Sorry did that prepare you for a rant? No rant. I'm about to run out of several skincare products, so, I've been window shopping. I'm taking notes now. This is notes. I only buy new stuff once a year, maybe twice, if I'm lucky, thrice? I've been buying the same two moisturizers for a moment now. They're fine. Ingredients have gotten cheaper, though. I think I can upgrade my cleansers (oil for make up, medicated for acne) and possibly slip in an <$10 serum; if I run out of the cleansers at differen't times.

I've just been watching youtube videos and reading ingredient break down websites and also wikipedia articles for chemicals. It's really fun I love the sciency part of hygiene; #girl #girls in stem; I guess. Girl is a very consumerist identity imo. Whatever. Don't worry about it. I'm a girl because I like pink moisturizers that smell like roses and also women and that's fine. I'd rather that make me a woman than my genitals, AM I RIGHT LADIES? Once I broke down the ingredients of 3 conditioners, across several pages and tables, with their ingredient's restrictions in the EU, Canada, and the US as well as their purposes and potential failings. And THEN I bought a conditioner that fixed my weird hair texture in 4 showers. I miss her. I don't think she's for sale anymore.

Skin status, goals, want to tries:

I am burdened with fucking blackheads and hormonal cystic acne. Succeeding mildly with salicylic acid and shit loads of moisturizer. Currently using stridex pads for salicylic medication outside of a weak moisturizer or cleanser. Hate those cunts, want to replace them with serum. Winter is drying me out hard, but summer will make me oily. So I have to balance everything out. Interested in rose water for dry sensitivity and redness.

Goal 1: acne routine that kills off those cystic mfs before my patience on picking wears out

Goal 2: Even things out and prevent dry patches

Goal 3: Smell like a pretty flower about it

The soon to be dearly departed:

In order I expect them to empty and die.

• Neutrogena Oil Free Acne Wash Cream Cleanser SHE'S FUCKIN DEAD - 02/23/23
• Some really cool goat milk soap that I love to wash my face with
• e.l.f Cosmetics Holy Hydration Makeup Melting Cleansing Balm
• Everything else is doing pretty good...
• Stridex pads will probably suffer a throw out or total conversion to body rather than face product

The rest of the cast:

• Ivory soap; fucking uncontestable for washing off thick and sticky night time moisturizer residues
• Garnier SkinActive Moisture rescue refreshing gel for dry skin; she's fine but the high concentration of denatured alcohol turns counteractive if used consecutively. Worth it for the texture she gives my skin.
• Clean and Clear dual action moisturizer; bastard, only good as a placeholder on nights between the skinactive and stridex or for Dyshydrotic Eczema—which occurs on your hands, not your face.
• CeraVe AM 35 SPF facial moisturizer; I love her I really really do. I love mineral sunscreens and I love how thick this formula is, really hydrates and seals it all in.
• Neutrogena 50SPF sheer zinc mineral sunscreen; I hate her but I need her if I'm going outside.

How do I feel about the soon to die?

Overall, fuck them. I've been in the <$15 skincare range since I started doing skincare. So, I've been dealing with shit products for 12 years. But now. Now brands like The Ordinary exist. So... Dope. Some of the Korean skincare products I was able to get when I had a disposable income are down to <$10 so I can justify buying them again :-D

Which is to say, I never have to suffer Neutrogena's bullshit ever again. Unless I want to. The cream cleanser has never been good to me but she has never made me worse. All of her fucking sisters have. But she hasn't. Goat milk soap is, Just. I love her. I get dead skin build up really quick, I have... a lot of things that amount to : My Skin Cells are Really Sticky. This is good and also bad.

Goat milk soap has lactic acid in it in concentrations that may or may not be enough to matter when it comes to using it to wash your skin. I like it and it doesn't irritate my skin it's a perfectly good surfectant cleanser. Balm cleanser from e.l.f. is over-priced but fine, I don't love the smell.

Stridex pads are just painful and drying and they do help if I exclusively use them during a hormonal flare up, but they're too rough for my face skin. Fucking amazing for back and thigh acne, and keratosis pilaris though—WHEN followed with a good lotion after allowed to fully dry.

What's Next:

Don't expect this page to change or update until I actually buy new products, but more likely it will not update until I run out of moisturizer and buy a new batch of that, because by then I'll probably have been using a new cleanser for awhile. We'll see :-)

NOW LETS DO SOME FUN STATISTICS!

• Average product price [all categories]: $10.07
• Average Cleanser Price: $10.24
• Average Toner Price: $10.28
• Average Serum Price: $8.52
• Average Wishlist Price: $10.72

I reach low, ladies. I reach low. And you should, you don't need to spend $500 on your skincare routine. You need to spend... well how much do you need to spend on the products I've listed, for a whole routine? Most expensive edition, please, Phie :3

Okay so the most expensive and still sensicle routine built out of products I've listed on this page.

• Cleanser (makeup remover): The Ordinary Squalane Cleanser : $9.00
• Cleanser (surfectant): The Inkey List SA Cleanser : $11.99
• Toner (Hydrating): Heritage Store Rosewater : $10.49
• Toner (Occasional use exfoiliant): Elizavecca Hell Pore AHA Toner : $7.84
• Serums: Literally all 3 I listed from The Ordinary, fuck it : $8.90, $7.20, $6
• Moisturizer: Both moisturizers I use + 1 I want to use: CeraVe : $14.62, Garnier SkinActive : $7.99, Elizavecca : $8.74
• Sunscreen: Elizavecca : $8.83, Neutrogena : $7.97

Total: $109.75

That's not bad :-) Could be worse. Isn't actually that bad because I, and I hope anyone reading this, am not going to throw out and repurchase their entire skincare routine all at once.