let's talk about skincare, shall we

everything i'm using on my 51-year-old face husk

For most of my first half century on the planet, I did not believe in skincare. I thought creams were bullshit, a waste of both money and time. I was a rebellious, third-wave slacker girl. Not only did I not believe in taking care of my skin, I behaved as if it was my job to actively defy it: I washed my face in the shower with Dr. Bronner’s (peppermint!) and rinsed with hot water. I never moisturized. I smoked like a chimney and drank like a pilot whale. I was not, on any day of my adult life, properly hydrated and seldom wore sunscreen (I liked being “tan” LOLLL).

Then, sometime around the time I turned 45, shit started to get real. My forehead became a maze of deep furrows, my cheeks brown-spotted, my eyelids sliding into serious premature sag. When a dermatologist revealed an X-ray of my skin, the sun damage under the surface was layered and splotchy. I was headed for not only melanoma, but the wizened dermis of an elephant’s ear, the leathery visage of a dried-out old belt.

For the most part, so far, I’m not hating aging. I have zero desire to look (or be) 25. But somewhere in my late 40s, I realized I wanted to preserve my skin better. I wanted my face to (at least somewhat) reflect how I felt inside (still kind of bouncy?). So I started trying things.

There’s a whole other long rant about the minimal, temporary “work” I’ve had, about which radio frequencies and light zappers and tiny, cruel micro-pins moved the needle on my particular skin. But what makes me feel best is the consistent skincare rituals I now keep, how taking care of my face has become a regular part of taking care of myself. I also currently have a job where I get to talk to skin experts and try products. If skincare is of interest/your thing, here’s what I’m using/loving so far this month.

Drunk Elephant C-Firma: I just wrote a story about how research increasingly shows vitamin C is an important skincare ingredient for all kinds of things but is only effective if it’s formulated and packaged in a very specific way. I now use a vitamin C product in the morning before sunscreen and at night before a moisturizing serum like snail serum. I’m on my second bottle of C-Firma from Drunk Elephant though I’ve heard Timeless makes one that’s much cheaper and just as good.

Sunday Riley Good Genes: Skincare Reddit is constantly on about this brand so I picked up their TikTok viral acid/serum at Sephora one day on a whim. I haven’t had to write about it yet so I don’t know technically what it’s supposed to do, but I use it every third night instead of vitamin C and I always wake up with a more plumped-up, hydrated look.

Dr. Kay’s eye cream, neck cream and retinol — I interviewed this dermatologist back in January and she offered me samples of her line and I liked a couple of the products so much, I re-upped on my own. They’re pricey but not obscene and have high concentrations of the ingredients they say they have. If I had to choose one, I’d go with the Illuminating eye cream which has retinol and vitamin C and caffeine. It’s my favorite eye cream I’ve tried (and I recently tried a lot!)

Supergoop PLAY sunscreen — this is a face and body sunscreen but I like it much better than the famous Glow Screen and it’s like half the price. It leaves behind a shiny finish (which I like) with no white cast.

I’ve also been using a $7 Amazon jade roller and giving myself a little Joanna Czech face massage every night which, I’m not sure, but is maybe helping my TMJ?

Speaking of, I recently picked up the Theragun face massager at 60% off — it has a LED light so I’m currently testing it along with a handful of LED face masks. So far, I’m not sure how I feel about the Theragun face massager and my favorite of the masks is by Current Body, but more to come on this.

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