We all want to know if it is worth spending the extra cash on skincare. You probably often ask yourself why should I spend $80 on this moisturizer when I could be using this $5 drugstore brand. You might even ask yourself why you need special face moisturizer. So I’m here to help address these who/what/where/when/why of skincare and why it may or may not be worth it for you to invest in things.
I posted my skincare routine for FW2020, so you know what my basics are. But I want to dive a little deeper because I have recently been trying out a lot more affordable skincare options, as well as much pricier options. These are all just my own thoughts on the topic. They aren’t backed by facts. It’s just my own usage for it and reading based on the ingredients list. So here goes:
In the broadest sense, I think that the main difference for cheap / expensive skincare lies in the research that goes on behind the product. Many pricey cosmetics not only have extensive laboratory research that goes into product development for formulations, but they also research on main effector molecules that they can put into the formulations (and are of course patented). Many times when you purchase a cheaper skincare product, they just have plant extracts or molecules that everyone in the industry already knows is going to be a good active to add in to your products i.e. vitamin C, retinol, hyaluronic acid. But certain companies will go further and include patented molecules in their formulations on top of the main foundation of these well-known actives. For example, Tatcha has their Hadasei-3 which combines actives from rice, green tea, and seaweed in a proprietary formula, Biossance adds sugarcane-derived squalane into all of their products, Kate Somerville has their HydraFill Complex. The list goes on for pretty much all Sephora / Ulta skincare brands because that is why they can command such an expensive price-point.
Below, you’ll find what my takes are for various products and if they are worth purchasing expensive or not.
Cleansers
I’ll be honest. I think that all cleansers are similar. They use amphipathic molecules to turn oil on your skin into little droplets that can be washed away with water. It’s the same chemistry that goes on behind soap (which everyone is now accustomed with thanks to COVID-19). What sets specific cleansers apart is the moisturizing ability of them versus the drying out side-effects. Cream cleansers will help a lot more when you suffer from dry skin because it takes away your skin’s oil as it cleans but it replaces it with other moisturizing and hydrating molecules. However, if you have skin that can tolerate a lot of things (it doesn’t get overly dry, it doesn’t get inflamed, etc), I think you should go for cheaper cleansers. There’s no reason for you to spend the extra money on a cleanser when the overall effect will be the same for you.
Toner
Go cheap. Do we even need toners? Depends who you ask. But if you do want to add a toner, it is a great way to get some extra vitamins in, so why not. But you definitely do not need to go fancy. Many K-beauty franchises rely on multiple toners because they formulate it with so many actives. But do you need it if you’re already going to put on a serum with the same actives right after the toner? You probably don’t. We’re all ballin’ on a budget and we want the bare minimum to get us looking like our best selves for the rest of our lives. So no, you probably don’t need to drop over $20 on a toner. And do you need to avoid alcohol like the plague? Yes and no. Some people say alcohol is going to dry out your skin because it is highly volatile (it evaporates faster than water). But alcohol is a great solvent because of its polar and non-polar properties. Trust me, I use it all the time in lab to get dry powdered chemicals into a solution. So the actives that the toner has with alcohol could be only soluble in non-polar solvents, which is why the ethanol is there. And these actives could be giving you the hydration you need. I wouldn’t write alcohol off at all.
Serum
Serums are these active-packed solutions that you can target to your specific skin concerns. I think that serums are where you should probably spend the most money because they will give you what you need. With that said, the main difference between cheap and expensive serums: pricey serums have a higher concentration of the actives, generally speaking. AHAs, BHAs, hyaluronic acid, collagen, vitamin C are all going to be higher up on the ingredients list, meaning that they are at a higher concentration. If you want to see the biggest effects on your skin, you want to deliver the most actives to your skin that you can. The exception to the rule here is with The Ordinary and The Inkey List with a few other companies popping up now. Their products are insanely cheap for what you are getting. The only issue is that you have to be super comfortable with skincare — you are basically playing alchemist. You have to know what your concerns are and add them to your serum cocktails accordingly. But those aren’t the only companies actively fighting for the serum cocktail space. Sweet Chef, a veggie-centric spin-off from fruity Glow Recipe, sells $20 specific skin-concern serum shots that you can add together to make a cocktail. Comparing this to Farmacy’s Honeymoon Glow gives you a pretty good savings there, but you miss out on the Honey Blend (a proprietary solution, surprise!) that all Farmacy products have. These more expensive serums typically will blend all of the actives that you want, so you don’t need to do the research behind it. You’re paying for the proprietary chemistry and also for the ease-of-use here. But you can still stack serums, even if you go with the more expensive guys because nothing is a one-size-fits-all situation.
Moisturizer
Moisturizers & creams: Kiehl’s, Elementary, Maxwell, ApotheCARE, Kate Somerville, Althea, Tatcha
I break down my moisturizers into two buckets: a normal moisturizer and a thicker cream that behaves more like an occlusive to lock in moisture, i.e. a night cream. Here, my opinion is that you should invest in more expensive night creams and go for a more budget-friendly moisturizer, with the caveat that you need to make sure these are present: hyaluronic acid, allantoin, tocopherol / Vitamin E, and ceramides. If you don’t have them in your moisturizer (they help with restoring cell-to-cell connections or as a humectant to draw in water to store it alongside your cells), then please make sure they are in your serums. You just want to make sure that your moisturizer is giving you the fats that your skin needs to not feel tight, especially after a cleanse. One of my favorite budget moisturizers comes from Maxwell because it checks off many of the boxes for those compounds. For night creams, I think it is worth spending more on it because it is thicker and you are soaking it all up when your whole body recharges during your sleep. For these, I would recommend going with ATEM Super Cream, Tatcha Water Cream (which is much thinner than most other creams), or Kiehl’s Ultra Facial Overnight Mask (or Super Multi-Corrective Cream). Tatcha has the Hadasei-3 complex, but ATEM includes the SNAP-8 peptide, which functions in a similar manner to Botox, to inhibit the neuron firing. Thus, your skin is more relaxed (and you no longer have wrinkles). The Kiehl’s products are super hydrating, which will help out with anti-aging and also with winter drying out your skin.
Eye Creams: Tatcha, Jesse Jimz, Ursa Major, Retinol Men, SkinLabs, House99
Eye Cream
Everyone says the skin around your eye is the most sensitive (and is the same type of skin as your neck!), so you need to make sure that you treat it differently. It deserves a different type of love than the rest of the skin on your face. Because of that, you need eye creams, which usually are more packed with actives than typical moisturizers. Most eye creams will have caffeine to de-puff and moisturizers / hydrators (hyaluronic acid, niacinamide, shea butter, etc). I like to think of eye creams as a serum for your eyes as well, so I like to spend more on this. The plus-side of the skin around your eyes being more sensitive is that it absorbs actives more readily, so again, if you want to see effects, put on the actives here to prevent saggy eye-bags in the future. No one wants that. Some of the ones I use are from Jesse Jimz, Tatcha, Ursa Major, Glow Recipe.
Hope this helps you guys out, especially as you are navigating new products. Skincare should be accessible to everyone, and I don’t want anyone to be priced out of the experience.
Xoxo,
Spencer