It’s safe to say that for many of us, our usual wellness routines went out the window in 2020.
We were locked out of the gym and yoga studios, and forced to cancel our long-term plans for wellness retreats. We started working out at home and definitely got on with it as best we could, and approaches to wellness changed dramatically as a result Trend reports say that instead of working out to the point of exhaustion, people have started taking a more holistic approach to their overall wellbeing, discovering what makes them feel happy and healthy, rather than simply the quickest way to achieve killer abs or the perfect butt.
It’s an attitude worth taking into the new year, and more than a few of my skin and wellness favourites fit right in.
Keep it cool
Skin icing – or facial cryotherapy – is one of the biggest skincare trends flooding Instagram Reels and TikTok right now, and with good reason. Apart from the mesmerising effect of watching famous faces and facialists massage ice globes onto their faces, the action of skin icing tightens and contracts the skin, leaving it sculpted and plump.
The idea of applying ice or using a cryotherapy tool in a professional facial treatment isn’t new, but the recent innovation of ice-based tools has meant it’s now easier than ever to give yourself an at-home skin icing treatment without the need to reach for a handful of ice cubes! Or you can submit to the talented hands of an expert like Kate Michelmore and her team at Skinography on Jervois Road who offer the Ice Facial which cools and sculpts the face like a dream. It also increases circulation, oxygenation and lymphatic drainage, and provides anti-inflammatory benefits. When put into practice, it causes the blood to rise to the surface which soothes and tightens the skin; any puffiness be gone.
Float on
The benefits of climbing inside a float tank are numerous and include stress relief, ease of muscle tension and pain, improved mood and sleep patterns. Floatation Therapy is based on a revolutionary scientific approach to deep relaxation called ‘Restricted Environmental Stimulation Technique’, or REST. Floatation REST restricts or eliminates all of the external stress factors or stimuli that normally affect us every day. We are often not consciously aware of this, but they can take up to 95 percent of our physical and mental energy.
In addition, one hour of floating equals up to eight hours of deep sleep, which most of us could definitely do with more of as we tackle a bold new year. White Beauty Spa + Float Lounge in Herne Bay is the Ponsonby News team’s pick of the float offerings currently available, and gets top marks for hygiene and education too. Owner Lou Oliver, has a wealth of knowledge about floating, which she is always so happy to share.
Digital detoxes
We all desperately want to feel connected, especially to overseas friends and family we can’t currently hug in person, but there is also so much negative energy in social media and the news right now. One of my key learnings from looking inwards during 2020 is that we each have the power to decide what we take in and we can set boundaries around our digital consumption. I’m not saying throw your phone out the window, but perhaps think about restricting your time spent glued to screens and even having a digital detox every so often. A digital detox can be devoting a week, weekend, or even just a day (Sundays are a good choice) to living without your phone, social media, and TV. Instead, take more time with yourself, go for long walks in nature, meditate, read, or actually catch up with the friends and family that you can see IRL.
Embrace ‘skip care’
This is a skincare trend that I can definitely get behind and have pulled a Marie Kondo on my bathroom cabinet to prove it! A collective call for a more streamlined approach that still gets the job done – and done just as well - skip care is the antithesis of the previously popular 10-plus-step beauty routine. Just as effective, skip care involves paring down your product and ingredient load to only
a few high performing essentials, and going back to basics with your morning and evening routine. You can still create little rituals, but with fewer products and a cleaner approach. If you’ve ever yearned for a more manageable skincare regimen on those nights when 10-plus steps feel like a step too far (pun intended), or you’re looking to try out a more minimalist approach in general, a skip care skincare routine might be just the thing for you.
Demand recycling transparency
Despite our well-meaning efforts, recycling beauty products is quite the challenging affair. Many bottles have intricate parts that require super stringent tossing guidelines, and some that simply cannot be recycled at all, like metal springs in pumps, embedded mirrors, and the like. And yet, for years, the beauty industry simply slapped on a recycling stamp and ‘called it a day’. As a result, products dropped in the recycling bin likely still end up in landfill, and we remain in a blissful state of ‘wish cycling’– discarding empties with the best intentions, but lacking the abilities to make long-lasting change. And as clean beauty becomes even more widespread, consumers and brands begin to realise that ‘clean’ doesn’t stop inside the bottle.
It’s time to start demanding more from the cosmetics industry, and to start embracing brands like Emma Lewisham, who has offered refills from day one of its inception. The New Zealand clean beauty phenomenon offers refills on all of its glass bottles, which include the cult-favourite Skin Reset Serum and its Supernatural products (Triple Vitamin A+ Face Oil and Anti-Ageing Peptide 72-Hour Crème), and is in the process of phasing out non-refillable packaging by March 2021. Emma Lewisham is also currently investing in new refillable technologies in the plastic vessel space, with more great products and innovation to come. (HELENE RAVLICH)
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