Should You Be Skin Cycling?

A new skincare trend wants you give vacation days to your skin

- Sanjana Salunkhe

We are all guilty of going down the social media rabbit hole - at an ungodly hour when procrastination gets the best of us. Once the sea of content consumes you, there is no going back. Truth be told: It’s a gold mine for us beauty enthusiasts. These innovative and indisputably entertaining apps have given us some questionable trends like creating false eye bags and also some of the best beauty hacks, like the dual blush trick that gives you the perfect, snatched, and dewy look. Occasionally, specific trends turn out to be lifechanging, and one such recent discovery that the GenZ-led platform TikTok has given us is the ‘Skin Cycling’ trend. The hashtag has racked up over four billion views on the platform and continues to influence more and more people. So, what is it exactly?

WHAT IS SKIN CYCLING?

Skin cycling is a routine coined by Dr. Whitney Bowe, which she discussed on her TikTok and Instagram. It applies to a night-time skincare routine where you apply active ingredients only on certain days, gives your skin rest days, and then repeat the process. “Say you start with an at-home peel for the first night with either salicylic acid or any other AHA in a higher percentage, the next day you do a retinol, and then for two days you take a break and let your skin do some healing,” explains dermatologist and founder of Isya Aesthetics, Dr Kiran Sethi.

DOES IT REALLY WORK?