HIT SKIP

Move over 10-step routines – we’re now taking the ‘less is more approach’ when it comes to skincare

- HENA DESAI

Surveys conducted by online e-tailers over the last 2-3 years in the US have thrown up a fascinating statistic: The average woman uses around 16 beauty products each day. If that sounds like a lot, here’s what the yearly price tag of all that looks like – a whopping ₹ 2,22,800. Looks bad, doesn’t it? As a beauty journalist, I’m guilty of always having too many products on my nightstand and my face too, but now more than ever, I’m forcing myself to reassess my choices to understand if I really do need so much to take care of my skin. As the days of lockdown drag on, I’ve figured that the only bright spot in all of this is finally understanding how little we need to get by – we’ve transitioned so quickly from excess to just the essentials, and there’s no better time than now to apply this to our skincare routines too. Enter the ‘skipcare’ routine.

THE NEW NORMAL

Skincare junkies will understand when I say that I’d happily trade in my morning breakfast for an extra 10 minutes to focus on my skincare routine. After all, there’s a long list of products involved – toners, essences, serums, moisturisers, sunscreens and more – that must go onto the face before we even get to the make-up. But, I’m trading this rather laborious process for what is known as the skipcare routine – a stripped-back, no-nonsense regime consisting of efficient, multi-tasking products that cut down the steps without sacrificing the results. Funnily enough, this practice comes from Korea, the land that originally gave us the 10-step routine as a means for time-pressed millennials to fight tedious and unnecessary beauty norms.