The challenge? to take my existing skincare routine and to nudge it in order to force myself into a different situation in order to evaluate the significance of the endeavor and potentially improve it.
So what do I do?
Ideation
Following the feedback from the previous presentation, my classmates all had really nice input. It’s difficult to look at one of the routines you do in a subjective manner, I enjoyed seeing the 3rd party feedback, some of which I attached.
From all of these, I had gathered 2 main things:
- Product testing(whether it was changing products, changing the amount of product, or ceasing to use specific products) was a popular nudge
- People enjoyed the more introspective portion talking about the importance.
which is where my graph comes in:
Unfavorable zone: Highlighted in yellow I have highlighted topics in which I believe would have a negative impact on my skincare. As a result of how meticulously I have crafted my routine, changing it, or even ceasing it would result in huge breakouts.
Interest Zone: In red, I have shown some activities in which I would be interested in further explaining or testing out. Of these, explanatory elements would be more interesting, because I felt that the time constraints of the first presentation made a further desire in me to give more in-depth explanations.
Overall none of these ideas individually made me extremely excited for my nudge, so I did some research around what I could do that was both interesting and elevating to my routine.
Prototyping
Because I didn’t want to implement a new product to my face routine, I searched around among all the tools that could be used as well. I was aware of the issues I had and wanted to fix: including my face getting very easily bloated(especially my undereye and neck areas). That's how I found my tool: facial Gua Sha stone.
Gua Sha is a form of Chinese medicine that I was introduced to at a very young age. Scraping inflammatory areas around the body to create slight bruising was shown to detox the body, similar to many other practices like fire cupping.
Conceptualization
So I did further research on a tool specifically for facial gua sha so that I implement it into my day.
And thus, I purchased my product for it to be used.
Testing
I had ordered my product off of a recommendation from the places I had researched.
After placing the order, I waited 3 days for it to arrive at my apartment, and thus, the package opening was glorious.
The item itself surprised me a little: the rock was cool to touch, and it was extremely satisfying to rub it in my hands.
I took the time(out of my routine just for the first time) to use this tool to its full capacity.
I put on my music, took out my desk mirror(which promptly revealed the one part of my desk that happened to be even remotely messy), and followed a video to learn the nuances of how to properly massage my face.
It felt extremely calming to rub this cool stone across my face, and though I do not see any immediate results(as any other skincare products), I believe in trusting the process and it helped in the mental connection I have with my routine.
