Hello everybody. Welcome back to my channel, where skincare is all about progression over perfection, because, perfection doesn't exist. Today we're going to talk about why your skincare routine may absolutely suck, it may like suck anus. No. I feel like 2020 was the year of do's, and don'ts, right? We had a lot of people saying, 'Don't do this, do this', 'Don't use that product, do use that product, don't use this ingredient with this one but also do.' With a lot of information, a lot of great information, comes a lot of great confusion as well. So going from my own experiences and comments that you leave me, I want to share a few reasons why your skincare routine may not be giving you the best results or the results that you want. But before we get into it, remember to follow me on Instagram, where I post a lot of stuff you're not gonna see here on YouTube. Number one, not cleansing in the morning. Now, this was probably one of the most popular, not skincare trends, because it's something people have been doing for years and years, and people have recommended, and that's not to cleanse your skin in the morning. Just splash it with water. I do feel however, like a lot of people are missing the reason as to why you might want to do that. I personally do this in the Winter, when my skin is very, very dry. When the last thing I want to be doing is cleansing all the time. In Summer, with my oily skin, I am cleansing morning and night, with a good foaming cleanser. Because my skin's oily, it can take that more kind like, what's the word, like detergenty kind of like cleanser. But if you're going to bed, no matter what the time of year, if you're going to bed with heavy leave on, sleeping masks, and you, you know, you sweat a little bit during the night. Maybe you like to have your heating on all night, and you got the duvet right up. Especially in Summer as well, you want to get that all off your skin in the morning. If you're exceptionally oily all year round, you might want to cleanse, it's really like an individual situation. I spoke to someone recently, who was piling on the skincare at night, then waking up, literally saying that they could still feel the skincare on their skin, and then they just splash their face with water and then put on their other products. It's a good idea to wash your face properly if that's the case. I also talked to someone who thought that was a general rule, what the time of day, so they would, in the morning cleanse their face, use moisturizer and sunscreen. Then in the evening, just splash their face and then continue to do the rest of their routine. When the evening is really when you do want to be doing that cleanse. And if you do wear a lot of makeup and sunscreen, potentially a double cleanse as well, to really take everything off your skin. So, whilst not cleansing your face in the morning, just splashing with water is great, during the colder months when our skin can dry out a little bit more. Well, me personally. Just splashing is absolutely fine. If you're finding you're waking up feeling very, very dry. However, if you've got leave on masks, if you've got overnight masks, things that lay a little bit heavier on the skin, if you're slugging every single night. You might want to cleanse, it completely depends on your skin. If you feel like you're breaking out a lot, if you feel like you're not getting the results and this is something you're doing, maybe switch that up and then see how it goes. Number two, thinking too much about layering your skincare. Remember when we were all obsessed with the order of layering your products? What you can and can't layer together. And like, every skincare YouTuber did a 'how-to layer your skincare' video. I feel like this was heavily influenced by a few things, number one, the American marketing creation of the 10-step Korean skincare routine. We were all obsessed, and we wanted to religiously know what order these steps had to be done in. But also, brands releasing more single ingredient products and active products than ever before. Obviously The Ordinary started this all off but then everybody kind of built on that, so we had all these crazy, different acids, and actives, and potent ingredients that people wanted to use all at once, and had no idea how to layer them. I think we obsess too much with the idea that products may be rendered useless, if we're not using them in the right position within our skincare routine. Of course you have your exceptions, you have like acne medications, skincare medication. you don't want to use a serum before you use a cleanser, you know. Your sunscreen needs to be the last step of your routine but, between cleanser and moisturizer, your serum, toner, essence, whatever comes in between, can pretty much go anywhere. Because nowadays, they're pretty much all the same thing. Obviously it's a little bit different, again you have to think about oils, and different types of oils but if you use your toner, and then an exfoliating acid, and then you use a serum. I've seen people say that they will leave out a step because they forgot to do it in order. There have been times I forgot to do like, my hydrating toner that I love, so I put it on after serums, because again, it's pretty much the same thing. There have been times that I've used actives over a moisturizer. And that's another point actually, I always mention that when I introduce a new active I'll put it over a moisturizer, because I like to buffer the active and lessen the chances of getting any irritation from it. And that's absolutely fine as well. The product may work slower but it's a good way to introduce new actives to your skincare. So we don't have to be too obsessed with the exact, exact layering of our skincare. three, clinical packaging equals good products, and fancier packaging equals a bad product. Okay, not a rant but here we go. All CeraVe joking aside, CeraVe is a great brand. We know it is. They have very, very good products. You know, it's recommended by dermatologists for a reason. Does that mean it's for everyone? Absolutely not. The majority of the feedback I get when I mention CeraVe, and my personal opinions about CeraVe is that, the products didn't work for them. And an extension of that, is people bought these products because, apart from dermatologists recommending it, because they look clinical and they sound very, very basic. In a good way. The same goes for Cetaphil, and people are pissed off when it doesn't work for them. They're like, they even get to the point where they're like, 'Oh I don't like this dermatologist, because they recommended CevaVe and it didn't work for me', or you know, they say I'm glad I speak out against, I'm not speaking out against CeraVe, I'm just saying, I don't personally, don't like it and I believe you know, it's just as good a basic product as a lot of good basic products, with Ceramides in. Here's the thing with skin care, is everything, everything that you buy has had a marketing, PR team behind it. Everything being sold to you, everything has had thought put behind it. CeraVe's packaging is the boring, clinical, pharmaceutical that I call it. Because that's the impression that they want to give you. It's a good reflection of what their products actually are as far as packaging goes, actually suits the brand perfectly. Great design choice but that is a design choice, any brand can put their products in clean, pharmaceutical looking products. Like The Ordinary, and that's a choice because they want you to believe that's what it is. It's a medical level, kind of, you know, very simple product. Great. However I feel if you put one of CeraVe's moisturizers in this Glow Recipe packaging here, people wouldn't have the same opinion about it. There's this whole idea that all skincare has to look like CeraVe in order for it to be a good product, and that's just not the case. Good skincare can come in amazing, well thought out packaging. That's just what the brand want to do, they spent a little bit more money on a graphic designer. Don't think skincare is going to work for you because the packaging looks pharmaceutical. Also, don't think it's not going to work for you because your moisturizer comes in a pink tube, you know. We need to get over this idea that skin care only has to be one thing in order for it to be good, you could be missing out on some amazing products. I've seen a lot of people saying I've been trying CeraVe for six months, and it hasn't worked for me. Then stop using it. You know, I think people are clinging on to this idea that, because it's in this basic packaging, it's been recommended all around that it has to work for everyone. It doesn't. Your routine could be useless because you're trying to hold on to this idea, that you need this very basic, sensible skincare routine. You could be missing out on amazing products that are going to do wonders for your skin, just because you feel you have to avoid nice packaging. The idea that boring packaging equals good, and vice versa, needs to end. It needs to go. Number four, you may be using too many single ingredient products. Single ingredient products aren't bad, but, you may be just using too many. Listen, I'm not one to talk. I'm a huge hypocrite here, but we know that the simpler your routine the better. However as consumers, we also now know a lot more about ingredients than we ever did. We know what some of the more complicated skincare terms mean, and not that I feel like reading an ingredient list is going to tell you much about the products at all, but we can, but we can read an ingredient list, and actually kind of understand what's going on within that product. And as consumers, I feel like it's only been like, the last two, three years that we had that power. But I do feel like, we kind of need to bring it back a little bit when it comes to using just these single ingredient products, like The Ordinary. Again, an amazing brand but I do feel like they are the type of brand that has led us to believe we need all these certain ingredients, like a million different steps, and actives in between our cleanser, and our sunscreen. What this leads to, is us having so many steps, and a confusing amount of steps within our routine, for a particular goal. I really want this to be the year of full formulations becoming popular. Again products that combine amazing actives, and supporting ingredients in one product. And I guess products that simplify our routine. And I guess one of my problems with these kind of like, single-ingredient products, is that we spend so much time testing and trialing these ingredients we've never heard of, or these new acids that we think we need, not really knowing what they do for our skin, or if our skin even needs it. When we could be using amazing ingredients that combine together to reach our skin goals. For example, let's talk about, you know, evening out skin tone and brightening your skin. You can get an amazing serum that has you know, like Niacinamide, Azaleic Acid in it, you can have Hyaluronic Acid in there for plumper brighter looking skin. Even a Vitamin C. I've seen some lovely formulated Vitamins Niacinamide serums, all in one, right. And that could be your go-to serum for your one goal, instead of having those four or five actives or ingredients, all in different serums. I just feel like this is a year, where people are choosing to simplify their routine, what's it? Skinanimalism. Why does everyone have to come up for a word with stuff? Why can't we just call it simplified skincare routine. I don't know. Let's take all those serums, combine them into one. One or two products that just work well together with supporting ingredients, that in most cases, will boost their effectiveness as well. You know, this is the same for things like actives, for me this is something I do with with exfoliants as well. I'm looking for exfoliants in my moisturizers, and my cleansers, and my toners. I'm using AHA's and BHA's combined. AHA, BHA, PHA's combined, rather than swapping throughout the week, you know. I just feel like we, if everyone wants to simplify their routine, and people are saying simpler is better, then let's ditch these kind of like, oh one, two, three, four, five serums that we have all in between. And just find nice well-rounded, I always say well-rounded formulations that meet a goal. And also, sorry to carry on, but these more well-rounded formulations are often called what you want, what your skin goal is. So again, if I'm looking for more even, more awake, brighter looking skin, there's probably something out there called a brightening serum that I can buy, you know. Like, let's just simplify everything right down to our steps, right down to what we're buying as well. I hope that makes sense. I kind of went on a bit then. So why would that make your skincare routine crap? Because we spend too much time experimenting with ingredients that we might not even need, and that probably don't even work for us. Personally that's how I feel. So let me know if you're changing anything up this year when it comes to your skincare routine, if you feel there's something in your routine that is holding your skin back. Let me know. If you want to find some more general skincare advice, tips, tricks, whatever, you can watch all that here and some light entertainment just here. I'll see you over there.