Coming to Mind: How Scent and Skincare Affect Mood
How does what we put on our skin influence our moods? Each day, whether consciously or subconsciously, we are guided by the rhythm of our routines. Morning to night, our daily acts of self-care hold a particular power over the outcome of our days.
A large part of our work here at Redoux is exploring the intersection of scent and skincare, investigating how each of these elements can bring to life certain feelings, memories, and desires that we all carry with us.
Today, we want to focus specifically on the unique relationship between skin and mood: how does what we put on our skin affect our mental state?
Skincare and Mood
Stress, anxiety, and the other components of your emotional well-being deeply affect our skin; they manifest through dryness, breakouts, or simply by revealing a lackluster texture that doesn’t reflect your inner glow.
Self-care routines and daily rituals can restore this balance by providing a framework for finding peace in your life. Triggers of stress include being unprepared, short on time, or ill-equipped, but when you create healthy morning or night routines, a lot of this time-related anxiety is alleviated.
These routines also have the ability to create structure that frees up space in your mind. Once the routines become second nature, you're free to utilize that energy in more creative, loving, and dynamic ways.
The result? An outer glow that matches your inner flame.
It's important to point out that this isn't about holding routines as hard rules, but rather as guiding principles: it’s about taking the extra time to care for yourself and bringing awareness to considering what works best for you.
This might mean letting go of a skincare product you once held dear when it no longer working the way it once did, or switching up your routine when you're feeling stuck. Whatever way you go, keep it true to you and you'll find that your mood and spirit are on the rise.
How Scent Affects Your Mood
Fragrance holds the power to set your mood for the entire day: it can boost your self confidence, prompt nostalgia, enhance sleep, and even improve physical and cognitive performance.
In spite of this, we may not always be intentional in our relationship to scent. It’s easy to find smells we enjoy since there are many pleasant scents we encounter in our daily lives, but we should challenge ourselves to determine if “pleasant” is the best we can strive for in our mood (or the best that we can give our skin).
To seek a strong relationship with your scent, you can lean into our memories and goals, considering how that scent might relate to a specific part of your day or routine.
A good example is picking the right scent profile for a cleanser: if you're seeking a good AM/PM product, you may want to avoid lemon or peppermint, as they have the tendency to energize rather than calm. Look for scent blends that encompass your needs, rather than ones that just smell pleasant.
What energizes you may be someone else’s least favorite scent—and that’s the beauty of it. We may not all have the same relationship to scents, but we can all experience and seek out products that encapsulate common feelings like joy, stillness, serenity, and growth.
The next time you get ready (or wind down) for the day, pay attention to each feeling and thought that comes to mind. What do you notice when you encounter a scent? What feels euphoric? What is missing?
That's the power of scent and skincare.
This post is an updated version of an earlier post here on the blog. You can read the original here. Curious about how to hone in on your scent and skincare routines? Explore our products here.