: “ Stunning full package with such a great point of difference. Using Acmella flower is really innovative and different. A lovely combination of formulation ingredients, well-matched to the price point.” Hannah was interviewed on the Expresso Show during women’s month A right of passage for any South African entrepreneur. Our forest inspired Shower Oil made its debut. We had lots of fun shooting content for the launch in the Wilderness forest on the Garden Route and had a local model from the area (who also happens to be a pro surfer!) Our beauty philosophy wasfeatured in the Sunday Times The Slow Beauty philosophy is gaining traction! We hope that this will result in a different beauty narrative that is holistic, honours ageing and leaves you feeling empowered. Our range is now available in all new Wellness Warehouse and ARC stores We are also available at 21 Foschini stores across the country - double the amount in 2020! It has been great to grow with our stockists and make Skin Creamery available to more customers in new areas. PLUS we launched into Edge for Men, which is a great way to introduce our unisex range to the male market and connect with our male audience. We also introduced an in-store loyalty card program to give back to our customers. We are incredibly grateful to YOU, our Skin Creamery family, who support our business, send us beautifully uplifting messages and tell us where we need to improve. Your vote of confidence means everything. Thank you.We look forward to coming back in 2022 with a bang and have some very exciting launches coming your way.Wishing you a wonderful festive season With love and gratitude,The Skin Creamery Team
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5 STEPS TO CUSTOMISE YOUR SKINCARE ROUTINE (the slow beauty way)
‘What do *I* need?’ It’s a question we’re not that good at asking ourselves. It’s so much easier to just let brands and social media tell us what’s good, right? This is true of everything from running a business to raising a family, and it’s especially true when it comes to skincare lately. Your favourite influencer is glowing after layering three different acids on her face every night, so you hit ‘add to cart’ and do the same. Except – uh oh – something’s not quite right for you. Now your skin barrier is on its last legs and you’re flaking like a salt rock lamp. Stop. Put down your phone. It’s time to start really listening to your skin. Part of the Slow Beauty ethos is learning to trust yourself to take care of your own skin. This can be scary, we know. After all, most of us have spent decades outsourcing our body’s needs to trends and marketing. Getting back to recognising what your skin actually needs from you can be a slow process, but it’s worth the journey – because on the other side is a happy, healthy complexion. HOW TO CUSTOMISE YOUR SKINCARE ROUTINE: 1. Redefine skincare Here’s a little secret: good skincare is no more nor less than simply taking care of your skin. It doesn’t matter if you have a perfect #skincareshelfie of 20 trending products, or just two hard-working heroes – if you’re taking the time to look after your skin, then you’re doing skincare. 2. Focus on your own face If we’re not careful, skincare (like any self-care routine) can quickly turn into yet another stick with which to beat ourselves. You see someone on Instagram piling on the latest hydrating ingredient, and suddenly you feel guilty that you’re not giving your face the same spoils. But skincare is not a competitive sport. The perfect routine is the one that works for you and that you enjoy. Period. Take a break from the product comparison game. 3. Listen to your skin Grab a mirror and get reacquainted with your face. Do you really have all the ‘issues’ your current arsenal of products is designed to treat? Has something changed in the past few years that you haven’t noticed up until now? Do you even know what kind of skin you have? Try this: Wake up, wash your face with a gentle cleanser, then wait an hour and examine your skin. Is it oily? Dry? Sensitive? Tight? Beyoncé? (Lucky.) This exercise will give you an idea of your baseline skin so you can shop accordingly from there. 4. Assess (but don’t obsess) Introduce one new product into your routine at a time and wait three to four weeks before making any other changes. After that time, assess how it’s going. Can you see any improvement in your skin? Can you feel a difference? Have you enjoyed using it? These regular check-ins prevent you from being a skincare robot who just slathers on trend products without really knowing why. Tip: Snap a make-up free photo in natural light the day before you introduce a new product, and again after three to four weeks. Since we see ourselves daily, it can be difficult to discern a change without a side-by-side comparison. 5. Enjoy yourself We believe skincare should be a spa-like ritual at the start and end of your day. Treat yourself to products that not only improve the health of your skin, but are a joy to use. Now that’s our kind of skincare… Do you feel the same way we do about skincare routines? If you’re looking to slow down and get back to basics, we believe Skin Creamery can help. We stand by our products, our hard-working ingredients and our Slow Beauty ethos. Not sure where to begin? Our new, limited-edition Travel Set includes five minis of our hero products, ethically packaged in a Sealand Gear pouch made from upcycled canvas.
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SLOW BEAUTY 101
SLOW BEAUTY 101: WHAT IT IS AND HOW TO GET STARTEDYou’re over fast fashion. You love a farmer’s market. Your undies are all made from sustainably grown cotton… Ready to be just as discerning about your skincare? Then please allow us to slide into your brain’s DMs with a suggestion: switch to Slow Beauty. WHAT IS SLOW BEAUTY?It’s simpleOne of the tenets of Slow Beauty is to use fewer – but better – products, which cuts down on waste while also saving you money and time. It’s stripped backSkincare is not an arms race, you guys. We’re done throwing an arsenal of overly complicated products at our faces in an attempt to ‘target’, ‘banish’ and ‘combat’ surface-level imperfections. Slow Beauty presents a simpler approach, prioritising clean, natural ingredients that allow your natural beauty to shine through. It’s ethical Just like Slow Fashion, Slow Beauty is about investing in products that have been carefully crafted using sustainable methods and sensitively sourced ingredients. Goodbye mass production and mindless consumerism. Hello ethical skincare that’s as good for the planet as it is for you. It puts self-care at the centreShel Pink, the founder of the Slow Beauty movement, says she was initially inspired by ‘clean beauty, spa culture and the art of self-care’. In other words, it’s skincare that is rooted in calming rituals, as well as results.It’s a return to the joy of beautyIf lockdown taught us anything, it was to focus on essentials while elevating the everyday – two things that Slow Beauty has been urging all along. It’s about taking a step back from what has become a disturbingly fast-paced beauty world in order to relax and actually enjoy your favourite products. HOW TO START YOUR SLOW BEAUTY JOURNEY1. Identify your (real) needsEver spent an hour on skincare YouTube? You probably clicked away feeling like you need to introduce 23 new products into your routine to combat a litany of skin issues that you didn’t even know you had. Slow down. Think about what your actual needs are. Not your best mate’s, not some influencer’s – yours. Now craft your skincare routine to service those needs. You officially have our permission to leave the rest behind.2. Cultivate your own ritualsMaybe you love a nightly bath with a scented candle, or maybe you’re more into listening to Slayer while you apply sunscreen in the morning. We don’t judge. Build the routine that’s restorative for you, whatever it looks (or sounds) like. 3. Go beyond the ingredientsKnowing what’s inside your products is a great first step, but practise taking it further. Where is the manufacturer sourcing their ingredients? Do they (or their suppliers) test on animals? What is the packaging made from? Is it recycled/recyclable? Interrogate your beauty the way you interrogate your produce. 4. Seek out products that do double-dutyVersatility is an important part of the Slow Beauty ‘do more with less’ ethos. That’s why our Everyday Cream, for example, is light enough to be used as a facial moisturiser but rich enough so that you can enjoy it as a body lotion, too. Psst! If you love a multifunctional product as much as we do, keep an eye on our social platforms for a big announcement next week. We’ve been hard at work on a new addition to the Skin Creamery line-up… Want to be the first to get a sneak-peek of our new product? Subscribe to our newsletter on our website (scroll to the bottom!)
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Welcome!
Welcome to ‘The Blog’ – a space dedicated to sharing holistic advice, personalised skincare tips and exciting news from our side. You’ll also have the opportunity to learn more about our incredible team and friends of the brand and what they have to say. If you’re new here, thank you for choosing us! We’re delighted to have you. Here’s a reminder of our ethos: Skin Creamery is guided by the spirit of simplicity, beauty and elegance in everything we do. We are committed to ethical business and helping conscious consumers live more gently on the planet. We keep our foundations 100% natural, do not test on animals or use animal derivatives and we make every effort to reduce plastic use. Our priority is to deliver quality skincare that nourishes, balances and restores your skin to its natural health. For our first blog we asked the team what brings them peace when times get hard. How do you get through uncertain times? Hannah Rubin (Founder) The sea air always helps me. A long walk on the beach is what helps me to relax my mind and find peace in difficult times. Yoga also helps me to move and breathe through the discomfort of uncertainty. A hot cup of tea is also high up on my list to soothe the soul :) Daniala Santos de Canha Melman (Chief Operating Officer) In difficult times I turn to my husband. He is the most level headed compassionate human being I know. At the end of each day, we spend time chatting/ decompressing while cooking and if I need an escape we head off to the beach. The water is very calming for me and being away from technology helps me centre myself and gather my thoughts. I think family and partners are so important in difficult times. Kayleigh van der Heever (Logistics Manager) 1) I comfort myself with a grilled cheese sarmie, and any movie I loved as a teen! The world is brighter with a full belly, and...cheese...need I say more! 2) I practice daily gratitude. I have a jar and a bowl of old coins at my front door. As I walk by I toss a coin into the jar and express thanks, in the quiet of my mind, for something in my life. This reminds me to seek out joy in every situation. Mediatrice Kwizera (Logistics Assistant) I like to read positive quotes that uplift me and I pray and read the bible. I also talk to someone who understands and can comfort me. Andrea Timotheus (Regional Account manager) It depends on the situation, if it's an issue I am dealing with for the first time I might panic. Because I am an overthinker and suffer from anxiety, I always remind myself to breathe. I try to remain calm and focused (as difficult as it may be) and deal with the problems I can control, and try to let go of what I can't. I have also learned that it is okay to ask for help, you don't always have to be a wonder woman and have everything figured out. Rebecca de Blanche(Area Manager) Practising gratitude for all the blessings in my life (such as my family, cats, job, home and friends) helps shift my mindset and puts things into perspective. I try focus my energy on what I have control over, such as my own actions and attitude, and accept what is out of my control. This helps minimise anxiety and equips me to face challenges with a logical and productive approach. That glass of wine or piece of chocolate (or both) at the end of the day is also a life saver! Sanchia Varley (Community & Digital Marketing Manager) Learning to know the difference between what I can control and what I can’t has been life changing. Connecting with friends and family. Gratitude. Keeping present and accepting how I feel rather than fighting it and feeling worse! Getting into bed early with a book. And listening to inspiring podcasts is a huge help because you learn that we all go through the same things. Noxolo Msezeni (Office Assistant) I prefer being at home with my family. I like to get physical when I’m stressed and can turn my whole house upside down organising and doing housework. Playing with my kids and dogs takes my mind off things too (my dogs are like therapy) Cooking and baking really calm me!
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