ARE YOU OVER-COMPLICATING YOUR SKINCARE ROUTINE?

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Today we're talking skincare and the ways in which it can be as simple or as complex as you want it to be! If you often found yourself confused about what you should be doing with your skin, maybe this will help you to cut through some of the noise...

Letting trends override common sense complicates your skincare routine 

There's only so much basic skincare knowledge out there, so when it comes to getting people to click on articles, you have to get more creative and start finding ways of inventing inorganic trends. Even if it's just a repackaging of basic advice we've all been intuitively following. Whether it's 'the morning shead', 'skincycling', ''skin flooding' or anything else; next time you see an article positing whether we should all be doing [insert the name of a skincare trend you've never heard of before], try to not click. I can almost guarantee that whatever is in the article is either something you're already doing or something you don't need to be doing. Good skincare advice is rarely going to be a new trend that's suddenly all over your social media that didn't exist this time last year, so just focus on timeless skincare tips and methods that you've heard from a number of trusted sources over a number of years. Small adjustments on how you apply a product for better results or learning a new little tip to incorporate is all good stuff, but you don't need to overhaul everything each time beauty editors need to generate a new trend!

Thinking you need to do every step every single time complicates your skincare routine

Not every single product or ingredient needs to be used daily, and actually; sometimes it's best that you don't! For example, you don't need to double cleanse in the evening if you're not wearing makeup or waterproof sunscreen (which is pretty much every day that I work from home during the winter months). You also don't need to exfoliate more than 1-3 times a week (depending on the type of exfoliant you use) and you may want to skip other actives on nights you're exfoliating. Some days, I'm so tired by the time I get to bed; I just wash my face, don't use a toner or serum, and slap on a moisturiser. Your essentials are cleanser and moisturiser (plus sunscreen during the day) and whilst consistency is important; every single night isn't. If your skin can't tolerate retinoids every single night, you can simply use your retinoid on alternate nights, rather than upsetting your skin barrier and putting yourself in a position where you're having to use a load of healing products to try and counter damage that didn't need to happen. Just take a step back, be as consistent as you can, but also listen to your skin and don't do too much!

Trying every 'new' buzzy ingredient complicates your skincare routine 

We have really good data on the well-ageing benefits of skincare products like retinoids, pure Vitamin C and sunscreen, we have pretty good data on antioxidants more broadly and peptides. Everyone also needs moisturisers, hydrators, skin barrier support and an exfoliant. Outside of that, whilst new ingredients can come along with some promising initial studies, it does take many years for us to really prove that they work, and often they're quite expensive when they first hit the market. Whilst once or twice a year, you might come across a new ingredient you want to try that sounds perfect for your skin concerns; I would caution against dropping everything to try the 'new retinoid' or the lastest 'better than hyaluronic acid' ingredients. Also, sometimes these ingredients are just repackaging what we already know works. You'll spend a lot of money, you'll be replacing well-studied ingredients and it just confuses things as you try to work out how to incorporate all of these novel ingredients into your routine.

Using lots of single-ingredient serums complicates your skincare routine 

This is a big one for me! Using three different serums in the morning and three others in the evening is inherently complicated. Whilst pure form Vitamin C and retinoids often do come as standalone products; I don't recommend combining them with any other actives. Outside of that, I would always look for wrapping up multiple ingredients into one product; you're spending a lot of time and effort applying a niacinamide, then a tranexamic acid, then an alpha arbutin when you could just find a discolouration treatment serum that does it all in one go. And, since it's one step, you're actually going to use it consistently and see the results rather than only getting around to it once a week!

Pushing ahead with what works for others instead of what works for you complicates your skincare routine

You're the best judge of what works for your skin, so trust your own experiences! Around 6 weeks should be long enough to see if a skincare product works for you (possibly not for you to see results, it really depends on the product, but you should be past the adjustment stage), so if a product or routine that someone else swore by online is breaking you out and causing you irritation still: consider if it's for you. At the end of the day, your skincare should be working for you, and it's possible a product that's causing your skin to react is too strong or just not right in some other way. You're only going to cause yourself more problems to fix and heal later on. And, in general, overhauling your entire routine based on what the internet says isn't a good idea because changing multiple things all at once is both likely to cause you skin barrier issues and also makes it difficult to find out what exactly is causing the issue (since the variable hasn't been isolated). Everyone's skin is different, so listen to yours!

What do you think of these principles? How do you avoid over-complicating your skincare routine?

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