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Without a doubt, I think one of the worst decisions I ever made was to give TOO much of a shit about skincare.
It's a tough pill to swallow. Hearing "you have acne because of all those damn products on your face" is a tough pill to swallow and a lot of times it doesn't necessarily mean its true. (It's important to wear sunscreen, people) However, it's true you do not need to spend thousands of dollars on snake oil products just for a chance at your skin to glow. You do not need to be eating specific supplements to "cleanse yourself". You do not need to treat something that can very well be genetic.
When I was in high school, I apparently had crazy good skin and was too focused on reading fanfiction/playing video games to notice. One day, a friend came over because I was buying manga off her. She noticed my skin and said "Your skin is SO good. What do you do??" And I remember going, "Really? Oh well. I guess it's just water."
I started my skincare routine in high school. I got a Laneige set as a birthday gift and thus began my skincare journey. I also had heavy eyebags I wanted to correct so I was looking forward to seeing where it got me. Eventually, it became an endless cycle of "maybe this product will be my miracle product", "are these scars healing?", hyper-analyzing my skin wondering what was wrong with me.
I started looking at my friends differently. Wow. Their skin is so clear. How do they get it like that? And it was just a random cleanser. No sunscreen, nothing. Nothing I did made my skin clearer. I started becoming more envious of people who were naturally "flawless" meanwhile I felt as if I was a dull gray, tired looking person full of scars. I have broken down crying because of my skin woes. I almost wish I didn't start skincare at all. It's because I cared too much and now I'm worse than ever-- caught in an endless cycle of consumption.
To this day, I have an updated log of pictures of my skin that spans a few years. Whenever I break out, I take a picture. When my skin looks good, I take a picture. The photos are all dated.
Some ending thoughts: I used to have one of those insane ten step routines, but I cut it down immensely. If you really need a skincare routine, you just need a cleanser, moisturizer, and sunscreen. That's it. Please listen to science. Do not spend hundreds to thousands of dollars on serums, ampoules, essences, random laser/red-light products, different shaped guashas, jawline wraps, disposable face masks, disposable face towels, disposable this, disposable that.
Skincare has not escaped the throes of hyperconsumption. The popularization of Korean skincare, health/wellness culture, looksmaxxing, turned us into overconsuming, sad, insecure people. We spend so much of our well-earned money just for a chance at looking like someone on social media with filters. You are fine the way you are.
We should all just live a little. And it's all overpriced for what it is, anyways.
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LuciLucilia
Feel this. I've been sucked in before too, luckily many years ago, and not as intensely as you did, but still. Ironically the thing that helped my skin most of all was just taking estrogen. I especially appreciate the sentiment about capitalist overconsumption.
Its also nice that you point out how sunscreen *is* one of the more important factors in good skincare, since the people who use a litany of different products are likely only making their skin more sun-sensitive and photo-toxic.
Thanks for your input!! Super happy to hear that estrogen has helped you immensely. Also thank you for appreciating the sunscreen bit. I feel that the demonization of sunscreen, especially chemical ones is really fascinating to see amidst all the other kinds of holistic fear mongering in beauty communities.
Also using so many products at once definitely just strips your skin barrier even more which is the exact opposite of what you want. The fact that these products are also being marketed towards children too is especially alarming since it'll cause much greater harm down the line.
by Sinclair; ; Report
You're welcome and thank you!!! Also agreed, I sometimes think that following the opposite of what holistic, natural skin-care peoples say wouldn't be such a bad skin-care routine really. Modern day holism is kind of a joke generally though, not like any other kind of holism that has historically existed it seems to me, instead a modern form that is the result of a modernist, capitalist desire for overconsumption but with the same dissociative, alienated fear of modernity that much of the world has today (and which often seems to breed paranoia). Thats just me spitballing though.
I always do recommend people don't use spray sunscreens though, just because the degree to which they actually transport the sunscreen onto your skin has been found to be inconsistent.
Yess, exactly. Im afraid so many fundamentally harmful things are marketed and given to children these days, all whilst many others will hunt down foux scapegoats in the form of queer people or soy milk or what have you in order to "protect the children!!"... makes me feel both really sorry and really afraid for coming generations. Even our own.
by LuciLucilia; ; Report