"I Use It Religiously and Have Been For Over 40 Years."

If you are like me, you feel a deep sense of anxiety when you read about skincare.

The world seems so filled with opinions and “must do’s” that it’s hard to know what TO do.

I grew up without any grandparents- though I know they’re always with me- so maybe that speaks to my trust and hope in tradition passed down by the glowing grans of another. But there’s no way to know what could work for YOUR skin over time if you can’t fast forward through time.

One piece of advice I’m really putting to work recently (other than checking expiration dates like I said here) is from a now 92-year-old who said:

“I get up in the morning and wash my face with cleanser and a Buf-Puf, which will make most people say, 'Oh my word!' I use it religiously and have been for over 40 years." An exfoliator of that intense of a nature goes against almost all trends right now (we live in the land of chemical-exfo or bust), but I’ve been trying to temper all other temptation on my end and use a Buf at night with a gel baby oil to cleanse, pausing all acids for now (for the sake of my experiment), and still just doing my “zombie face mask” once a week. Just to see. To see if simplifying in a somewhat rough way (pun) is really the route for me.

I don’t know yet. I don’t know when I’ll ever know? Time needs… time.

But I DO know that something I was doing recently was not working for my skin. It felt thin and dry, if that makes sense (in the only way that my actively exfoliating it when it feels “thin” ever could)… but somehow the backwards logic might be working?

A final trick, if I may add one (but if you’re kind enough to read yesterday’s vanity post and join my sink vanity today), it’s using an After Sun style lotion even while or if actively avoiding the sun. I, personally, found astronomical success with the Hawaiian Tropic After Sun for bodies in the giant bottle. It’s green and smells like Blue Crush in a bottle. If you hate scents in your products (I’m the opposite because- other than Rose Jam solid perfume by Lush, I’m lazy and like my smell-goods crammed into my skincare), you’ll hate it. But there are other options online that are scentless, have a long history of working to heal burns, and are in the $10 price range.

Applying creams meant for your body might seem weird and won’t work for everyone (just like everything on planet earth), but… I would possibly physically exfoliate every-other day (like the vampire that is Chilli from TLC also recommends), use Ponds cold cream or Jergens classic pink facial cream, and an after sun product (on my face and all over) as my top three can’t-live-withouts if I had to be marooned with Wilson.

If someone said, “What brands should sponsor you because you talk about them too much?”, it’d be Ponds, Jergens, Noxzema style of old-school granny swag. But if you ask me which slightly-fancier brands to research for (specifically) skin tightening reasons that a scrub like me can afford, it would easily be Proot (they have tightening serums and creams).

I am not sponsored (and never aim to be!)… I am just your neighborhood granny giving you the goods.

Life is short and shelf lives shorter… We only get one skin.

In one word, with love and no judgement, acceptance and comfort, at this exact moment: How is yours?

THANK YOU for this week together! This is not just an unfolding memoir (with Word Nerds here getting creations a whole week- if not, many weeks- prior to @catchingbreaths , as well as content unique to here, longer posts, and… Everything archived forever in one place that’s easier to access!

I hope it is still worth it, as I want to keep working as hard as I can to make sure it is.

Share, Like, Restack in Notes, Forward to a Friend, Post on your Socials: All love is… well, more love going into the world!