I think for a long time, skincare genuinely scared me. And I know that sounds a bit dramatic, but hear me out on this one.
I had some really bad experiences growing up. Every time I tried to build a routine, or even just introduce one new product, my skin would completely freak out. I mean rashes, new pimples, and severe redness that wouldn't go away for days. And the most frustrating part was that I was actually trying to use good products. I wasn't just slapping anything on my face (well, sometimes I was, but not all the time). I was buying products that people recommended, things that smelled nice, that looked good, that were on the top-selling shelves. I just didn't know that most of what I was using wasn't really skincare. It was cosmetics full of fragrance with cute packaging that wasn't doing anything good for my skin. My skin didn't care how pretty the packaging was. It hated all of it.
After a few too many bad reactions, I just gave up. I thought it wasn't for me, that my skin wasn't cut out to have anything on it. So I decided to just use water every once in a while and call it a day. No products, not even a cleanser. Looking back it was a bit extreme, but it also felt like relief. At least I knew water wasn't going to give me a rash. And that's what I did for years. I genuinely went years without using a single product on my face, telling myself my skin was just too sensitive for all of that, that skincare was one of those things that worked for other people but not for me. I really believed that for a long time.
But never say never, I guess.
I think the change started with me actually doing my research for once. Before, I'd just buy whatever looked good or whatever someone recommended without really thinking about it. But after everything my skin had been through, I started paying more attention, reading ingredient lists, learning what things actually meant, trying to understand what was in the products I was using and whether any of it was doing more harm than good. That's when I started noticing how many things I'd been putting on my face were packed with synthetic fragrance. And fragrance, I learned, is one of the most common triggers for sensitive skin. It was a bit of a lightbulb moment. I had been prioritizing something that smelled good over something that was actually efficient. But at the time, I genuinely thought having a vanilla-scented face cream was the best thing I could do for myself.
So I made the decision to stop. Or at least, to be more careful about what I was picking. I stopped looking for products that smelled like a vanilla cake and started looking for things that were actually formulated to be gentle and fragrance-free. It sounds so obvious now, but at the time it really wasn't.
I also started being a lot more careful about who I was taking recommendations from. I think that's something people don't talk about enough, skin type really matters when it comes to advice. What works for someone with dry, non-reactive skin isn't necessarily going to work for me, and I saw that firsthand. I still thank my best friend to this day for telling me I was using the worst products possible for my skin type. I was using a cleanser meant for oily skin when I have dry patches. But it was popular, so that's what drew me to it.
After asking the right questions to the right people and doing more research, I eventually found the first brand that actually worked for me. I'm not going to name it here, but it ticked all the boxes, no fragrance, clean ingredients, a pretty decent composition. I was obsessively loyal to it at first. I wasn't ready to try anything else because I was so scared of going back to square one.
But slowly, I started to open up. I'd research other brands, check ingredients, watch videos from people with the same skin type, and eventually started trying new things. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't, but I felt more confident. I also think it helped that this was around the same time I started living alone, which comes with its own need for change. I really wanted to be different from who I was in high school. And having skin that felt healthy was one of the things I wanted for myself.
It may seem like a simple thing, but taking the time to actually understand why my skin was reacting the way it was made all the difference. Every step counts.
