A Carefully Considered Morning Ritual That Can Brighten Your Day

Raelle Brown is a strong voice for a lot of – for ladies of shade, for ladies with eczema, and for anybody needing a task mannequin with power and self-assurance. A video producer within the Philadelphia space, Raelle makes use of her communication expertise and her deep compassion to assist others by way of her well-liked Instagram account, @wokewithinskin, in addition to her weblog. How does she get able to be at her greatest every morning, even when coping with a tough pores and skin flare-up? Here, she shares her methods, from each well being/magnificence and emotional views.

Dealing With a Flare-Up

As Raelle sees it, planning for any contingency is essential. “I have two different plans when it comes to a morning ritual because of my eczema,” she says. “My first plan is for the worst of times – when I’m having a flare-up. On days when I’m actively dealing with my eczema, I can’t rely on being able to do everything in the morning – it might be too uncomfortable to do my usual cleansing and preparation. My solution is to do as much as I comfortably can the night before, in case my skin is really irritated the next day. I don’t take a shower if I’m having a flare-up, because it would make my skin way too dry. Instead, I fill a bath with Epsom salts and soak for about 20 minutes.” Epsom salts exfoliate the pores and skin, they usually comprise magnesium, a pure moisturizer. Plus, “they’re very accessible for everyone, because they’re so inexpensive,” she says.

Extra moisturizing is her subsequent important step. “After I get out of the bathtub, I like to use natural butters – jojoba especially is my go-to,” Raelle explains. “I know a lot of people use things like Vaseline, assuming it’s moisturizing, but it’s a chemical, and it’s so much more soothing to go with products that aren’t made up of chemicals. Then I use body oil all over, a natural formula again.”

Putting Her Best Face Forward

Next, she adapts her magnificence routine. “If I’m having a flare-up, the only makeup I’ll put on is lipstick – the cleanest type I can find,” Raelle says. “I don’t have just one brand that I like, but I find fruit-based formulas are the best for keeping my skin soft and calm. I try never to wear foundation, because I think with eczema it’s important to let your skin breathe as much as possible. For sure I wouldn’t wear it during a flare-up – trying to ‘cover’ that just makes it more uncomfortable.”

Then there are what Raelle calls her “maintenance” mornings. “If I’m not having an active flare-up, I might get up and decide to take a shower, then do my moisturizer and oil,” she says. “Or I might decide to skip a shower entirely, and outside of moisturizing I might just let my skin chill for a day. Chilling is a really good preventative step you can take sometimes. If I have to wear a little makeup for some reason, like I’m going to have my photo taken for my blog or something like that, then I will put on a little makeup. But again, natural products all the way.”

Going Deeper

That’s what Raelle does for her physique – after which there’s what she does to organize herself psychologically for the day. “I think it’s so helpful to just feel community support. That makes a huge difference in what you put out to the world externally, as well as how you feel internally,” she displays. “So I go on social media, and I get support, and it is just a huge help to communicate with other people who are going through what I am, in dealing with eczema. It has helped me process so many things in such a therapeutic way.”

To middle herself, Raelle additionally does breath work. “Just deep breathing, being conscious of your breath, being quiet – if you can’t do anything else to get ready for the day, doing that is so important,” she says. “In fact, anything you can do to be calm is important – with eczema, calm is your superpower. Not just so you can deal well with flare-ups, or prevent them. I think, especially for women of color, you have to be aware of how the outside world is going to view you. Being calm, and aware of yourself internally, really helps, because our skin color is already judged, and then you have eczema in addition to that. Instead of being seen as unattractive, you have to be an inspiration. You have to know you’re beautiful! Your viewpoint is the one that matters.”

As Raelle tells it, these easy actions have empowered and sustained her for years. “When I was at my lowest, dealing with the external effects of eczema, I had to learn to go beyond the external,” she says. “I had to find other answers. Finding other people like me motivated me. Now I know how to give that support back to others, and doing that – through Instagram, through my blog, through just talking to them – is the most important thing I do every morning and every day.”