Science Says Your Beauty Routine Can Be As Beneficial For Your Brain As It Is For Your Skin

Forget the notion that people who love beauty and skincare are vapid or care too much about their looks. Maintaining a consistent beauty ritual has the same impact on our brain activity as other habitual behaviors — just like deep breaths during meditation — and can help create a feeling of serenity and calmness in your mind.

Sticking to any kind of structured routine helps clear your mind and gives you a sense of control — whether you’ve designed the ritual yourself or are following a regimen, you always know what’s going to happen next, how long it’s going to take, what every product is going to do, etc. You don’t need to worry about the next step because you are in total control.

It’s a very straightforward and simple way to calm yourself down if you’re feeling any overwhelming stress or worries — especially if it’s a ritual that takes a long time or requires a higher degree of effort. The repetition of those several steps can really help with your anxiety and can help build logical, critical-thinking skills.

There’s more science to it! Although beauty is usually dismissed as something frivolous and not worthwhile, makeup application legitimately does require precision and focus. (See: the billions of tutorials and articles online describing how to create the perfect cat eye look.) One of the best ways to alleviate anxiety is to do simple tasks that require all of your attention and a little bit of creativity, to keep your mind off of whatever is making you anxious. Makeup routines fulfill both of these, while also forcing you to stay in the present — which is important, because anxiety is usually triggered by a fear over something happening in the future.

Beauty routines are also a positive and productive process, which makes them perfect to combat any negative thoughts that stem from your anxiety. And it’s really just a very effective form of self-care. It may seem simple, and maybe you’ve never even given it a second thought before, but setting up a ritual like this not only helps your skin, but forces you to be a little bit more mindful and loving towards yourself and your mental state.