Let me get the annoying statement out of the way first– my skin has never caused me issues. A bit of oil around my nose and the occasional pimple has been the worst of it. (Before you close out of this article out of annoyance– would it help if I told you I have thin, lifeless hair? Give me the skin thing, please.)
My mom’s skin has always been the same way, and this genetic luxury has allowed us to get away with the most minimal skincare. I’m talking hand soap and vaseline ‘minimalism’. A whats-on-sale-at-Bed-Bath-And-Beyond kind of regimen. My previous roommates actually screamed when they realized I used our shared bathroom-sink soap on my face at night. Then, I landed a job at Function and was whisked away into this world of thoughtful, custom, clean ingredient-focused care that I had never even batted an eye at before because of my upbringing and my lack of ‘needing’ to upgrade my routine. My new job and my Instagram feed’s growing focus on self care got me excited to become one of those girls with a ritual. I thought, “this seems nice.” Little did I know it would actually push my already-fine skin towards greatness. Here’s my experience with custom skincare.
My first time
I want to keep this about my skin so I won’t get into the jaw-dropping experience that was my unboxing but– a girl wasn’t in Kansas (my local pharmacy) anymore. Cut to using my cleanser, serum, and moisturizer fresh out of the box.
(Yes, that’s my hand. No, I didn’t *consciously* do it on purpose.)
I got:
Micellar gel cleanser
Serum
Lotion moisturizer
My #skingoals were:
Brighten
Even tone
Anti-pollution
Cleansed
I had never used a non-lathering cleanser before, so my first thought was, wtf? And then I understood– 2 pumps of it and my face was coated in a light, smooth cleanse that was lasting and never giving me that suddenly squeaky, no-product-left feeling I was used to. My makeup was off and nowhere to be found smudged elsewhere on my face. I was extremely content with the refresh.
Serum-ed
This is the element I was really missing from my routine. As much as I’m beating myself up in this article, I always managed to wash my face and moisturize it (albeit poorly). What I had never done before was intentionally nourish my skin. My first serum experience was actually lovely. I used about 75% of my dropper, placing it in my hands before patting evenly around my face. To my surprise, it was instantly absorbed with no signs of oiliness or a layer of ‘product’ feeling. Nice.
Moisturized
I could definitely tell post-serum my face was still calling for hydration. I’ve always been a big lotion-er for my body and my face and my skin knows what’s good when I’ve neglected its hydration. My custom lotion moisturizer felt different than what I was used to in its quality– I barely needed any to cover my face and make it feel quenched.
My 90th time
Now that I no longer identify as a skincare rookie, I get the hype for quality and specifically, custom. Here’s what I was doing: cleaning and hydrating my skin. Here’s what I’m doing now: cleaning, nourishing, and hydrating my skin with ingredients that add to it and better it rather than just maintain its natural okay-ness.
Since using function my skin doesn’t just not break out. It’s brighter, more fresh looking right when I wake up. I’ve been wearing less makeup all winter (when I normally would load up on bronzer or blush) because the color of my actual skin looks more healthy. My skin is less oily around my nose– it’s being hydrated in a way that it specifically needs, so the sebum production around my nose is probably less overactive. And last but definitely not least, my routine is something I look forward to, feel good about, and trust to improve my skin. I love having a ritual and a step-by-step process that I start and end my days with. It leads me to other self-care habits that I might not have started or improved upon if I hadn’t found the benefit in custom skincare. It’s inspiring me to uplevel what my skin, and my body, deserves in general rather than giving it the bare minimum, which feels so obvious I can’t believe I was missing it before.
