The Most Important Thing in Skincare

For as long as I’ve been obsessed with the topic of improving my skin, I came across at least a hundred articles and videos with the same title over the years – so there’s likely tens hundreds of thousands more floating on the internet.

“the most important thing in (YOUR) skincare”

“the step that most people are ignoring but shouldn’t”

“the number one thing you can do for your skin”

You get the idea.

If you’ve literally become interested in the topic of skincare today, you probably came across a similar title.

This is my attempt at explaining that “most important thing”, without shoving products down your throat.

Because, in my opinion, the most important thing in skincare doesn’t start with products.

The most important thing for your skin is understanding your skin (and lifestyle) context and acting in accordance with it.

With that said, this will be a very different kind of “most important thing for your skin” post.

It’s easier to buy something than to fix something.

I agree with that statement. (as sad as it is)

But just because something is easier, doesn’t mean it’s better.

It’s easier for you to close this post right now, go buy literally any product, feel like you’ve done something for your skin, and move on with your life.

If you don’t care about preserving youth or maximizing your skin health, or whatever other goal you might have for the next 10-20 years (many people really don’t), that’s fine.

It would be easier for me too, to just recommend 6 expensive, mediocre-at-best products and calling it a day (what everyone seems to be doing nowadays anyway).

But nobody really gives much of a f*ck at sorting out thoughts and presenting them in a way that would instead move others to take (hopefully, positive) action and really understand how to take care of their skin properly.

If you’ve read my email series you know I was lucky to grow up in the age of written content online and didn’t get bombarded with so much crappy fast advice online.

(if you haven’t you can read about my own skin story and how I now save thousands each year while having the best skin of my life below).

Especially nowadays when people want everything to be done fast.

And I’d be doing you a huge disservice if I just repeated what everyone else online is telling you.

“Do this “secret”, “never-before-seen” technique”

“This routine has saved my skin”

“Just buy this these 10 products if you want perfect skin.”

“This works for everyone.”

This post alone won’t magically make you have better skin. We have more access to more – and better quality information than ever before, but it feels like understanding what your skin needs is harder than ever.

Because even though good skin is a very subjective term – here we’re referring to consistent, calm, healthy, and functioning skin that you can carry into your next years and decades.

And unless you know your you-nique (I love this cringe term) skin context, you might end up stuck playing product roulette or feeling that tiny bit of uncertainty every time you’re about to do your routine.

It’s concerning stuff we’re putting on our faces after all. Stuff that can either deliver amazing results, some results, no results, or straight up have us chasing the wrong ends, sometimes for years on end.

And most of us want to feel assured that our efforts invested into pretty much anything – nevermind something like skincare – are going to give us a positive outcome on our time and money invested in it.

I might be self-projecting here, and I don’t want this to sound like fear-mongering, so I’ll let you be the judge how valid this is for you.

One thing I will promise you that this post will do, for the majority of people who are willing to approach it with an open-mind, is, at the very least prompt you to think how you approach your skincare, who you listen to online, and (hopefully) see that today’s era of fast content is – in most cases – not the answer to good skin.

Unless you’re genetically blessed, it’s very difficult to actually have good skin.

This is especially true today, when most things we do, on a daily basis, go directly against nature and at the detriment of our skin

• we absorb blue light from screens for most of the day
• we sit for most of the day, restricting blood flow to key areas
• we binge content until 2am and sleep late
• we get stressed from unnatural amounts of visual and auditory stimuli around us
• we eat crap with 50 different ingredients our bodies haven’t adapted to recognize
• (most of us) breathe in polluted and/or stale indoor air every second of the day

None of this was the case just 20 or 30 years ago. Or at least, not in the same amounts as today.

Nevermind 100 years ago.

A (topical) skincare routine is, in comparison, like putting a band-aid on a broken elbow.

The first post I’ve ever posted in this blog has been titled “Your Skincare Routine is A Band-Aid if Your Lifestyle is A Mess.”

(Sounds like an early 2000s metalcore song, I know…)

The most important thing I keep preaching on this blog is that products are just a small part of the whole that is skincare.

Most other things – most of them costing $0- carry a much more significant weight in your skincare game.

• Your lifestyle.
• Your sleep.
• Your stress (overlooked by literally everyone, but so important)
• Your daily habits.
• Your environment
• Your diet
• Your age and hormones
• yes, even your skincare routine (or lack thereof)

These are part of your lifestyle context, which in turn dictate your skin context.

Unfortunately these are also things that we can’t see.

You can’t see sleep, stress, or your hormones.

Because of that, this makes it way easier for someone nowadays, brands and influencers, to sell you products that you can actually see, with promises of perfect skin, “wiping the age off your face”, and looking like a million bucks.

I used to be that person. Develop a fixation then buy whatever gets mentioned the most amount of times. Because “everyone” had it too. That’s basic human psychology.

Being confused and overwhelmed makes people very profitable consumers.

In any industry. Skincare in particular just takes this to a whole new level.

One thing that would make this business model very un-profitable is if skincare enthusiasts understood that skincare is a you-nique kinda game.

And that the same product will have wildly different results on two different individuals, with different lifestyle factors and backgrounds.

Which is exactly what skincare is supposed to be.

This is where skin context comes in.

Not just knowing that it exists, but actually understanding that, once you do understand it, your skincare game will evolve.

You can be a more mindful and smarter consumer. Know exactly what – and why – you need.

Think about it: why do all skincare product pages always mention something along the lines of:

“68% of our testers experienced an increase in their skin moisture in 4-6 weeks”

“54% of people saw a decrease in hyperpigmentation after just 1 month”

even something non-quantifiable (biased, probably):

“72% of our customers said this product is a staple in their routine”

So, not everyone experiences an increase in skin moisture, 100% of the times, with every product they use? (isn’t that a potential waste of time?)

Not everyone even vibes with the product enough to put it permanently in their routine? (potential waste of money?)

Again, most people today want fast results.

Unfortunately, in a lot of cases this comes at the expense of long-term skin health and the ability to actually, truly understand your skin, and see beyond just ads disguised as “reviews”.

It also leaves people at the mercy of having everyone else in this space dictate what they put on their skin.

Before I go on, this is the point in my more-perspectives-than-posts posts where people lose focus and leave. I created a Notion template that lets people actually have the mental space think for themselves and plan out their routines, instead of having others yell at them online on what you “need”. If you want a good starting point with solid product and routine references check here.

Nobody from the other side of the screen can know your specific lifestyle (or skin) context.

Even if they tried to, they’d still just recommend skincare products. Because the biggest money is in those.

Sure, lifestyle improvement, in about half the cases, also includes products we can see.

But, being in this space for a long time, I can tell you from experience that lifestyle recommendations are many, many times less lucrative than facial products.

Even though the ROI could (depending on your lifestyle context) be unmeasurably better.

i.e. if you live in a polluted part of the world, no skincare product will do what an air purifier could.

If you’re pushing 80 hour weeks on a stressful job, no skincare product will do what getting your stress levels in check.

If you’re pushing those same 80 hour weeks and don’t have time to eat a proper meal and keep smashing burgers, no skincare products will do what finding ways to get your diet in check will.

The last two examples can be totally free – and many times cheaper over the long run compared to what keeping up with the negative habits will do to you.

I’ve always been transparent regarding just how much money there is in skincare, and why I specifically stay away from mentioning products on my blog, just because of how “easy” it is to pull the trigger on it.

Take a $1,000 air purifier:

• It’s way less sexy than a $40 serum
• It requires shipping, receiving, unpacking, installing
• Justifying to spend $1,000 is way more difficult than justifying to spend $40
• It’s big, requires a dedicated space in your house, and generally considered a long-time purchase
• A skincare product can be forgotten about on your shelf or thrown and replaced

The friction is infinitely stronger.

And to act on a $1,000 purchase requires context and nuance.

A $40 purchase doesn’t. Which is what makes short-form platforms perfect for pushing stuff like low-ROI skin products to the masses.

That’s also why there’s been a huge uptick in skinfluencers in recent years. And my assumption is that this trend will only get more aggressive.

With all that, the commissions on those $1,000 air purifiers will be 4-5 times less compared to facial products.

Just follow the money and you’ll see why there is so much skincare “advice” content nowadays, and why nobody giving that advice mentions the buy-it-once or free solutions with better results than products alone.

Having lived in a small, clean town, away from industrial zones, near the sea, with ultra clean air, and moving to Seoul, with high rises, way less access to nature –

Start with lifestyle before listening to anyone online. Myself included. Unless you do My Skin Consult.

You might be surprised at how little products you might need after, and how much simpler your routine can get.

Start with the big 3: sleep, diet, air quality (stress and exercise too, but that is literally free and I don’t recommend you to spend any money until you’ve done the basics. Sit on the floor and meditate or do a yoga/stretching session.)

Again, I do earn a commission, but I hope you understand what kind of products I personally promote on My Skin Library.

As I mentioned before, this is more of a perspective than a blog post, and it’s getting quite long (as most of posts :’D), so I’ll keep this section short.

I can’t give tips for everyone. Check the consult to 1:1 with me, help me find you, hold your hand.

Again, if you’re interested of being stuck in that loop of product roulette and calling it “expertimentation”, you probably won’t have much value from this point on.

(or this entire post in general)

Speaking of experimentation, read this on how to actually have an enjoyable experimentation phase. Because the experimentation phase can be the most fun phase in your entire skincare.

For everybody else:

Understanding your skin and lifestyle context is a process that doesn’t happen overnight. (again, slow skincare).

It’s a lifelong kinda deal.

[from here]

But there is a point after which you will see just how much more you become confident in your skincare choices, how much better results you can achieve, and even how much less you can spend.

You’ll be using products based off what you know you need, not what someone else tells you you need.

On how long it takes, depends on way too many factors.

A good assumption, after exchanging messages with thousands of readers and other skincare obsessives, would be anywhere from 3-6 months in most cases, and all the way to 5+ years.

One thing to speed I want you to keep in mind is to be very mindful of which information you listen to, and that you actually try to actively filter.

This is not easy, but it indirectly contributes to both you becoming a more mindful consumer and actually listening to your skin.

I have a micro consult, but for anyone that can’t shell out $200 on just getting better at knowing your skin context there are 2 options

That’s about it for this post. I mainly wanted people to realize that skin context is everything, and that [finish thought]

If you have skincare questions and concerns or want to know your skin needs better and understand your skin/lifestyle context, you can check the consult here.

See you in the next post, and as always, thanks for reading.

K. Hoe