“I’ll Moisturize My Face About Six Times a Day"

Read this first, then scroll to the bottom to watch the full video with my eldest and I.

@cathingbreaths has an abbreviated glimpse, but the full chat session is located here (hope you enjoy!)

THANK YOU to those helping this independent memoirist continue to work by upgrading to paid (which also helps my goal of gifting this every-weekday-writing-world to anyone who asks for a reading scholarship, no questions asked)

I believe ferociously in ‘time over trend’ (we once thought cigarettes were good for us!) and thus use what many grandmothers suggest.

Not everyone has to love chemicals and creations like I do, of course, but as a former beauty and fashion journalist… I am never going to be able to turn off that side of myself that celebrates the feeling I used to feel when I would connect with my older sister by trying to apply the same potions as her.

This is something I write about again and again but I’ve been reconnecting with it more than ever because the push and pull of what experts say to do, and friends say to do, and older sisters say to do (listen to them) is like being pulled as tight as those pressured can sometimes pull their skin.

I try to share tips and techniques with my daughters - here you see my eldest (almost 18) and I, fresh faced in our comfy sweats, replying to the kind question of a digital friend. I’m not sure I’m the ultimate expert by any means but I DO love mixing up my own products and I DO love adding skincare to my makeup flare.

Lately, however, I’ve found some testimonies from amazing humans who know what works for them but it’s FASCINATING to me how vastly they can differ.

It makes me want to ask every single person who’s reading this now to ask someone they love what technique has worked for them, and then leave it below so we all can continue to investigate this experience of being humanely human in our skin together.

An almost 80-year-old goddess I enjoy on YouTube shared with brave honesty (considering she is horrifically trolled for having personal skincare habits that work for her but aren’t approved by today’s data) that she does not use moisturizer.

Below: A clip of the full length discussion so I’m not a douche bag who provides zero of the footage for context [subscribers can see full video at the bottom]

She has tried every possible pattern of layering, and found that washing her face with a physically exfoliating (home-crocheted) washcloth in a specific upwards pattern, and following with a couple preferred serums and a sunscreen is what works best for her. Moisturizer, she says, feels like it “weighs her skin down” and enhances qualities she doesn’t want to enhance. This led me to research how very true this tactic can be for some skin (!!!)

Cut to: Elizabeth Hurley was quoted saying she loves to moisturize her skin as she goes throughout her day.

"The one thing I swear by is moisturizer—and lots of it,” she said. “I’ll moisturize my face about six times a day and my neck about 10 times a day. Lightly dab it over your face, and it instantly makes you glow."

We could argue indefinitely that that’s “too much” and she’s wrong… but don’t we all own the right to own our own skin?

Maybe one day my daughters will be quoting me and my odd-duck advice, but for now, I’m still collecting data. Thanks to older sisters like mine, I started playing and parsing at a young age in an “age” when (frankly) caring about this stuff seemed ahead of its time - there were no beauty Grams or Sephora tweens - and I thought I had the jump on my own jam by trying sunscreen and other sycophantic salves as a young adult.

But if there’s one thing the research against-trend has taught me it’s: If something doesn’t make you feel like your best you…

Check the date and throw it out.