There’s a wide berth for misuse given the freehand, DIY approach that consumers are encouraged to adopt with these chemicals. But the skincare craze isn’t introspective per se: it’s looking into yourself but stopping at the literal outermost layer. When the world is chaos, it makes sense for society to take an introspective turn. But we have come to see the pursuit of perfect skin through a rotating buffet of products as an empowering choice. And despite the scientific gestures of skincare companies, a Harvard Medical School newsletter once concluded that “routine skin care is a realm where there's little science to be found.” According to some dermatologists, many women can even skip daily moisturizer, the most basic skincare product a 2016 study in the Indian Journal of Dermatology found that no one really knew what moisturizer even did. Imagine refining other organs, like your liver or lungs, with the kind of monomania directed at our skin. How could we be getting it so wrong now? The only feasible answer is: we aren’t. Like other human organs, skin has withstood millions of years of evolution without the aid of tinctures and balms. New Skincare is (still) chiefly about buying things, and displaying them for others to see - to prove that you worked hard for what you have, even if you’re, say, a model, whose profession self-selects for superior genetics.
Although the former has monopolized social capital today, these looks actually require the same enormous quantity of products. It encompasses concepts like “ no-makeup makeup,” “ dewiness,” and “ all-natural beauty.” It’s also a reaction to the popular and populist aesthetic of contouring, the parallel universe of much-makeup makeup that’s so big on Instagram and Youtube think Kim Kardashian showing you how to do this directly from her smartphone to yours. What I call the “New Skincare” is a break from the perceptible cosmetic looks we were sold in the past. Especially for women, who are disproportionately taxed by both the ideal of perfect skin and its material pursuit. The idea that we should both have it and want it is a waste of our time and money.
Perfect skin is unattainable because it doesn’t exist. The latest skincare trends have a reassuring scientific cast: peptides, acids, solutions, and other things with clinical suffixes that are typically sold in small quantities for large amounts of money.īut all of this is a scam. It’s normal today for people in certain circles to brag about spending most of their paycheck on serums. Perfect skin has become the thinking woman’s quest.