Skin Care

Approach

A minimal baseline routine that keeps skin healthy without daily complexity. Not everything is done all the time. The toolkit exists so individual interventions can be scaled up when skin needs attention, then scaled back down once things stabilize.

Baseline

• pH-neutral cleanser: gentle daily cleansing that doesn’t strip the skin’s acid mantle
• Jojoba oil: closely mimics human sebum, so the skin absorbs it without overproducing its own oil. Works as a simple daily moisturizer.
• Sunscreen: non-negotiable UV protection. The single highest-impact thing for long-term skin health.

Active Interventions

Used as needed rather than on a fixed schedule.

• Mandelic acid: an alpha hydroxy acid for gentle chemical exfoliation. Larger molecular size than glycolic acid means slower penetration and less irritation. Good for texture, pigmentation, and keeping pores clear.
• Gua sha: facial massage tool used for lymphatic drainage. Reduces puffiness and promotes circulation. Done when the face feels congested or sluggish.
• Microneedling: creates controlled micro-injuries to stimulate collagen production. Used relatively infrequently for scar reduction and overall skin texture improvement. Not a routine treatment, more of a periodic reset.

Philosophy

The goal is healthy skin with minimal daily overhead. Most problems come from doing too much rather than too little. The baseline handles day-to-day maintenance, and the active interventions are tools to reach for when something specific needs correcting. Scale up, fix the issue, scale back down.