I never moisturise or use a skin care regime

[cherriobigfella]

Am i weird? I only take my make up off with wipes too 🫣

I only recently started using serum and moisturiser at 38. It has made my skin look much nicer. I've always had pretty good skin to start with though. I often skip the night time makeup removal/moisturising if I'm too tired though and it hasn't made much difference.

There is a cream called tretinoin - it's not a 'miracle cream' but it absolutely improves skin texture, smoothness and gives a glow with consistent use over time - it does this by increasing cell turnover (which slows down as we age)and over time increasing collagen production in the skin. Unfortunately it is prescription only, so not easy to get hold of, and often causes irritation for the first few weeks when using it.

OP do whatever suits you, I love having a skincare routine and have seen a big improvement in my skin but obviously not everyone will be bothered. The only thing I would advise is to use sunscreen to protect your skin, you may not see the damage now but in our late 40's and 50's is when sun damage starts to really show.

Me neither, and I'm definitely old. Not particularly wrinkly, no idea whether or not I look my age but I don't really care. There are far more important things to think about than how I look. And with all the money I save on skin care, cosmetics etc I am able to buy lots of books and theatre tickets - result!

I never use wipes because 1) Really, really bad for the environment and 2) Unless you rinse after, you have just basically smeared most what was on your face around. Only time I would ever use wipes is say at a festival. Still feels gross though.

I always cleanse and moisturiser. Cleaning your skin properly gets rid of all the grime that leads to blackheads etc and makes your skin glow. Moisturisers and oils also massage your skin meaning less wrinkles. Spf protects from sun damage. Up to each individual obviously but I have great skin in my 50's.

I use a SPF if it's sunny but that's to stop sun damage, though I suppose it moisturises too. I use a foaming cleanser in the shower as soap gives me some dry patches, that's it. I wear mascara sometimes, but seems to disappear of its own accord.

I think I have good skin - so did my grandmother who was soap and water only.

The beauty/wellness industry exists putely to make money, and it's been incredibly successful at creating increasingly complex and expensive norms in skincare.

I've used moisturiser almost every day since I was a teen, and one with sun protection since my 20s/30s - I can't imagine what my face would look like without that, and I know a few people who have had to have skin cancers removed from their faces (mind you, I'm not in the UK and it is very easy to burn here). The last time I wore make-up was my wedding day in 1990, and then it was very, very, minimal.

Forgot to say, I have wrinkles, of course I do, but people generally think I'm a decade younger than I am!

I love those charcoal and clay masks. Make my skin feel so clean afterwards

Im completely right. People listen to big internationals advertising and fall for all their lies and hype. Same as bottled water companies have invented a need for bottled water, cosmetic companies have invented a need for a "skin care regime" and sold it to women ( not really to men, they have traditionally only targeted women with their crap)

still, I suppose the one good thing to come out of this is the tax those companies pay the government. That is beneficial in some way, I suppose

Me too, never put any muck on my face, and always taken for at least a decade younger, at often more. I'll never forget walking in to invigilate an A level exam in a school at 40, and being mistaken for a late candidate by the other invigilators, for example.

Well if you want skin that's like old sand paper by the time you are 60. Then crack on. Otherwise you will need to do some sort of skin care.

I use moisturiser , but that is it. I just use water on my face. I have never worn make up as I don't like the feel of it on my face. I am over 60 and still have very good skin and very few wrinkles. My mum is mid 80's and again never used anything on her face, including moisturiser and she has really good skin.

Skin is the largest organ in the body, it's nature's layer of protection against all the pollutants in the atmosphere, so it stands to reason that some form of cleansing routine to clean off all the grime, sweat and excess oils that naturally accumulate is a good part of daily hygiene.

Im not sucker for marketing, before anyone has a go, and I don't buy expensive heavily perfumed creams and moisurisers, Simple moisturiser is fine, however I do keep my skin clean every day and can't imagine not keeping my face and neck clean, it's like cleaning my teeth, I can't skip that either. I care less about my looks than how it makes me feel. Funnily enough the two go hand in glove and I don't look too bad.

Another hygiene reason is that eyes can become gunked up and the tear ducts get blocked if you don't clean off makeup thoroughly. I only wear a small amount of eye makeup and clean it off as soon as I get home after work (literally the first thing I do when I step through the door), because I recently suffered from blephoritis which is that unpleasant gritty feeling around the eyes, and I eliminated it by cleaning my makeup off thoroughly.

@orangeleavesinautumn I agree with you that it is sexist crap that it is always women that are targeted for simply ageing naturally, and I also hate the beauty industry for that and the damage it does to women and girls.

That said, you are incorrect about what you're saying about moisturising. Our skin is our largest organ, and is the barrier between our insides and our outsides. It's job is to basically hold us together, and to keep bacteria and viruses out. As part of that job it's integrity needs to be high. It needs to be able to regenerate itself quickly, to be able to heal tears and abrasions quickly, and to deal with oxidative stress from pollution and sun damage. It has to be able to maintain its barrier function.Only the upper layers of the epidermis actually renew frequently, and this slows down as we age.

Maintaining proper barrier function of your skin is very important to our health, and part of that for a lot of people means moisturising.
The type of moisturiser you use does have a big impact, with more expensive often not meaning better. Even just putting a thin layer of vaseline on your skin when you're damp out of the shower can help your skin, particularly on areas that are most exposed (ie your face).

This is an interesting enough paper.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5849435/

Also, and i hate to be a dick about it, but men's skin is different to women's, it's thicker and does look different to women's skin. It doesn't mean I think women should be marketed all kinds of expensive crap to be sexually appealing to men, but it is just something to note, another of the physical differences between the sexes.

I moisturise my body after a bath, my face every evening after washing it (to get the sun cream I wear during the day off). I view taking care of my skin the same way I view taking care of any other body part.

🤣🤣

This paper is from a very dubious Indonesian source, listed by a US library, which is at pains to clarify that it is recording the paper only, not endorsing it. It is largely irrelevant anyway, as it is mostly talking about medical treatment for medical problems, and is from a climate which is completely different to ours, and is basically talking about using moisturiser as an after-sun treatment

It also makes the point that the main use for "moisturisers" is for self esteem, and that the term "moisturiser" does not in fact have any meaning, is just a marketing term

I only used wipes and moisturiser until about 2 years ago (37).
On the lead up to 40 I panicked and started using a face wash instead of the wipes, the same moisturiser and a facial oil.
My skin was great before, but I just wondered if suddenly one day it wouldn't be.

@mushroomushroom Human skin has been successfully keeping germs out of the body for over 300,000 years before the invention of moisturiser and naturally generates its own oil!

Some people may find washing removes too much of the natural oil so add moisturiser to rebalance Others are fine without. If I put a bit of moisturiser on hands after gardening or on my legs after shaving that’s about how they feel and look. Moisturiser isn’t something that makes you ‘healthier’ nor is it a universal requirement.

I've used moisturiser and taken my makenup off and usually always have some makenup on minimum foundation. I enjoy the ritual. Comparative to my 2 cousins who didn't my skin is in much condition. There is 2 and 3 years between me and the 2 cousins I'm thinking about and some genes will be similar.

Meant to say I've used that since my mid teens.

One thing I rarelynuse is hand cream and honestly I can see it on my hands

I didn't until a few years ago as anything I used on my skin felt like it was stripping it

Roll on menopause and my face is now really dry and luckily I've found something that doesn't irritate me

I've used skincare since my early teens. I'm now 51 and have minimal lines. It might be good genes, but compared to some of my peers, I look a lot younger. I have dry skin, so unless I use moisturiser, it does flake and feel tight.

@PurpleParrotfish sure, but on the other hand we don't live in the same kind of world as people 300,000 years ago did.

I'm just saying there are reasons beyond vanity for moisturising if your skin needs it. I personally think there are many benefits to taking care of your skin as you would things like your teeth and joints etc. I don't dye my hair or shave or wear makeup, but I do take care of my skin by wearing sun cream and moisturising.

This was me until I hit my 30s but then I realised the wipes were terrible for the environment and I swapped to washing my face with a flannel at night and felt SO much cleaner. I now couldn't go back after feeling the difference.

I'm not convinced by expensive creams, I think a cheap moisturiser will do the same job so I just buy whatever is around the £5 mark in TKMaxx.

I'm also really lazy so my routine is rub in a cleanser, wipe off with a hot flannel then whack on some cheap moisturiser. It takes less than 60 seconds. Whether or not it's making a lot of difference I don't know but it's become part of my bedtime routine, doesn't cost a lot of money and is very quick so I'm sticking to it.

If you don't want to, that's fine. It's your face. But I'd try to get rid of the wipes from an environmental perspective.