My skin and I have been at odds since age 13. As a lifelong swimmer, continually exposed to massive doses of chlorine and sun, my skin has always been what most dermatologists refer to as “combination”– that lovely effect of both peeling off and breaking out at the same time. I burn, peel, freckle, and wrinkle like a raisin, and I have my entire life.
Even after I turned 40, an age that I whole-heartedly believed would FINALLY sort out my skin issues, I still occasionally get the breaking-out-but-also-insanely-dry episodes of my youth. After years of searching, endlessly scrolling social media, and spending god-awful amounts of money on the latest skincare and countless visits to dermatologists, I’ve finally found an affordable combination of products that make my over-40 skin the thing of legends – even for my ridiculous skin.
I never thought I’d be putting bare-faced photos of myself on the internet for the world to critique, but in the interest of science, and normalizing the pursuit of healthy skin, here we are. The myth of glass skin can, in fact, be yours, too, with these eight products.