Do you really need to moisturise?

[FriedEggOnMyFace]

I stopped using any kind of moisturiser on my face years ago. I used to have oily skin and I found it makes my face look more greasy. Now I've started worrying though that my skin will age and get wrinkles faster. I'm reading conflicting information online about whether a moisturiser is necessary at all or of it could even cause more harm than good.

I'm 45 and my skin definitely looks dull and not that tight anymore. I tried using a night cream for a few days but it made my skin break out.

I've read that the only thing that helps with wrinkles are prescription creams with retinoid, ie vitamin A. Do I need that or which moisturiser do you recommend?

Do I need anything else? I don't wear sunscreen either. Somehow I can't imagine it's necessary in the UK (though I religiously apply it on the kids) and I work from home anyway so don't spend much time outdoors anyway during the week.

Sorry, this sounds like an idiotic question but I'm just wondering if a few years down the line I'll be kicking myself for not doing something as simple as moisturizing. Do I really need to?

@Blackandwhitemakesgrey You definitely couldn’t get away with not creaming your skin if you’re black. Not only will it look dry but it’ll feel dry and actually start to crack. Every black person I know actually has multiple creams and will rotate them when they want a change.

Vaseline is just an example I gave but I wouldn’t recommend using that for your skin as it’d make you feel quite hot. It’s also thick so like you say, it’d be quite messy when it came time to putting your clothes on etc. Most other things are fine and you don’t have to wait for it to dry or anything like that

Another black personality here. I find the idea of not moisturising so fascinating. My skin would turn to dust and slide off my body. 🤣 The aunties would stop me in the street and berate me for my ashy ankles.

OP, I strongly recommend hyaluronic acid. Great for hydration, works for almost everyone and not oily. Get some from the ordinary - it’s about £6. Apply to clean damp skin and then follow up with a cheapo moisturiser like Cerave.

Oil cleansing is surprisingly effective for oily skin (counterintuitive, I know). Have a Google of that and ‘double cleansing’.

You should be using SPF every day. Ideally as a standalone product (La Roche Posay Toleraine is great and won’t make you look like a chalky ghost). However, if you’re keen to keep products to minimum, just get a moisturiser with SPF in it. Cerave AM comes in SPF30 and will do, in a pinch.

This thread just guilted me into moisturising my body🤣 do my face every evening and finish with an oil. But often can doing body, and I usually put apricot and almond oils in my baths anyway.

I'm 54. I've never moisturizer. I don't think my skin looks noticeable different to friends of my age..

CeeChynaa I was completely unaware of that.
Do men moisturise too? And teenage boys?
Do you moisturise fully daily?

I've never seen or noticed anybody moisturising after swimming either yet they must if ordinary water dries out your skin, then chlorine must be very drying for you skin?

Yep, my ex used to make his own concoction for before nights out shea butter mixed with a bit of Vaseline he swore by it and hated if his skin looked ashy

OP if you don't like the feel of hand cream use it before bed. Every night I do foot cream and hand cream just before I go to sleep

I always moisturise face and hands, and latterly my feet particularly heels. I am a bit lazy about moisturising my body after a shower but if I don’t my legs itch. Fair skin. I use SPF in summer. It is in my foundation the rest of the year. Have to use lip balm. I also have to moisturise my ears!

I’m confident that every black person you know, regardless of age or gender, moistures every day. After swimming, one would generally shower before applying cream, as opposed to getting out and immediately moisturising.

Never ever moisturise. Am 59, think that I look around, um, 59? I do try to use an SPF though because of cancer, maybe 80% successful

Wow I am fascinated that it is so unusual to use no cream/ moisturiser, ever, for nearly 60 years, and feel 100% fine!

I’ve used Astral cream since I was 16. No doubt I’ll be ripped apart for it but it’s worked for me. You can’t hold back aging and I don’t think there’s any magical cure unless you go down the Botox and filler route.

I wash my face with a medicated soap & then use a Simple moisturiser with SPF. There are a few different Simple ones & none of the ones I've used seem to be overly greasy or make me break out in spots. They're also pretty cheap.

That's my entire daily beauty routine, but then I no longer wear make up. It seems to have worked.

I'm nearly 60 and have never moisturised. I don't have any wrinkles.
Good genes I guess.
This is not meant as a boast, I may have been blessed with the good skin gene but I most definitely missed out on the tall/slim gene. I'm 5 foot nothing, my boobs are way too big and my belly is most definitely not flat.

I've always cleaned my face with soap and water, and I never used any sort of cleansers, creams or moisturisers on my face until about three years ago when I started using neals yard wild rose beauty balm. I only started using it because my daughter had been working there and gave me a pot, and I loved the smell. Then last year I bought a beauty advent calendar out of curiosity and have used some of the products during the year. I'm almost 66 and I've hardly got any wrinkles, and my skin is really clear. It certainly didn't do me any harm not spending a fortune on expensive face creams and serums.

And I don't use any sort of moisturiser on most of my body either - just a small amount on my scars from my breast cancer surgery.

Erm yes😂 you really don’t have a choice not to cream your body. It’s not like you can go ‘I creamed on Monday and now it’s Tuesday so I won’t have to cream today.’ Teenage black boys and men use cream too.

So people wouldn’t come out of the swimming pool and put cream on, they’d shower first and then apply cream. If they don’t use the shower at the pool then they may go home and use the shower there (I know that’s what my auntie does, 5min walk to her house). Then they’d use cream after they showered at home.

Trust me, every black person has to use cream😆

That's not so unusual! The only time I've ever needed to moisturise my body skin was when I was pregnant, and my skin suddenly became like a husk. I do occasionally use body cream on my legs after shaving, and I use it to smell nice for special occasions, but generally I don't need it.

My face skin loves a hylauronic serum but then I just use a light moisturiser, as anything too heavy will break me out. I mostly use a light gel Avene one.

OP, you can get mattifying SFP, would that work? I don't use SPF as often as I should because they all give me spots, but when I do I don't use moisturiser on top.

Yes, off the shelf skincare will make a surface level difference. Skin will look more hydrated, less flaky, and may even make it look brighter. If you want something with active ingredients it needs to be prescribed - and at our age it's this stuff that will make the real difference.

Of course you don't have to moisturise unless there's a particular medical reason. My son uses emollients because of his eczema, I get cracked and bleeding heels if I don't use urea containing creams on my feet.

For most people (particularly women) they moisturise because of social pressure / cultural reasons. While there are some on this thread who will moisturise every part of their body there will be more who (e.g.) don't moisturise their back, or some other part of their body, or moisturise nothing at all. None of those options are right or wrong. And as for SPF, you can prevent sun damage in other ways like wearing a wide brimmed hat and other skin covering clothing or staying in the shade or not sunbathing. You do need to get some Vit D during the summer though.

If you don't like the feel of moisturiser then don't use it. If your skin feels dull then don't smoke, cut down on your drinking, get enough sleep, eat plenty of fruit and veg and do regular exercise. All will have more impact on your skin looking dull than using moisturiser.
If you do like using moisturiser then keep using it.

I use it to stop the slight tightness after washing off my make up at night (I use Dove soap)
In the morning I mix it in with a drop of foundation, or fake tan. Mainly to dilute any make up, as it's too thick for me (and very cost effective 🤓)

I don't use a special face moisturiser, it's Aveeno dry skin relief in a large tube (with the blue writing)
Works fine, with zero sensitivity or greasiness.

I put cream on my feet (every day) way more often than I moisturiser my face! (Very rarely) 🤣

I think that moisturising daily definitely pays off. I feel that using a high SPF sun cream on the face and hands is even more important, I do this every day of the year, even in the UK and have done since I was 25. I’m in my mid 60s and the skin on my face is still relatively youthful with little sagging and no wrinkles. It may be genetic as my mother and grandmother were the same, but it can’t do any harm to use SPF and to moisturise. What has affected my skin the most is undoubtedly the menopause, I’ve never wanted HRT so am doing what I can in terms of moisturiser and SPF.

Ooh I'm so into my retinol, hydrochloric acid and vitamin A and it's made my skin so lush

I'm never without a ginormous tub!

My skin is horrendously dry. I spray my face with water and then use some type of serum - currently using the mucin one as I got it as a gift. Then a bit more water and I use embryolisse of a day time and Nivea blue tin cream at night. If my skin is particularly husky I seal it all in with vaseline.
On my body I try and use cerave when I get out the shower but I can forget to do my body sometimes.