Is it all too much?

It was last month in the South of France when my boyfriend turned to me and said “have you ever thought that maybe all this so called skincare actually isn’t good for your skin?” he then proceeded to point out the smattering of tiny under the skin milia-esque spots scattered around my cheekbones, t-zone and chin. Up until that point I’d thought I was having a good skin week. No major spots to speak of, pigmentation kept at bay and I was well rested. Things took a turn from bad to worse this last week on holiday where my skin has been acting up- not horrifically, and only really noticeable to me, but it got me thinking once again about whether I was plying my skin with too many products. I mean I pre-cleanse, cleanse, double tone, serum and moisturise every night, with the odd face mask thrown in here and there does seem a tad excessive. Mornings aren’t much simpler…

Three years ago exactly I went on a girls holiday to New York and only used *hangs head in shame* Simple face wipes. We were going out every night until the early hours of the morning and racing out every morning to wolf down a Whole Foods Jamba Juice and brekky- skincare just didn’t feature in our routines (makeup however took up to two hours- all three of us using my friends living room as a dressing room as it had a giant mirror by floor to ceiling windows- meticulously applying MAC face and body foundation with La Mer tinted moisturiser to achieve a ‘natural’ glow)- anyway I digress.

I looked back at that time and thought how amazing my skin looked- despite the addition of any proper skincare. Similarly in Autumn 2010 I only used two skincare products, a gentle enzyme cleanser and a Skinceuticals serum- and you guessed it, my skin was flawless. Again from February- June this year I used Effaclar Duo as my only morning and nighttime serum/moisturiser and my skin was flawless. 

So when did I start over doing it? Being a beauty blogger means that I’m constantly excited to try new products to review them here so probably got a little carried away,  that’s not to say that I’m going to be purging my skincare routine any time soon and go back to face wipes- hell no! However, I’m going to do a little experiment and be quite strict with myself, a super simple skincare routine from now until Christmas. I’m going to get my paws back on that magical Skinceuticals Phyto Serum and start properly assessing what my skin needs and can handle. Stay tuned for my paired down super simple skincare routines coming up later this week…I’ve also got a little post in the pipeline on my bad skin trigger foods, because breakouts can be just as much caused by a poor diet as too many skincare products.