With current situations at hand and numerous social media posts calling out to self-care, I took the initiative to focus on one of my favourite practices – skincare.

Since I haven’t found the need to wear make-up, the current bare state has set me off on a quest to attain flawless skin that needs just a slick of gloss and mascara. While I love a full face of make-up, the new minimal goals have made me re-assess my beauty needs.

Enter ‘skin fast’, a less-is-more approach to help reset your dependency on skincare products. The theory behind it: we’re teaching our skin to rely on the active ingredients and products to do the work that skin would naturally do. Daily layers of skincare can cause an overload and interject your skins natural processes, in turn upsetting its baseline.

I fit the mould of very tricky sensitive-combination skin-type but I was wary of completely swearing of products in case it overreacted. I opted for a more minimalistic approach instead. Mornings I used a light face wash, double cleansed every other day, applied lightweight fluid moisturiser to certain dry patches on my skin and always finished with SPF. I had replaced my night cream and serums with only cleansing milk to gently remove all the hard-working skincare products and excess dust or dirt.

The results? A week in, and my skin looks and feels fresh with a natural glow as opposed to one acquired with hydration.

Does this mean I’m off all the other products? Not at all, this was just a much-needed beauty break to detoxify before I slowly decide to re-introduce active ingredients in moderation again.

While the skin-fasting trend can be helpful for some, the movement definitely isn’t a one size fits all. However, it is worth stripping back the ‘actives’ if the skin is extremely sensitive, irritated or having an adverse reaction.

Here’s a list of Lightweight, sensitive skin products that have worked for me.

Fresh Soy Cleanser, Dh138 at Cultbeauty

Aesop In Two Minds Hydrator, Dh195 at Bloomingdales

Nuxe Comforting Cleansing Milk With Rose Petals Dh97 at Sephora