Watching celebrities talk about their routines is exhausting
I saw this clip of Seo In-young talking about how she avoids dermatologists because she thinks the costs are a waste. She keeps saying she prefers home care, and honestly, a part of me felt a weird sense of validation. It is so easy to fall down a rabbit hole of watching YouTube videos where people describe these intense, multi-step routines that involve devices costing more than my monthly rent. I remember spending a good three hours last Sunday just scrolling through comments on a video about skin elasticity, wondering if I should be drinking collagen jelly or buying a specific device that costs about 300,000 won. It is never just about washing your face anymore, is it? There is always some new supplement or a specific ‘scalp-focused’ serum that promises to change everything, and I usually end up feeling like my current routine is just completely insufficient.
The reality of my bathroom vanity
My bathroom currently looks like a graveyard of half-used bottles. I have this one toner that I bought because an influencer claimed it would give me that ‘hard-boiled egg’ glow, but it just sits there next to my toothpaste. The reality is, I bought it on impulse after seeing someone with perfect skin rave about it, but after two weeks of using it, I honestly could not tell if my skin looked any different. Maybe it is just my skin, or maybe it was just a marketing trick. It cost around 45,000 won, which is not cheap by any means, but it sits there collecting dust because applying it feels like such a chore at 11 PM after a long day of work. Sometimes I wonder if these routines are designed for people who actually have time to stand in front of a mirror for thirty minutes, rather than someone like me who just wants to crash into bed.
Feeling skeptical about the ‘eating botox’ trend
Then there is the whole collagen jelly phase. Everyone on social media was calling it ‘eating botox’ for a while. I actually bought a month’s supply from a popular SNS market for about 60,000 won. I took one every single morning for exactly thirty days. Did I notice anything? Not really. My skin didn’t suddenly look like it had been lifted or plumped. If anything, I just felt slightly annoyed that I had to remember to eat a sugary jelly packet every morning before breakfast. It felt like I was trying to shortcut my way to health without actually doing the work, and the irony is that I probably would have had better results if I had just spent that money on more vegetables or just getting an extra hour of sleep. But we are all wired to believe that there is a secret product out there that will fix everything if we just click ‘buy’.
Trying to figure out what actually works
I see these headlines about ‘hyper-personalized’ aesthetic treatments, where people plan their lives around six-month injection schedules. It sounds so organized and perfect, but then I think about the sheer amount of effort required to manage that. It feels like a full-time job. I had a friend who started going to a clinic for regular lifting procedures, and she spends more time in the waiting room than she does actually doing anything productive. The cost is astronomical, too. She once mentioned she spends close to 2 million won a year just on maintenance. Is that really the goal? I find myself going back to the basics—just a simple cleanser and a moisturizer I know won’t make me break out. It is not glamorous, and it definitely won’t get me featured in a magazine, but it’s the only thing that hasn’t made me feel frustrated or broke.
The lingering doubt about being enough
Sometimes I still check my reflection under the harsh office lights and think, ‘Maybe if I just added that one extra step.’ It is a hard habit to break. We are constantly told that our skin is a project that needs constant management, and if we aren’t seeing results, we must be doing something wrong. I am still not entirely sure if I should just give up on the fancy stuff entirely or if I am just not being consistent enough. Part of me wants to believe that I can achieve that perfect glow with just a simple routine, but another part of me keeps looking at those ads for professional treatments and wondering what I am missing. For now, I think I will just stick to what I have, even if it feels a little bit like I am falling behind everyone else.