Story by Kim Shelly Tan
As someone who loves all things beauty and fashion, I have observed that most of us want to achieve the clear, glass skin popularized by South Koreans. However, we don’t want to exert any effort to gain this. Albeit jokingly, many of my friends refer to their skincare routines as ipinagpapasa-Diyos na lang or idinadaan na lang sa dasal. They want to achieve clear skin through constant prayers! At the same time, others simply use the same products as their family or friend, which might not suit them.
As intimidating as different skincare products and competing brands might be, skincare shouldn’t scare you. It is your friend as long as you are using the right products.
By the right products, I am not referring to the products of specific brands. The right products are those which are created to tackle your skin problems head on
For example, if a cleanser, toner, or serum has tea tree as its key ingredient, it is best for people with acne-prone skin. Same goes for Centella asiatica. On the other hand, products which contain hyaluronic acid and ceramides benefit people with dry skin. There are more ingredients which are targeted to certain skin problems, but you do not need to memorize the most widely used skincare ingredients and what they are for to take better care of your skin.
You simply need to be more cautious of what you purchase. Instead of deciding what brand and variant of a product you want to buy at the supermarket’s facial care aisle, do some research beforehand.
First, know what skincare concern you want the product to solve. Do you have oily or dry skin? Do you want to lighten acne scars? Next, know which products are available in your area. Then, read the product descriptions and see if they claim to be able to solve your skincare issue and counter-check online its components with the ingredients which help solve your skin concern. Lastly, just to be sure, read reviews from people whom you share the same skin type or skin concern with.
Think your wrong skincare product works anyway? Think again. Using products which do not address your problems actually create more skincare concerns.
For instance, I once had to use a different variant of cleanser from the same brand at a friend’s house as I forgot to bring my toiletry bag. She had the variant oil-control variant and I had dry skin. Upon rinsing, my skin immediately felt sucked out of all moisture. I have also once accidentally bought a toner for oily skin and it ended up stripping my skin of natural oils too much that my skin started overproducing oil to compensate.
Skincare needs not to be fancy nor complicated. There are those considered “luxurious” skincare brands endorsed by the top social media influencers but do not really do their job and are meant only to profit from people’s copycat attitudes (*cough* La Mer *cough*). The so-called 10-step skincare routine may also be over the top and wasteful.
It is not an issue if you use cheaper alternatives or do the basic cleanse-tone-moisturize to take care of your skin, BUT it becomes an issue when you are using the wrong product for your skin type and skin concerns.
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