Gifted expensive skincare I don't want or use

[FlappicusSmith]

My lovely DSis has a habit of buying me skincare as gifts. One year it was some sort of jade face roller thing. And she's always giving me pots of fancy balms and stuff like that, which I never use because I just never think to or I'm not sure what to do with them or I don't have need of them. I'm looking right now as a pot of 'everything rescue balm' for 'chapped skin' she gave me last year, but I don't get dry or chapped skin, so I never use it. My skin doesn't like anything with essential oils in it and I get on really well with a basic routine (Cerave + an SPF). My skin looks pretty good, I think!

Anyway, this year she gave me a cleanser and some sort of mask. I did try the cleanser, but my skin didn't respond well to it and I much prefer my Cerave stuff. I'd never heard of the brand so I looked it up and it's really quite £££. I feel bad that she's spending so much money on stuff I don't need or want.

I love my sister and we have a great relationship, but she's a bit weird around presents in lots of ways. Would you just keep on accepting the gifts and passing them on? Or would you say something?

I might say something like you'd developed a rash on your face and been advised to stick to simple skincare in future - ie you're talking about not buying the expensive stuff for you going forward, rather than saying the stuff already bought hadn't been wanted.

What's the brand?

Tricky.

I'm with you though. I do use a nice cleanser and a couple of serums (Vit C & Retinal) but the basis of my skincare is Cerave with spf. I've tried more expensive moisturisers and found Cerave to be the best.

One year dh bought me an expensive cream and I reacted badly to it. Could you perhaps say that you have started to react to certain items so best not to buy any more skincare as you need to properly patch test etc before you spend money. What brand is the cleanser?

The thing is, I think she knows this! I used to get rosacea and had to scale back my skincare massively and that helped a lot. We've had conversations about this!

She is probably buying you things she likes.

Give them back to her and say they don't suit you and they don't want them to go to waste.

Have a conversation about gifting. If she doesn't know you are not using them, how will she know not to buy more of this type of gift.

It's called Grown Alchemist. So not crazy expensive, but it's probably about 80 quid's worth of stuff

Due to geographical reasons I can't physically give them back to her. And I thikn just returning them saying they don't suit would be a bit blunt!

But yes, I'm sure she's buying me stuff she likes. She has a long history of this! She often buys me versions of things she has (e.g. a scarf, but in a different colour). At the same time, she is an amazing gift giver and incredibly generous. E.g. if you mention in passing once in February that you like/ need something she will remember and it will turn up as an Xmas present.

My sister gives me bits like this, they tend to be the stuff she doesn’t like from her beauty advent calendar so possibly not paying full whack for them.

Tell her, if you have rosacea then you can’t chop and change that your routine is simple and one that suits you. Let her know while you appreciate the gift they aren’t suitable for your skin. Failing that donate them to a women’s shelter and say nothing.

It's definitely not that! It's stuff she's specifically gone out and bought.

Hi OP I have a very reactive face so am super careful about what I use. When I’m gifted things I know I shouldn’t use/don’t want to use on my face I normally use them up only arms and legs rather than them being wasted. May work for you.