Good Skin Care Is NOT An Indulgent Scam -- It Actually Makes A Difference

I fully admit to being skin care obsessed. I like glowing, dewy, healthy skin because it makes me feel good. I like using products that will help fight some of the signs of aging and sun damage, and if that makes me vain, so be it.

I’ve seen what the proper moisturizer and serums can do to my 42-year-old skin. I apply sunscreen everyday, even in the Winter. I use face masks on the regular, and I never go to sleep with makeup on my face. I’m not one for throwing money in the garbage for the fuck of it, I can assure you. I’m a single mom of three kids, so my money is precious, but my girlfriends and I are walking, breathing proof there is something to be said for taking good care of your skin. Most days we are glowing and supple, and we owe it to our skin care routine.

While this also includes drinking enough water, trying to get enough sleep, and eating lots of healthy fats like olive oil and avocado, you also have to be picky about what you slather on your skin. This means reading ingredient labels, and finding out what works best for you.

So when I see an article stating the that skin care is just a big money-sucking scam, published in The Outline, it almost makes me want to give up my luscious lotions and potions for a month, take a before and after shot and show people exactly what happens to your skin when you don’t invest in it just to prove a point.

I won’t do it, though — I love my skin too much and I’m not going to stop giving it the attention it deserves.

And yes, I know there are people out there scrubbing their face with baby wipes and slathering it in coconut oil, and they are here to loudly tell their tales. That’s great, and I’m happy you don’t look like crepe paper after all that, but that isn’t a routine that will benefit most folks long-term.

As the article goes on, it starts to piss me off even more, as it states that trying to obtain perfect skin is “a waste of our time and money.” But the last time I checked, women weren’t trying to get perfect, flawless skin. I’ve never heard anyone describe their skin as perfect, actually. We are trying to have healthy skin that we can feel confident about.

It’s an investment, and it’s worth it.

Taking care of our skin is not a waste of time and money and energy — just talk to my under eye bags and hyper-pigmentation about it. Oh wait, you can’t because they are gone thanks to some fucking amazing skincare products.

The ridiculousness of this article tries to point out women of the world are reaching for their moisturizers and primers solely to prove we are secure powerful women, and we need to stop trying to get validation this way. Clearly the author thinks if you take care of your skin, you are nothing but a shallow shell of a human being with zero integrity at all, and you think reaching for a serum is going to solve all the world’s problems. We all know that’s not true, but fuck, it certainly makes us feel better, which in turn does make us better at solving said problems.

Who hasn’t applied a face mask and felt like a better version of themselves has surfaced?

For many people, it goes beyond just trying to have a dewy glow. In the same way many of us exercise for our overall wellbeing, people take care of their skin for the same reason.

Ever since I was about 10, I would play with my mom’s beauty products. Every morning before school, I’d apply her pink Oil of Olay to my skin (even though I wasn’t supposed to). Then the baby powder would come out and I’d splash it all over my face because I’d read in my Young Miss Magazine, if you did that, you wouldn’t look so shiny.

Even as a young girl, I recognized doing things like this was a form of self-love; I was taking care of myself, and I fell in love with the practice of it. I would peruse the aisles of the local drug store with my best girl, and we would sample everything we could.

I have been on this earth for over four decades now and I’ve tried it all — even gone through stages when I washed my face with a bar of soap and slapped some hand lotion on as moisturizer. You bet your ass I saw a difference in my skin — basically, it started giving me the middle finger in the form of wrinkles, blotches, and a grayish hue.

And if you’ve ever had a facial you cannot tell me you don’t feel like a million dollars afterwards.

So as far as skin care being a “con” or a “scam,” let’s all have a good laugh and move on. It’s just like saying cardio doesn’t burn calories, or high heels don’t make you taller. They only thing that’s a scam is the fact that I took the time to read it. I know too many women with the face to prove how important a daily ritual of tending to your skin actually is.

Skin care doesn’t have to cost a fortune to be effective, but if we want to splurge on ourselves, that’s okay too. Now let’s go buy some serums and shit.