Hello, I’m Dorit and I’m a skincare junkie. Skincare turned from being something rather boring and necessary to something intriguing a few years ago. And what started as something that was supposed to make my skin looked better, turned into – dare I say it? A hobby, and I had to collect them all.
The whole world feels like it’s spinning more quickly these days, and it’s the same with skincare: release upon release upon release. And it’s very hard to be a responsible blogger, treading the fine line between ‘I want to try it ALLLLL!’ and ‘I’m actually happy with my routine’.
How to wreck your skin – fast
What I learned, in those years, is something quite unpalatable for a skincare dabbler: that less is often more, and that it’s very easy to wreck your skin, while meaning well. So here’s where this post come it, because I’ll share some hard-earned wisdom (a little tongue in cheek, though). If you want to have a failsafe recipe for wrecking your skin, here’s it – or, what to do instead.
Try everything at once
Seriously the best way to wreck your skin fast: Use as many products as you possibly can, especially if your skin isn’t used to active ingredients. The more products, more possibilities for irritations. The more actives you use, the more delicate your skin becomes. Be careful with that, you can easily damage your skin barrier and that’s not fun.
Instead: introduce new skincare products into your routine very slowly. Read: only one new product in every skin cycle (4-6 weeks), and if those include active ingredients, use them only a few times a week instead of every morning and evening.
Someone on the net loves it
People on the internet get paid to love products. It’s also very easy to like products (read: have a positive bias) that have been gifted to you. Allure magazine (and all others) have advertisers they want to please. And so on and so forth. If they love it, great! But that doesn’t mean it’s the product that’s good for you.
Instead: Buy smartly and responsibly, try things out (samples!) and if it’s too good to be true, it very likely is. I’ve become VERY wary of reviews telling me of products that changed their skin overnight and solved all their problems.
It’s science!!!111111
You’re fairly wide read and educated about skincare and ingredients. Therefore, you love ingredients that are scientifically backed, like retinol. And if retinol is great, it must be great for your skin, right? Studies said so!
Instead: Listen to your skin, it knows best. I fell prey to that one at the beginning of my skincare journey. And it took me ages to find out that sure, my skin benefits from acids, but the downside of that is serious irritation. It still took me a while to act on that, because I couldn’t really believe what my skin told me.
You want to love it
Closely related to the point above: you found a product that looks and sounds great. You’ve read reviews, looked at the ingredients, and you’re totally, absolutely in. You buy it. It’s not great.
Instead: Cut it from your routine! Only because you’re willing a product to be great doesn’t make it so. That’s ok.
Case in point: peptides. I want to love peptides. But, the one tiny problem: My skin doesn’t care. Truly, utterly doesn’t care. Sorry, Buffet + Peptides. It’s not you, it’s me.
The inci list looks great
You actually read the inci list before anything else. You’ve mad skills deciphering the inci list. You believe in the inci list.
Instead: You can’t see how a product will perform just by reading it. Inci lists are great if you’re allergic or your skin reacts badly with certain ingredients. But:
Imagine having all the ingredients for a cake in front of you. It depends how you mix and prepare them in order for them to become a sponge cake or tray bake.
It smells nice, or the packaging looks great
When a product’s only selling point is ‘it smells nice’, all my alarm-bells start ringing at once. After seeing Glow Recipe’s Watermelon Mask on various social media channels, I bit the bullet. The packaging is pretty. The texture looks super appealing. It smells nice. I Wanted it with a capital W. I got it. It’s not for me. (It still looks instagrammable, but you want a product that’s great for your skin, not your IG feed, right?)
Instead: Smell does say nothing about how good or bad a product will be. Less fragrance always means less possibility of irritation. And pots may be neither the most hygienic nor the smartest packaging option.
What are your failsafe tips for NOT wrecking your skin?
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