5 Mistakes Skincare Obsessives Make Because sometimes less is more

We’re not just talking about exfoliating here - you could be overusing your cleanser or retinol, too. By over-stripping your skin, you’ll get yourself in a counterproductive cycle of shredding your skin’s natural oils and moisture barrier (which keeps skin balanced, bacteria out and hydration in) and, in turn, will need to use more products to put back into your skin what you just took off.

Sometimes we’re all a little too overconfident when it comes to our beauty skills. Mostly it’s harmless - case in point, a dodgy nail polish job at home that can be wiped away in a minute - and sometimes it can leave you scarred for life. When it comes to extracting whiteheads and blackheads, this piece of advice particularly rings true; you could end up with some severe inflammation, or worse, a broken capillary. There are just some things best left up to the professionals (AKA a certified facial therapist or dermatologist).

If you switch out your entire routine in replace for a whole new group of products, it becomes tricky to tell which part of your new routine is or isn’t working for you. Instead of swapping out everything at once, slowly go through the process of switching out products one by one so you can see how your skin reacts. It’s also worth noting that you need to give each product a proper chance to show results - four weeks is a good rule of thumb.

Skincare obsessives tend to gravitate towards bucket loads of cult-followed micellar water. But just like makeup remover wipes, they shouldn’t become a replacement for cleanser. While they do breakdown surface level dirt and residue, you need to rinse your face afterwards to remove the layer of bacteria they leave behind. While you don’t always need to use a cleanser twice a day (back to our first point) you should use a wash-away cleanser once a day, always in the evening.

It’s easy to want to stock up on acne treatments and resurfacing essences at the sign of a first pimple but don’t. A pimple doesn’t equal oily skin, nor does dehydrated skin equal dry skin. Understanding your skin type - and only using products developed for your skin type - is the key to avoiding skin problems you wouldn’t have had to start with.