If I could pass along only one personal-care tip from my family, it would be this: listen to your skin.

For me personally (hi, Divya here with Team Sift), my path to following this advice was a winding one, specifically when it came to exfoliation.

Exfoliating was once a straightforward and enjoyable part of my personal care maintenance plan. As a teen, I’d open my mom’s drawer and scoop a spoon of the face mask that my auntie had pre-mixed for us, applying it when I felt like I needed it. As an adult living far away from my favorite mask in my mom’s drawer, I’d add in a substitute – usually a gentle serum or even just a cleanser – when my skin felt dull or congested, or when I was prepping for a special occasion like my wedding.

Without being aware of it, I had taken in my family’s teaching of listening to my skin’s needs and treating it with care. When my skin felt like it needed a refresh, I’d add in something gentle. If my skin ever felt angry or uncomfortable, I would take a step back, pare down products and just let it breathe. As my mom always says: “Divi don’t pick! Let it be.”

As time passed along though, as anti-aging ads started appearing more in my algorithm, and as I started getting curious about ways to “see tangible results” from “self care,” I started to wonder if I couldn’t make my skin that much better by trying something a little stronger.

Strong is putting it lightly. I went straight for a popular mask that had an acid concentration of over 25%, painting it on, feeling the tingle, and waiting for a dusty layer of skin to just… fall off. To reveal an even glowier version of me.

Now, there is so much more to a formula than a concentration of an active, and this product is popular for good reason. It works well for some people. But what didn’t work for me was that I didn’t listen to my skin once I’d used it. Years later I know so much better, but at the time, the redness, stinging and peeling flakes of skin seemed like a sign that it was all working. And when my skin seemed angrier? When the peeling left hyperpigmented spots on my forehead? I just applied more exfoliating products to strip that extra pigmentation, of course. Toners, serums, masks and more. And so the cycle went.

It took me time to learn better. After a year of scorching my skin, I finally saw a dermatologist who echoed what my family had taught me: slow and steady is the way to go. I started listening to my skin’s reactions and needs again. It timed well with a visit home where my mom echoed the same. My routine became more intentional, more gentle. I used our family mask again. I learned, for example, that while glycolic and ascorbic acid can irritate my skin personally, lactic acid and polyhydroxide acids tend to feel better (likely due to molecular size differences). Certain formulas felt gentler than others, and what’s more, trying products one at a time and waiting was gentlest. I learned to listen to my skin.

So, years later, when our Sift team set out to develop our first product, we kept this teaching of gentle care and skin-listening top of mind to create our spectacularly fine-tuned face mask. Read more about Gulabi here.

We’ll always ask you to listen to your body, including when you try any of Sift’s products. That, above all, is the best indicator as to what works best for you.

I’ll note here: this lesson that I so deeply subscribe to wasn’t just a teaching about exfoliation – I can’t wait to share more about how listening to our skin, and to our bodies overall, can so profoundly impact the meaning of personal care.