I’m over useless skincare. But how can I take care of my face? | Well actually

Hi Ugly,

I used to love skincare, but after reading your articles and noticing how many useless products get produced, I lost faith in it.

But since I believe that virtue lies in the middle, I would like to keep taking care of my skin. What are the most effective things one can do without buying lots of stuff?

– Losing Faith, Seeking Skincare

Faith. Virtue. Skincare. One of these things is not like the others.

I can’t fault you for talking about toner in vaguely religious terms. Beauty culture is hellbent on assigning spiritual significance to skincare. “Holy Grail” products and “miracle” ingredients. Retailers named Mecca and Oh My Cream. Brands called Monastery, Soulcare and Dieux Skin – the latter manufactures Deliverance Serum and Baptism Cleanser, publishes “Skin Bibles” and refers to its customers as a “congregation”. Corporations absolve “skin sins.” “Cult-favorite” moisturizers promise aesthetic immortality via blood sacrifice.

Why does Big Beauty demand faith from its followers? To borrow from Corinthians, faith is belief without evidence – and actually, evidence shows the skincare industry needs your skin more than your skin needs it.

I and others have reported about this over and over again: skin is pretty much self-sufficient. Too many topicals can stress out your skin; the “science of skincare” isn’t science or care. Many products are making your skin worse, as is your antiaging routine.

Add the industry’s environmental toll, and losing faith in billions of petrochemical-filled plastic bottles is only logical.

More from Jessica DeFino:

As for “virtue”, I wince at the word, but I agree in principle. There is a reasonable middle ground between caring for your skin and buying skincare products.

To find it, define your terms. What do you mean by an “effective” routine?

According to industry orthodoxy, an effective line-up alters the skin’s appearance to better match the standard of beauty: glazed like a donut and taut as a twenty-something’s, forever and ever, amen. It creates and satisfies consumer wants.

I think what you’re asking for – and what I recommend – is a regimen that effectively supports the skin’s functions and satisfies its needs.

Skin protects. It’s part of the immune system. It defends against UV rays, pollution, pathogens, irritants and allergens. It stores fat and water. It regulates body temperature. It houses one trillion microorganisms – the skin microbiome – which deposit some of the industry’s buzziest ingredients (peptides, ceramides, antioxidants) directly onto your face. Skin also self-cleanses, self-moisturizes, self-exfoliates and self-heals.

For a full account of this, read James Hamblin’s Clean: The New Science of Skin and Salmah Harharah’s The Empowered Skincare Revolution. (Harharah does invoke “divine” skin design – you can’t escape the religious connotations!)

All these processes depend on a strong barrier and biome, and lots of topical products weaken both, studies show. This can trigger acne, eczema, psoriasis, rosacea, dermatitis, dryness, oiliness, dehydration and even premature “aging”.

Other factors affect the skin’s ability to function optimally, too: genetics, environment, diet, lifestyle, stress, lack of sleep. And as with any other organ, it sometimes needs a little help counteracting these factors.

Enter what I call “no-skincare skincare” – things that support the skin without disturbing it.

Salmon is packed with the essential fatty acids that make up the skin barrier, so eating it for dinner qualifies as no-skincare skincare. Exercise increases antioxidant activity and sweating helps clear out pores, so going for a jog counts, too. Time outdoors diversifies the microbiome. Meditation strengthens the barrier. Sleep encourages cellular turnover. A humidifier prevents moisture loss. Vitamin C builds collagen.

If that doesn’t seem like much of a beauty routine, you’re right. “The ecosystem does not need to be maintained in any elaborate way that we didn’t already know made our skin look good: sleeping and eating well, minimizing anxiety and spending time in nature,” Hamblin writes in Clean.

I don’t mean to demonize all topical products, though. Some truly are necessary! Sunscreen, for one, since overexposure to sunlight damages the skin barrier and raises skin cancer risk. You’ll likely need a gentle cleanser to remove SPF before bed, and moisturizer if your skin runs dry. For persistent issues – rashes, cystic acne – see a dermatologist. Everything else is extra.

I can’t recommend a personalized routine without knowing your specific concerns, but here’s what I do as someone with an extra-sensitive epidermis (thanks to topical steroids gone wrong) and chronic dryness (a lingering side-effect of Accutane) to keep my skin fine and functional if not flawless (reminder: flawlessness is a beauty standard, not a measure of health).

I prioritize sleep when I can and carve out 10 minutes a day for meditation and deep breathing. I’m big on facial massage with my fingers – no, it’s not “nature’s Botox”, but it does help with lymphatic drainage (the body’s internal cleansing system). I don’t love exercise but I do love the sauna, so I’ll break a sweat there now and then. I drink water (hydration!) and eat water-rich foods (electrolytes!). I’m nuts about nuts and seeds (full of barrier-boosting Omegas), fermented snacks (probiotics), fiber (prebiotics) and bread (it’s basically a non-topical niacinamide serum).

As for traditional skincare: at night, I wash with One Love Organics Vitamin B Enzyme Cleansing Oil or plain Manuka honey (trust me) and go to bed with bare skin. In the morning, it’s a splash of water, a few drops of jojoba oil – a close chemical match to human sebum, the body’s built-in moisturizer – and sunscreen. The one I’ve been using lately is from Solara. And, well, it’s called Guardian Angel SPF 50.