You have a party coming up - an event you’re looking forward to. There are going to be lots of photos snapped. There’s no escaping that. (Keep reading or skip ahead for your actionable 3 Day Slow Beauty Preparation)
Remember when cameras weren't in your face everywhere you went? That was a while ago, but I liked those times. Photos felt special. They were special! Remember anticipating how the roll of film would come out? You'd think about the pictures while they sat in the camera. They'd be on your mind for the week or more while being developed. When you picked up your photos at the photo shop or pharmacy, it was so exciting to lift the flap on the outer white paper envelope and slip out the folder of photos inside. Then you'd open that, too, and pull out the stack. In that moment, reward centers were explosively firing, every which way (in the same way we've come to expect now, multiple times an hour!)
Most of the time they were disappointing, right? Whether a photo of a bird in mid-flight, of the cake you baked, or a holiday snapshot clicked by a stranger, they rarely lived up to expectations. But we were ready for that, too. The good news was no one ever expected you to share your photos publicly. At best, they were tucked away into an album on a shelf. At worst, you grabbed the picture from the one and only other person who saw it, ripped it in half, and stuffed it in the garbage. You both forgot about it forever.
These days, the good news is we can rapidly swipe through the 100 photos we took at a simple birthday dinner, and click delete. But there's bad news, too. You're not the only person who took 100 or more photos. Most people don't care how you look and you can't control who throws them up on social media.
Sometimes it seems all those photos were invented for the young, who still look great from every angle. And at every hour of the day or night 😊 Does it seem to anyone else that our cameras are recording lines and shadows that aren't even there yet?!
Back to the upcoming party you're looking forward to. I don't want you stressing about the pictures you’ll be in. The photos that will be all over social media. The photos taken of you, that you’ll never even see – but that at least 500 other people will. And so, I’m here to share a self-love strategy for how you can take 3 days to prepare for a party or big event. (And like cleaning the house when you're the one holding the gathering, you can use the upcoming event as your excuse to give your skin the same kind of extra attention it needs). You'll feel so confident at the party you won't waste any time being self-conscious, not a single second lost thinking about how you look - you can be thinking about the important stuff, instead - namely the person right across from you! Because that’s the way to have fun! A party should be fun. It should be a joy.
So, here it goes, I'm sharing everything you need to know, to improve your skin in a hurry. Your 3 day slow beauty preparation to love your photos. It's a little like boot camp, without the pain. It's like a fast, without deprivation. It's like tough love, without the tough. 😍
I guess the only thing that's similar are the quick results! (And the fact that nothing lasts long if you don't keep up the good work).
3 Day Slow Beauty Preparation to Love Your Photos
3 Days Before Your Event
Drink enough water. How much water is enough water? Listen to your body, and you’ll find out. There's no universal “right” amount of water. When I lived in LA, I drank approximately three times as much water as I do in Northern Washington State. A healthy amount of water depends on your climate and the time of year. Don't worry about the lack of firm guidelines - your body will tell you when it’s had enough. Treat this question as one of your slow beauty moments. It’s a beautiful moment in your day when you shut down every other thought and lovingly ask yourself: “Am I thirsty? Have I had enough water?” Really, turn this into a calm, self-care moment – a simple gesture of self-love that’s doable. Why even drink water before an event? Taking in water hydrates and fills out your skin cells, minimizing the appearance of the wrinkles you have. Here’s a tip for how to get even more skin-loving impact from your water: flavor with 20 drops of pure, organic rose extract. This trick makes my skin smooth. (Slow Botanicals rose extract isn't for sale on the site shop - send me a message to buy directly).
Conversely, keep your salt intake way down: don’t eat potato chips, pretzels, crackers, or other salty snacks. Especially, no salt in the evening. Cook from scratch – frozen meals and restaurant cooking are too high in sodium. With too much sodium, you risk the early stage of dehydration. This is exactly what happened to my mother-in-law and I after the family shared a dinner out when my MIL visited last summer. Post-sodium, we both woke up all puffy, and we stayed that way all day. The older you get, the longer it takes for your face to slim back down to normal. Longer than just a morning, this puff can last days. What else does early stage dehydration do? It exaggerates the appearance of your wrinkles. I know you don't want that.
Get exercise. Either your regular work-out or a brisk 30 minute walk will do. This gets your oxygen circulating and contributes to a good night’s worth of beauty sleep.
Morning and night, wash your face with a gently exfoliating cleanser. This will remove rough and lingering dead skin cells (eww. My family knows that nothing grosses me out more than someone else’s dead skin cells. Communal hot tub? Yuck!)
Smooth on a nourishing, anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial skin cream – and just like your exfoliating wash, do this both morning and night. When I know I have a moment in time coming up, when I want to look my best, Wild Winter Blend is my face cream of choice.
Get to bed by 9:30pm. When you want to look your best, you need to play along WITH your circadian rhythms! Have trouble sleeping? Use an entirely natural sleep aid such as Sleep Well. (Contact me directly to order). You’ll want to avoid a stronger sleeping potion if you can -many pharmaceutical sleeping pills have an unwanted side effect of making your skin puffy. Consider a sleep mask, too. Importantly, keep your bedroom as dark and quiet as possible. When you keep your space dark, you’re letting your circadian rhythms release all the right natural chemicals and hormones at the right time, healing and regenerating your skin while you sleep, and helping our your overall health.
2 Days Before Your Event
Repeat day 3 and follow these tips:
Give yourself a facial massage. It’s easy to work this in while you’re washing your face.
Make oatmeal the first meal of your day. Either for breakfast, or later if you’re into intermittent fasting. And skip the brown sugar! Instead, cook in raisins and fruit and top with whole fat yogurt. Not only does oatmeal soothe your nervous system but it's great at managing insulin levels. If you want to look good, I recommend insulin levels always be front of mind when you’re making meal choices.
Take a break: lie down for 30 minutes with cucumber slices over your eyes. Best & Bright Eye Cream includes garden grown cucumbers. Cucumbers soothe and tighten fragile skin around your eyes.
1 Day Before Your Event
Again, follow day 3 and day 2 and work this step in, too:
Apply a cabbage face mask. This is as easy as using a scarf to secure whole, crushed leaves, (crush the leaves with a rolling pin), to your face. Wear this crazy get-up around the house as you go about your day. Wear the cabbage leaves as long as you can manage. Seriously amazing results. But, yeah, I know!!! So, if this is just way too ridiculous for you, applying a homemade cabbage leaf face mask will be more fancy. Watch for the cabbage mask recipe in a future newsletter. I’ll get that out to you soon.
At the end of 3 days of party photo preparation, your skin is going to feel amazing! Your skin will be smoother, brighter, and look years younger. You’ll actually look forward to capturing this moment with photos! But slow beauty doesn't need be only for once in a blue moon.
And so, I leave you with a challenge: see how many of these tips you can work into your every day. Not only will you look your best, you’ll feel your best, too. As far as I’m concerned, the only reason I want to look good is so that, ultimately, I can feel good. Good on every level. I’m pretty sure it’s the same with you!
If you love these pre-party photo prep tips, please share this post with a good friend! This will show you want your friends to look as great in photos as you do ❤️
Wishing you all my best, Chwynyn Want more on slow beauty? Download the steps for your Slow Beauty Morning Ritual
