The curiosity of a rookie skincare enthusiast.

[Anonymous]

I was never into skincare for almost all my life until a very dear friend of mine introduced me to the world of facemasks. It has only been a while since I have been exploring the realm of skincare and I've been curious about how people perceive it and how impactful it is in one's life. I've started a mini-research about skincare and various issues that people face on a daily basis. I am going to be posting a survey with just 5 questions and I would be honored to know your opinions for it would help my research a lot. If any of you are into Anti-ageing skincare products, I would love to know how that has impacted your quality of life and what you look for when you buy a certain product that caters to your skincare needs. A huge thank you to people who have taken their time to read the post and post your opinions. Means a lot to me. 

[skincare531]

1. Most common issue people face? 
   1. I think this teeters on extremes - too oily or too dry. For me, it's dry skin. I didn't have a routine until I was 29, and a year later, I haven't had a 'dry skin day' at all. It takes double cleansing, moisturizing toner, and a great moisturizer ever day and night, but I don't wear foundation anymore because my skin is so good.
2. What qualifies as a great skin care product?
   1. For me, it's that it does what it says and doesn't run out in a month. For example, I dropped $80 on Kate Somerville Retinol Firming Eye Cream 0.5 oz/ 15 mLand it 100% works for me. The little lines that were starting to form are gone. I use it 1-2x a day and have had it since March (posting in June).
   2. A multi-tasker is also a win, like the Bobbi Brown products I've mentioned in Q5.
3. What price are you willing to pay for product?
   1. I'd say that the aforementioned one is my steepest, for sure. Most others are in the $40s. I never pay big for lip care or hand cream. A big tub of Bag Balm gives me great lips, soft hands, and smooth elbows and knees.
4. Product Red Flags
   1. How it's advertised and the verified vs. unverified reviews. I do not buy anything with loads of unverified reviews or hawked by instagram people.
5. Brand Loyalty
   1. Sulwhasoo - I like EVERYTHING Sulwhasoo. Some people go fragrance-free for skincare. Korean brands are all about delicious scents (not just in skincare, even their household bleaches smell like flowers). I use the SULWHASOO - First Care Activating Serumand SULWHASOO - Gentle Cleansing Oil Makeup Removerdaily. Their creams are SO GOOD and if I were rich, I would use only the SULWHASOO - Concentrated Ginseng Renewing Cream Light.
   2. Clinique - there's a reason they're still a major brand even though they're not new or flashy. This stuff just WORKS and is not overpriced. I will never not use the CLINIQUE Take The Day Off Cleansing Balm Makeup Remover 3.8 oz/ 125 mLfor stubborn makeup removal. Sister brand Origins has, IMO, the No. Origins Dr. Andrew Weil For Origins™ Mega-Mushroom Relief & Resilience Soothing Treatment Lotion 3.4 oz/ 100 mL(any non-alcohol toner at Clinique and Origins is called "lotion")
   3. Bobbi Brown - The Bobbi Brown Vitamin Enriched Face Base Moisturizer & Primer with Vitamin C + Hyaluronic Acid 1.7 oz/ 50 mLis magical. I don't need a primer for makeup, ever. I also use the Bobbi Brown Hydrating Eye Cream 0.5 oz/ 15 mLto prep my under-eye for makeup. Nothing is better as both skincare AND makeup prep.

[WinglessOne]

@Anonymous  Good skincare can have a significant impact on your physical health, in addition to your mental health. (Warning: my answers include a sunscreen lecture. :D) Once you’ve identified your skin issues/goals and learned which ingredients can truly address them, it’s easier to weed out products that won’t do much for your particular skin. Eh, I take a very ingredient-driven approach to skincare. 

1. Most common skin related problem that people face? 

Browse BIC or do some searches on specific skincare issues, and you’ll get a good idea of what folks mention the most—at least in this online community. Here’s what I’ve seen frequently discussed: 

• Acne 
• Various types of non-acne bumps 
• Undereye issues - dark circles, puffiness, dryness 
• Dry patches 
• Oil control & large pores 
• Dull complexion 

2. What qualifies as a great skincare product for you? 

A list of great, truly helpful ingredients without any bad-for-me stuff. More on that in the spoiler: 

Spoiler

For me, “bad-for-me” includes most essential oils (especially citrus derived ones), any form of lavender, high amounts of added fragrance, and any ingredient my particular skin is either allergic or highly sensitive to. I also try to avoid products that contain high amounts of alcohol. 

“Great, truly helpful ingredients” =/= “clean” ingredients. I’ll spare you my usual rant against clean beauty/skincare... let’s just say I’m not aboard that marketing-hyped misinformation train. Some products in my routine are labeled “clean,” but that’s definitely not the reason I use them. 😄 I always ignore that label when shopping for products. Instead, I focus on what’s actually in the product. There are plenty of “dirty” ingredients that are not at all terrible and are quite beneficial. 

Packaging matters to me: not so much the visual/graphic design, but the functional design. Packaging’s main purposes should always be to protect a product’s ingredients and allow easy use. 

Spoiler

My favorite cream moisturizer contains lots of great antioxidants, including l-ascorbic acid. Unfortunately, it also comes packaged in a clear glass jar that allows air and light degradation of those ingredients. (WHY, YOUTH TO THE PEOPLE. WHY.) So I always transfer the jar’s contents to a reusable airless vacuum pump jar. If I find a moisturizer that works as well as this one, and it comes in more protective packaging, I’ll happily switch to it and stop buying the YTTP cream. 

Some brands use traditional jars and provide little spatulas, I guess to reduce bacteria transfer from fingers to product. This cracks me up because it doesn’t address air or light degradation at all. Dude, those little spatulas won’t save your product from getting yucky. Plus, I have no patience for storing and washing those dang spatulas. They’re too fussy and not effective enough to protect the product’s ingredients. 

Oh, and I love products that multitask. 

Spoiler

I like to see a range of antioxidants instead of just one or two. Or if a product focuses on just a couple of antioxidants, it should also contain some stellar hydrators, moisturizers, and/or irritation soothers.

Example: my usual vitamin C serum is also loaded with hyaluronic acid—my skin’s best friend—and it contains a peptide. So each morning, I need just one serum to get all-day hydration plus pollutant protection. 

My keep my AM routine short and efficient. PM is when I’m much more willing to layer several products on my skin. Some of them have targeted purposes, like my leave-on AHA and BHA exfoliants. But even those contain other ingredients that aren’t exfoliants, like skin soothers and antioxidants. Even my anti-inflammation cica serum, which contains predominantly cica components, also contains another source antioxidants, another skin soother (allantoin), and sodium hyaluronate (the salt form of hyaluronic acid). 

3. What’s a big red flag you watch for while purchasing skincare? 

Bad ingredients, especially when they appear higher on an ingredients list than beneficial ingredients. 

Spoiler

Essential oils top this category. Most “natural” or “clean” products contain several essential oils that can irritate the heck out of skin—if not immediately, than certainly over time. I speak from personal experience and dermatologists’ confirmation. I was an avid Origins user for decades, never realizing those products’ essential oils were gradually wrecking my skin until the week my face screamed “NOPE, NO MORE OF THIS” with a big ol’ flaky scaly dry patch tantrum in my 40s. Skin is very good at hiding damage until the day it can’t anymore. 

Some products rely on citrus oils/extracts as their primary natural vitamin C source. That’s a shame because there are so many berry extracts loaded with this antioxidant that could’ve been used instead, with far less potential to irritate skin. 

Witch hazel is another product I watch out for. I can use it sporadically, perhaps a few times a month. But daily use of witch hazel in my late 20s and 30s also contributed to that tantrum I mentioned. 

And there are specific things my skin hates that are truly good for other people’s skin. Examples: azelaic acid and benzoyl peroxide. 😞 

Also: when an ingredients list contains a vague category label and the brand won’t detail the ingredients within it, that’s a big ol’ flag. 

Spoiler

Example: when Herbivore Emerald facial oil (the regular non-CBD version) was first launched, its ingredients list included something like “proprietary blend” right in the middle of the list. Herbivore didn’t spell out exactly what was in that “blend” of whatever. 😐 I received a bottle of that oil as gratis from Sephora, and when I saw the ingredients list I decided not to use it on my face. It became a body oil instead. (The skin below my neck is surprisingly more essential oil tolerant than my face and neck are.) The current version of this oil no longer has that problem, thank goodness; I assume Herbivore reformulated it at some point. 

I still don’t use that version of Emerald Oil, though. Instead I use the CBD version, which has always had a more transparent ingredients list and does wonders for my skin’s inflammation issues, in addition to providing great moisturization. 

4. Are you loyal to one brand, or do you shift between brands or look for new ones? 

My routine is always a mix of brands. There’s no brand whose entire skincare line I can use. Sometimes a new brand, or a new-to-me brand, will catch my eye and I’ll try a few of their products out of curiosity. But I never completely switch my routine over to a single brand. 

Bonus questions: 

How have anti-aging skincare products impacted your quality of life? 

The best preventative anti-aging skincare product is sunscreen with a minimum SPF of 30, applied EVERY day on ANY exposed skin: face, neck, back of neck, ears, shoulders, back, arms, hands, legs, ankles, toes, etc. Wearing a crop top? Slather your exposed midriff with sunscreen. I was super lazy about using sunscreen in my teens, twenties, and early thirties. I’m now in my late 40s and, though I’ve always had nice skin (or so folks have always told me), a skin cancer scare made me wish I’d been as religious about sunscreen decades ago as I am now. Seriously kids, wear the dang sunscreen! 

I’ve spent lots of quality time with niacinamide, vitamin C, OTC retinol, and AHAs to lift some of the large hyperpigmentation patches caused by all my sunscreen laziness. I don’t wear liquid or cream foundation anymore, so the more even I can get my skin tones, the better my skin looks to me. But more important than any of that is protecting my skin from more UV damage with sunscreen, which improves my quality of life by keeping me free of skin cancer. WEAR THE HECKING SUNSCREEN. 

Other than that? Well...

Spoiler

Certain aspects of aging skin can’t be avoided without surgery or injectables. 🤷‍♀️ Wrinkles, for instance: I’m not all up in arms about my undereye lines. I’ve earned those lines. The only way to not get those lines is to never make facial expressions that cause them over time, and that’d be silly. Instead I just try to keep my undereyes very well hydrated and moisturized. I use an eye serum that’s loaded with a kabillion peptides and hyaluronic acid; it hydrates and firms the skin around my eyes and, as an added bonus, softens some of the lines there. As for how this has impacted my quality of life: I feel better about that skin being well cared for and no longer painfully dry. 

I do get annoyed about my hollow tear troughs—another product of aging that makes me look exhausted unless I use concealer—but I’m not annoyed enough yet to go the dermal filler route. 

What do you look for in products that cater to your skincare needs? 

My skin is mostly-dry combo: very oily nose all year; forehead leans normal-to-oily in warm weather, drier in cold weather; everything else is dry. So I look for products containing hydrating and moisturizing ingredients. Any cream moisturizer must work on my dry zones without swamping my oily zone. 

I also have some surface redness, and my skin likes to flip out over various ingredients and environmental stressors. I lean on ingredients like cica and CBD to keep my skin calm. Green tea is another good soother I like to see in products. 

I mentioned hyperpigmentation earlier, and the ingredients I rely on to correct that: retinol, niacinamide, AHAs, and vitamin C. These also help my skin look radiant. 

My only big visible pores are on and directly around my nose (my oily zone). That’s where I focus clay and charcoal masks that can soak up oil and help clear those pores. I also use a 2% BHA exfoliant on my whole face for weekly pore degunking. Just because you can’t see the pores on the rest of my face, does’t mean they never get clogged. 🙂 

[sprocketta]

@cookiesays this is an interesting set of questions. I'm not sure if question 1 is supposed to my general thoughts based on what I've heard from others or the most common problem I face. Here are my answers:

1. Acne and enlarged pores. These are my biggest concerns and I think are issues for many people.

2. A great skincare product is one where I see results and also enjoy putting it on my skin. I'm not an ingredient stickler like some and don't mind fragrance if I like the scent.

3. My threshold for a skincare product is about $50 per product. I use a lot Paula's Choice products and they cost less than that. I also made an exception to this for Farmacy Very Cherry Bright 15% Clean Vitamin C Serum with Acerola Cherry 1.0 oz/ 30 mL because I was so excited about the cherry scent. I love this product and have no regrets about paying $62 for it, but waited for a sale to buy it.

4. Big red flag for me is alcohol in a product.

5. I mix and match different brands. My routine includes a Missha sunscreen, 3 Paula's Choice products, 1 Farmacy product and 1 Ole Henriksen product.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for the response sprocketta! I was going to change it to asking about your opinion instead of generalising it.. totally forgot to do that. I’m glad you shared your views. 😁

[sprocketta]

@Anonymous sure thing! Just remember to tag people using @ so they are notified of your response.