AIBU to feel overwhelmed by skincare routines becoming another pressure?

[GimmieABreakOr3]

I’m mid 30s - plastered all over my social media (Instagram & Facebook) seems to be a bombardment of 10 step skincare routines, everyone going on about what products they’re using, glass skin, Korean skincare, this serum, that serum, snail mucin, glycolic pads, salicylic pads, this moisturiser, that spf…

I just feel like it’s become another obsession for girls and women to fixate and obsess over. Do others agree?! If it’s not our weight, it’s how our pores, lines, skin texture. Enough already.

No-one is piling on.

Ditch your ageism, it’s not a good look.

Not different from my 11 year old wanting a bloody 'NeedHo'. A squishy cube, basically, that social media has made every child want, to the point the price is now ridiculous on Amazon, and it's sold out literally everywhere. My child does not even have social media, yet she's imbibed this new urgent need from her classmates who do!

It's the same bloody thing with all this skin care nonsense. The adverts and the influencers are just creating a nation of cattle who flock to the to the trough of the latest thing.

Ignore.

There's a vast beauty-industrial complex designed to keep women in a constant state of insecurity, spending thousands of pounds and a lot of energy trying to fight our natural state. We can never be done. The battle is endless.
And we all go along with it, well most of us do. You'd think we'd know better really.
Social media just feeds it, it's evil how it makes people feel.

Based on what I've read, that's not true at all.
www.physiology.org/publications/news/the-physiologist-magazine/2021/july/the-science-of-hydration?SSO=Y

It’s not ageism… I’m stating the obvious. I’m not sure how pointing out the truth is ageist here?

Tea and coffee count as fluids. The only liquid that doesn’t count is alcohol. Tea can somewhat reduce the uptake of some vitamins (but contains some other beneficial micronutrients and phytochemicals itself) and coffee is associated with lower risk of type 2 diabetes. Though there is a safe intake level for caffeine - so long as you stay within the safe intake daily they’re perfectly valid fluids and not dehydrating.

Thanks for this, I’ll have a read.

Well if you’re not hydrated you’re dehydrated and you can end up with kidney failure and then death so I’d say there’s some science backing up hydration as key to looking and feeling healthy.

If you don't want to do it, then don't! A lot of people enjoy it, me included.

If you can splash your face with water a good sunscreen in the morning, then wash your face at night and use a basic moisturiser, you'll get 90% of the benefits of people with fancy multi-step routines. It's cheap as chips too.

Sunscreen really does most of the heavy lifting.

No, those who dont conform look much better, natural and authentic. I think the opposite of you, the more hair, nails, eyebrows, lashes and botox, the worse they look. It's so fake and unnatural.
Good skin/personal care can be simple but very effective, and all the above OTT.

In the sense that if we get seriously dehydrated we die, yes. But in these temperate islands, by and large, drinking when you're thirsty is sufficient and you don't need to give it any thought at all. That's really what I meant.

You’re not making logical sense. Surely you understand social media algorithms?

you look it finds more in that topic and puts it on your feed, you keep looking it keeps adding more. That’s why you’re social media feed is full of it, ss you keep looking.

mine isn’t full of thst, snd I do have a skin care regime. But I don’t look at it. So it’s an obsession driven by your own, and only your own,

I enjoy my lotions and potions.
Do I look younger? No! But it's a bit of me time and I have fun with it.
If you don't,.don't engage! Nothing to worry about!

Your title literally says you feel pressured

AIBU to feel overwhelmed by skincare routines becoming another pressure?

Someone having different interests to you doesn't make it 'obsessional'. It simply means they enjoy skincare/beauty and like to experiment with products. Not sure why that's a probem for you.

If you're 'OK not to follow such a routine', why do you feel 'overwhelmed', as you call it in your thread title?

Essentially, you're just judging other people for liking something different to you and daring to talk about it.

Don't get sucked in to the nonsense, soap and water and a moisturiser , i never bother taking my makeup off, smoke, am 55 and barely a wrinkle, the only think I've done is stay our of the sun all my life, I can't stand hot weather

My skin care routine is to wash my face in the morning with a hydrating cleansing balm, then apply spf 30 moisturising day cream. I don’t wear make up and do nothing at all to my face at night. I’m 65 and my skin looks good for my age.

If you actually read my previous posts, you will see that it was an AI generated title.

There is also a difference between liking and enjoying something and being obsessional. I created this thread as a talking point of the skincare trend that I feel has become a point of fixation for many women and wanted to discuss it. So far, the majority of posts are “ignore it then” or “change your algorithm” - that is not the point of my thread. Apologies if the title is somewhat misleading. I would like to post some examples, but I’m not sure how to do it without exposing my Instagram username.

For me, I feel it’s a recent phenomenon to be so heavily focused on “tweakments” and skincare in this way. However, I also understand that this kinda marketing has been around for years in various other forms.

It was more of a discussion thread… maybe I shouldn’t have posted on AIBU. I wanted to explore the aesthetics pressure that women experience and how (I feel) it is currently being reflected by ordinary women and girls (not always influencers) in 2026 on social media… It was something I observed.

I don’t only look at this stuff, I also have lots of other random things pop up in my algorithm :)