We totally get how you feel when you step into a beauty store full of exciting brands and tempting products that promise to solve all your skincare and beauty concerns.
Many of them have become popular holy grails for good reason, but not all beauty products are must-haves in your skincare routine. Even if you have infinite time, a huge vanity table, and good spending power, nobody likes to find out that their latest spend is a dud, especially if it came with a heavy price tag.
These are the nine beauty products that you can consider eliminating from your skincare routine, either because they’re simply not necessary, or there are other products out there that could do the same thing at a fraction of the price.
1. Day cream
OK, we get the function behind night creams – they help to prevent moisture loss from our faces, especially if you have the habit of sleeping in air-conditioning that could suck the vitality out of your skin. But day creams?
The function of a day cream is exactly the same as that of a regular facial moisturiser. The difference in prices, however, can be stark. All the other ingredients like antioxidants, vitamins, and other complexes that help your skin out? You can probably find a facial moisturiser out there that has them too.
The only day cream we could probably get behind is those that combine a lightweight moisturiser (because who wants to feel greasy in hot and humid Singapore?) with a sunscreen of at least SPF30. We never say no to saving time in our routine!
2. Eye cream
There are many causes to under-eye darkness, and unfortunately not all of them can be solved with an eye cream. If you suspect that yours are hereditary (just look at your family members), then we have bad news for you – nothing is going to make them go away. Your only hope is a good concealer that can temporarily cover them up.
But for those who suffer from under-eye darkness because the skin underneath has thinned out, a retinol-based eye cream may actually work, as retinol helps to thicken the skin underneath your eyes, which will then reduce the appearance of darkness.
However, most eye creams out there don’t actually contain any retinol. What they do is to give your under-eye area an added boost of moisture, which may only have short-term effects. Your eyes aren’t going to look that much different the next morning.
Furthermore, if you want to moisturise your under eyes, you can do so with a good moisturiser or a night cream. Go for fragrance-free types if you’re worried about sensitivity.
3. Lip primer
Lip primers are products that are meant to extend the wear of your favourite lip colour by providing it with a surface on which to cling on to. Unfortunately, they’re not exactly the most necessary thing in your makeup routine.
Want to make your lipstick last all day? Opt instead for this method: apply a fragrance-free, colourless lip balm, let it sit while you do the rest of your makeup, blot it off with tissue paper. Get a lip liner the shade closest to your natural lips and apply that along the edges of your mouth before colouring it in on the rest of your lips. Apply your lipstick as per normal, and watch it go.
4. Brow setting gel
Not too long ago, when thin brows were the height of fashion, the only brow products on the market were just your regular pencils or pots. Now with the advent of the glorious bushy brow, the beauty industry has risen to the challenge with brow mascaras, brow primers, brow pomades, and brow setting gels.
While we get why brow mascaras and primers may exist, pomades and setting gels just seem to be a little unnecessary. If your brows aren’t luxuriant enough to require extra help staying in place, you absolutely don’t need these products. If you are blessed with glorious brows, regularly trimming and shaping them will not only make it easier for you to do your brows on a daily basis.
5. Lip scrubs
We’re not saying you don’t need to exfoliate your lips – we’ve constantly said that flaky, dry lips aren’t cute, and sometimes all that dead skin needs an extra push to remove. Lip scrubs are actually functional, but all we’re saying is that you don’t need an expensive one.
There are tons of recipes out there that teach you how to make your very own DIY lip scrub with ingredients you can find in your kitchen. Most commercial lip scrubs are basically just different flavoured lip balms with grittier bits mixed in anyway.
6. Cuticle cream
Most hand creams can already do what cuticle creams are meant for: moisturise your nail cuticles and prevent them from flaking. Cuticle oils and creams generally contain very similar ingredients to your regular hand cream, so there isn’t really a need to get a separate product for that purpose.
If you find that your cuticles are exasperatingly dry and require more intense help than just your regular hand creams, try using petroleum jelly on them. You’ll have to reapply them regularly, especially after you visit the washroom – nothing is going to withstand the soap from a hand wash, after all.
DV Tip: If you’re struggling with eczema on your hands, use fragrance-free everything, but especially for all your hand creams.
7. Split end treatments
Split ends can be caused by many, many reasons: combing or detangling your hair too vigorously, blow-drying or styling your hair with heat tools too much, getting chemical treatments on your hair too often (this includes bleaching, dyeing, and highlighting), towel-drying your hair, or simply just exposing your hair too much to the sun.
When your hair is stressed by all the above activities, it becomes brittle and split. You can possibly prevent them if you religiously use hair oil, but a much better way of prevention is simply to moderate the amount of stress you’re giving your hair. Split end treatments that claim to prevent them from happening are basically just glorified hair oils – you can probably substitute them with a more affordable drugstore version.
For those split end treatments that claim to solve split ends? Spoiler alert: the only real way to get rid of existing split ends is to cut them off. Go for a regular hair trim every two to three months at least!
8. Hand/foot/neck/body creams
We know, we were just saying that cuticle creams are exactly the same as hand creams just two points ago, but hear us out. It’s not that hand, foot, and body creams aren’t necessary – it’s just that they pretty much achieve the same function as any regular moisturising creams.
Your face needs some extra TLC, so using a facial moisturiser specific for that area makes sense. Everywhere else on your body? It’s pretty much fair game. It all boils down to your personal preference in texture.
Another advantage of getting a multi-purpose moisturising cream? They usually come in huge tubs at very, very affordable prices. Aside from saving your wallet, you also save yourself the headache of having to apply and re-apply multiple products every day, and also the headache of finding these products to re-purchase when you’ve run out.
9. Cellulite cream
Source: Medical News Today
We know that cellulite are usually seen as the bane of everyone’s lives, and that could lead us to splurge on treatments to get rid of that unsightly texture. Let’s hold up a second and think about what cellulite really is.
According to WebMD, cellulite is just regular fat found underneath your skin, and by “fat”, we mean that in the most healthy way. Fat tissues, like those found under the skin layer, are necessary for a healthy body to function, and can be found whatever your BMI.
When fat tissues pushes against the connective tissues underneath, it causes the skin to have a lumpy appearance. Unfortunately, because of how connective tissue is differently distributed between men and women, cellulite occurs more frequently with ladies. Since every one has fat tissues underneath their skin, you can have cellulite no matter what your weight.
The only way you can technically get rid of cellulite is by getting rid of the fats themselves. Procedures like cryotherapy, liposuction, and other fat-removing therapies may help in reducing the appearance of cellulite, but a topical cream applied externally over the skin is unlikely to make much of a long-term difference.
Of course, all of the products that we’ve listed in our article are subjective. Perhaps you’ve found an eye cream that really made a world of difference to you, or you can’t live without that particular hair treatment in your life. Let us know in the comments below whether you agree with this article, and if not, share with us what game-changing products you’ve found!
