Member-only story
Why I’m No Longer “Into” Skincare
I have an entire room (a real estate agent would call it an “office”; someone more honest would call it “a walk-in closet with a window”) dedicated half to a dresser I share with my husband, and the other half to beauty products.
Perfume bottles take up an entire shelf on my vanity. I have at least a dozen different bottles of foundation, none of which I’m wearing right now, obviously. Most importantly, I have two shelves on the bottom half of the vanity devoted to skincare.
This is not even going into the situation in my bathroom, so cluttered with moisturizers, serums, and exfoliants that there’s barely any room to store extra rolls of toilet paper.
This made sense two years ago, when I was just exiting a career in women’s media, was still writing my beauty newsletter, and considered myself a relatively well-educated skincare freak. Skincare, I thought, was a lightweight consumerist hobby — but it also felt good to take care of myself, productive to tackle the flaws that appeared on my chin or across my nose. It was fun to peer at product ingredient listings like they contained the keys to the universe (or a fragrance that would turn my already-rosy cheeks ruddy).
Now all the products I’ve collected are approaching their expiration dates, if they’ve not already passed it, and I have no desire to drop…
