How Much Does Your Skincare Routine Cost?

Marketing is a powerful thing, especially when it comes to skincare. Most people don't want to age (quickly) and skincare companies know this, which makes skincare a very lucrative industry. That being said, falling for the marketing is only oh so easy to do. After all, companies pay millions of dollars to convince you that you need something you really don't.

If companies could have it their way....this is what they would convince you absolutely need. 

Warning: I tried to keep the sarcasm under wraps but it snuck in a couple places. What can I say?

Day Routine:

1. Morning cleanser: You need something to  lightly cleanse your face in the morning. This should be even more gentle on the skin than your nighttime cleanser which needs to be a little harsher to remove any dirt and makeup that accumulates on the skin during the day....so they say. 

2. Toner- You should use a toner to restore your skin back to it's regular PH balance after you wash it.  Forget about using a PH balanced cleanser in the first place....

3. Serum- This provides a nice boost of anti-oxidants directly to the skin. Never mind that most of these are filled with filler ingredients and most do nothing for the skin.

4. Day Moisturizer- This should be lighter than your night time moisturizer. You want something lightly moisturizing that sinks in quickly and is perfect under makeup. Having one moisturizer will not cut it!

5. Day Eye Cream- Again, something moisturizing but not heavy for your under eye area. You will need a heavier nighttime eye cream...

6. SPF- Finally don't leave home without your SPF! This needs to be separate from your daytime moisturizer because they both do a better job when they are separate products.

Now this is just skincare- if you wear makeup don't forget your primers, setting sprays, etc.!

Night Routine:

1. Makeup Removing Towelettes- Now after you've been wearing EVERYTHING for the entire day...it's time to remove your makeup. You need a wipe to get it all off before your cleanse your skin. Don't expect your cleanser to clean all your makeup off! You may or may not need additional "eye makeup remover" to specifically remove all your eye makeup. 

2.Nightime Cleanser- Now that you are makeup free it's time to cleanse the skin! You need a nighttime cleanser because you need to make sure you have something that can remove all the stuff you put on the skin for the daytime. Again, don't expect this CLEANSER to clean makeup off...you need to remove the majority of your makeup for this CLEANSER to work.

3. Toner- Yes, you have already cleaned your skin two times but it is imperative that you sweep a cotton ball over your skin with toner to remove all the rest of the gunk that your cleanser just couldn't get. Amazing how much stuff is on the cotton ball right? It's not that your cleanser sucks...it's just that the toner is super awesome!

3. Nighttime Serum- This should be a "night repair" serum. It does a completely different job from the daytime serums- or does it? 

4. Nighttime Moisturizer- Again, skin repairs itself at night so don't be afraid to use something nice and heavy at night time. Since these are so repairing, be prepared to pay a significantly higher amount of money....because thicker creams cost more money. Everyone knows that!

5. Night time Eye Cream- Same thing applies here as with your night time moisturizer!

So by now I'm sure you thought you were done! But let's not forget weekly maintenance.

Scrubs- You must rid your skin of dead skin every now and again. (Most people's skin can do this on it's own, other's need exfoliation to remove the dead skin-even so I personally really like scrubs! They aren't necessary but they are nice sometimes)

Masks- On top of all the other products...a weekly mask just refreshes your skin...helping with enlarged pores, breakout, etc. 

Now if you follow this routine, you will have the skin of a 12 year old when you're 40. The skin of an 18 year old when your 60. Don't believe us?

92% of women saw firmer skin in 8 weeks 

84% of women saw a reduction in fine lines and wrinkles

92% of women saw improvement in age spots and hyper pigmentation

100% of women could have used a simpler, less expensive routine and had the same-if not better results. 

When I originally planned to do this post I was going to post a ballpark cost on the different items...but as the prices on products can vary depending on a lot of factors I decided to just skip that part. Obviously, this kind of routine can get very expensive. Scary expensive. And as crazy as it sounds...people actually do all this stuff to their skin. Don't believe me? Check some skincare routines on youtube. 

Personally I stick to a pretty simple routine. I don't like using a ton of products on my skin- I just feel my skin does better with simple. If you are interested in my current routine click here.

As far as some of this stuff...my routine never got completely crazy. But I have tried a couple of these different type of products. I love masks but I've found is just as easy to make my own with simple ingredients. Love a good scrub- but I don't believe in spending obscene amounts on them. 

Two products I haven't bought into at all...serums and eye creams. Not to say I wouldn't buy an eye cream but the ones I've tried had a bunch horrible ingredients and have actually aged my under eyes! They were samples of high end eye creams too!  For the most part whatever you use on the rest of your face should be good for your under eyes. 

And serums...I've tried a couple of high end ones from samples and have never been impressed. The marketing behind them sound nice...but my personal opinion is it's fluff.

And now I leave you with this video. I saw this last night and was absolutely amazed at this woman's skin. Her skin is so even, smooth, and glowing. She makes me want to just bathe in Shea Butter! Not the L'occitane brand though...