Beyond the hype: My advice on developing a useful skin-care regimen

Skin care has really taken off as a trend in recent years.

Sunscreen used to be this greasy, artificial coconut-scented stuff that left your face looking as pale as a ghost during beach days. Now, you can’t spend five seconds in a Sephora without seeing some fancy new sunscreen or makeup flaunting SPF.

I’ve always been into skin care and I’m excited to see people start to take an interest in it. But the marketing industry and the capitalist hellscape we live in can also promote a lot of misinformation. Social media and advertising often push viral products as holy grail solutions or new skin-care fads as some magic cure-all.

It took me over a decade of trial and error to find what really worked for my skin — and the most important thing I learned is that skin care has to be a personalized experience.

Even if a product worked for someone else with your skin type, it never guarantees you’ll see the same results. Your skin is unique to you. Even if you think you know your skin type, there are countless other factors at play: genetics, diet, sleep, hydration, where you live, or even your sleeping position.

So what does that mean? No $200 eye cream is going to fix your sleep deprivation and no magic serum is going to change the fact that you drink two cups of water a day.

The only advice that stays consistent among different experts — whether it’s a dermatologist, aesthetician, or vampirically unaging Asian auntie — is the importance of three things: proper cleansing, moisturizing, and sun protection.

Over-cleansing is a more common problem than we might realize. It might not even be a problem of cleansing too often, but using a cleanser that’s too harsh on your skin.

The moment I stopped using cleansers made for oily and acne-prone skin was, ironically, the moment that my skin stopped being oily and prone to acne. Turns out I was part of the majority of women who were wrong about their skin type.

Sometimes, the issue with cleansing swings in the opposite direction: not washing your hands before washing your face. I used to think it didn’t make much of a difference since the facial cleanser would also be cleansing my hands while I’m cleansing my face. It seemed reasonable to think that my hands were getting clean at the same time.

It wasn’t until my mom pointed out that I wouldn’t use hand soap on my face because it would be too harsh. If it disinfects your hands, it’s too stripping for your face. If it’s gentle enough for your face, it isn’t doing enough for your hands.

Cleansing your face properly is half the battle. Once you’ve got a clean canvas to work with, all you need to do is keep it moisturized and protected. Not everybody needs a toner, serum, ampoule, and eye cream.

A niacinamide serum might be a nice-to-have to target your hyperpigmentation, but it’s far from a must-have from a skin health perspective.

The one thing that is not up for debate, however, is the use of daily sun protection. I always tell my friends, “Even if it’s a cloudy day and you don’t see the sun, it doesn’t mean the sun isn’t there.”

With sun protection, we need to talk about the difference between UVA and UVB rays. For simplicity’s sake, let’s just try to remember that A is for aging and B is for burn.

UVA rays are the ones associated with prematurely aging your skin — and the bad news is they’re also the ones that get through glass. You’re staying indoors all day? UVA rays don’t care. They’re still blasting your skin with wrinkle-rays. 

If you think I’m about to tell you to wear sunscreen indoors, you guessed right! Because UVA rays are the main culprit when we say sun damage causes skin to age. Wearing sunscreen only when you’re going out won’t give you anti-aging benefits.

So put on your broad-spectrum sunscreens every single day, wash your hands before you wash your face, and thank me in 30 years.