What would happen if you gave your skin a real break? I’m talking no makeup, no skincare, nada! For at least one full week. I decided to give skin fasting a try while dealing with problematic skin last month and here’s what I learned after ten days of a full beauty product detox:

1. Letting my skin truly breathe felt incredible. I certainly go one, two or three days without makeup but I always always always use skincare products. Without using product, my skin went through various phases – dry, oily, extremely dry, super oily, etc. Then around day five, it began to normalize. Once my skin had the chance to naturally balance out, I was producing all the essential oils for a natural, dewy complexion.

2. I reallllly missed the rituals of my beauty routine. Whether it’s putting on a mask in the evening or gently breathing in the scent of my rose serum while applying it to my skin, or simply sitting in front of the mirror to apply makeup, I thoroughly enjoy the experience of a beauty routine and missed the fun of it all.

3. It was really challenging to not wear makeup for the first 3-4 days but once I got used to being out in the world sans makeup, the insecurities wore off. And even though it only takes me 7-10 minutes to do my makeup in the morning, over the course of a week, that’s an hour which was quite a bit of extra time for a busy mama. Without makeup, people thought I was much younger than I am, and by the end of the fast I was getting more skin compliments than usual.

4. So what were the results? Did my skin clear up? Yes, my skin got MUCH better. The acne I was struggling with cleared up BUT it’s hard to say with certainty that it was from the skin fast. For me, so much of my skin health is tied to hormones, stress and diet. While on the fast, I had more downtime in general as I was staying home in the evenings more than usual, had more time since I wasn’t spending it on vanity and was cooking organic clean meals nightly because I was home.

5. What did I do once the fast was over? I was VERY excited to exfoliate, lather in serum and sleep in an overnight mask following the fast BUT I cut down on wearing makeup. I found a new confidence in my naked skin.

Have you ever done a skin fast? If not would you?