Track your skin. Same light, every time.
Skin changes on a slow clock, and bathroom lighting hides most of it. Journae keeps every photo dated in one place and lines them up so you can see a month of change instead of guessing at the mirror.
Why a camera roll is not enough
Lighting decides everything
The same face photographed under a warm bulb and then by a window looks like two different skins. Guided capture fades your previous shot over the camera so you can match light, angle and distance before you press the button.
A routine needs a fair test
Most skincare changes take six to twelve weeks to show. A dated series means you can judge a routine on evidence rather than on how you felt about your face this morning.
Private, never a feed
Bare-skin photos stay in your own account. Nothing is published, and you can delete a journey and everything in it at any time.
Three steps, then just keep showing up
Set your baseline
Clean, dry, make-up-free skin. Front, left and right in indirect daylight.
Repeat weekly
Same spot, same time of day. The overlay makes matching the last shot quick.
Compare monthly
Slide between week zero and week eight and read what actually changed.
The free plan tracks one journey. Upgrade only if you want to track more.
How to photograph skin consistently
- Use indirect daylight from a window rather than an overhead bulb — top-down light exaggerates texture and shadow.
- Keep the same distance: arm's length, or brace your phone against a fixed object so the framing repeats.
- Take front, left three-quarter and right three-quarter every time, in the same order.
- Photograph before applying anything, on clean and dry skin, with hair pulled back off the face.
- Avoid flash. It flattens redness one week and blows out highlights the next, which makes comparison unreliable.
How often, and what to note
- Weekly suits most routines; daily photographs mostly capture normal fluctuation.
- Note the products you use and the date you introduced each one, so a change has something to attach to.
- Change one thing at a time. Two new actives in the same week means you will never know which did what.
- Note context that affects skin — sleep, illness, cycle, weather, travel — in a sentence, not a diary.
Journae records and compares what your photos show. It does not diagnose conditions, assess healing, evaluate treatment or give medical advice. If something worries you, please speak to a qualified professional.
Worth reading before your first photo
Skin tracking guide
Lighting, make-up-free framing and the cadence that suits a skin routine.
The guided photography guide
Angle, distance, light and background — the four things that decide whether two photos can be compared at all.
Keeping your skincare routine simple
Fewer changes at once means a photo record that can actually tell you something.
How often should you take progress photos?
Why weekly usually beats daily, and how cadence changes with how fast something actually moves.
What to record alongside your photos
The short notes that later explain why a month looked different.
Other things people track
Eight weeks from now, you will want the photo from today.
One baseline set takes two minutes and makes every comparison after it worth looking at.