I gave up on the complicated ten-step routine after a week

Getting lost in the bathroom shelves

I used to think that having clear skin was just about how much money you threw at it. My bathroom shelf was honestly becoming a problem. I had bottles upon bottles of toners, essences, and those specific serums that were supposed to do ‘magic’ for my pores. It got to the point where I was spending almost twenty minutes every single night trying to figure out which cream was meant to go on first. Was it the water-based one or the oil-based one? I remember reading somewhere that you should go from thinnest to thickest, but honestly, by the time I was halfway through, I just wanted to go to sleep. It felt like I was working a second shift, not cleaning my face.

The price of buying into the hype

Last month, I calculated how much I’d spent on these ‘performance’ skincare sets. Between a couple of high-end moisturizers that cost me about 60,000 won each and some specialized exfoliating scrub that promised to shrink my pores in a week, I realized I had dropped over 200,000 won in one go. The reality is, my skin didn’t look particularly ‘glass-like’ or whatever the current trend calls it. It just looked greasy. I saw a news piece about a brand called Hist launching a new line that focuses on minimizing these steps, and part of me felt a bit stupid for buying into the idea that more layers equal better skin. Sometimes I wonder if these companies just want us to buy more products for the sake of having a fuller cabinet.

Trying to simplify the chaos

I decided to cut it all down. I stopped using the three different types of creams and just went back to a basic cleanser and one reliable moisturizer. It’s strange, but my face actually feels less irritated now. There was this one night when I was so tired I just used a basic, cheap lotion I got for 15,000 won at a convenience store, and honestly? My skin felt fine the next morning. Maybe I was just over-processing everything. My friends still talk about these intensive glutathione supplements or specialized pore-targeting gels, and I catch myself looking at them, wondering if I’m missing out. But then I remember the struggle of scraping off layers of product at 2 AM.

Why I still feel uncertain

Even now, when I walk past a cosmetics store, I feel a weird urge to buy something new. It’s like a habit. I don’t really know if my current ‘lazy’ routine is actually better or if I’m just neglecting my skin in a way that will show up later when I’m older. People say you need to be consistent, but nobody talks about the frustration of the actual daily labor. I see these videos of celebrities talking about their ‘secret’ routines that take forever, and part of me thinks it’s just a performance. It’s hard to tell what’s actually necessary and what’s just marketing trying to occupy my time and my wallet. I’m sticking to my simplified routine for now, but I still check the mirror way too often, wondering if that one extra serum I threw away was the secret to something I’m just not seeing yet.