I seldom wear my glasses on the blog (can’t show my facial skin properly with my glasses in the way for reviews etc etc), yet here’s the thing: I’m blind as a bat without it. When I get out of the shower, dried myself off with a towel, popped on body lotion, I head to the bedroom to start my skincare regime. I don’t have a proper dressing table, only 2 chests of drawers my skincare items sit on, so I usually stand in front of a small mirror to apply my skincare products.

Again, just to remind you, I’m blind as a bat without my glasses and throughout the entire process, I don’t have my glasses on. If you’re also short-sighted like me, you’ll know how it feels to have to go very near the mirror just to see what you’re doing clearly.

After a while, I don’t even look at the mirror anymore. I slap the lotions and potions on my face as though I’m on autopilot. Even though the small mirror is in front of me, I don’t look at it because I could barely make out my face in the mirror unless I stand a few inches away from it. I learned to perfect the “auto pilot-ness” of skincare application very well over the years.

This happened for many years but at the beginning of the year, I decided to take my time and look at the mirror properly when I apply my skincare. Even if I have to almost kiss my nose with the mirror, I started to really look at the mirror when I’m applying my serums, eye cream, moisturiser and sunscreen. As time went on, I began to notice the physical changes in my skin sooner. I didn’t realise that the haphazard way of my applying eye cream was leaving bits of cream on my face that I didn’t blend properly. Slowly but surely, I started to learn more about my face and skin. I started to see where new lines are forming, where old lines are softening and how my skin is really looking.

This practice of really noticing yourself in front of the mirror can be pretty confronting. Often I’d exclaim “bloody hell, where did those lines come from?!“. This wouldn’t be new to you if you’ve always been able to see yourself clearly in the mirror when you’re applying your skincare but for a short-sighted person like me who has been applying her skincare on autopilot without a mirror for years, it got intimidating pretty quickly. But it also taught me many things about my own skin that I didn’t know before, if I had looked in the mirror properly when I’m slapping some cream onto my face.

My question to you is this: do you look at the mirror properly when you’re applying your skincare? Do you notice every nook and cranny of your face? Or do you go on autopilot and apply them without a mirror?