My morning routine shifted when I stopped buying everything at once

Buying too many things at the Olive Young sale

I remember walking into the Olive Young near my office last month. It was that time of the month when everything was on sale, and I suddenly felt like my entire skincare routine was wrong. I spent about 65,000 won on a few new items, including a bottle of lotion that promised to fix my uneven skin texture and some organic cotton pads that were supposedly ‘gentle’ for my sensitive areas. I don’t know why I keep doing this. I have a shelf at home already overflowing with half-used tubes of acne cream and random toners. There’s a specific spot on my face, near the jawline, that keeps breaking out, and I thought maybe if I just swapped the brand of my daily lotion, it would miraculously clear up.

The reality of trying new skincare products

When I actually started using the new products, the experience was less than smooth. The organic cotton pads I bought were actually quite rough. They feel like sandpaper if you don’t soak them enough in toner, which just seems counterintuitive. I found myself using twice as much toner as I usually do just to make the cotton pad feel tolerable on my skin. It’s an annoying extra step that adds about three minutes to my morning routine. I kept thinking about whether the ‘clean beauty’ label really meant anything or if I was just paying extra for the packaging. Sometimes I miss the simplicity of just washing my face and using whatever my mom left in the bathroom cabinet.

Dealing with unexpected skin reactions

There was this one point last week when I tried to use a new capsule serum I picked up. It was supposed to be the key to getting that ‘makeup-ready’ glow, but instead, it just felt sticky for hours. I tried to apply my foundation over it, and it just pilled immediately. I ended up having to wash my face all over again and start from scratch, which made me late for a meeting by fifteen minutes. It’s funny how a product designed to make things easier ended up causing such a delay. I’m still not entirely sure if my skin is actually better, or if I’ve just conditioned myself to believe that a more complicated routine is a better one.

Comparing high-end and drugstore options

I’ve tried comparing the expensive stuff I bought on a whim against the basic drugstore acne creams I’ve used for years. Honestly, the results are almost identical. I sometimes find myself looking at those ‘professional expert courses’ for cosmetics and wondering if learning the chemistry behind it would help me stop wasting money. But then I realize that even the people who make these products are probably just as confused as I am when they go shopping. I’m still using that lotion, but I’ve stopped using the capsule serum entirely. It’s just sitting there on my desk, looking expensive and useless. Maybe I’ll give it to a friend, or maybe it’ll just stay there until it expires. I don’t feel like I’ve reached any great conclusion about what works for me yet. I’m still just buying things and hoping for the best, which is probably not the most efficient way to treat my skin.