6 Reasons to Drop Your Excessive Skincare Habits

Do you wash your face five times a day? Layer on retinol and exfoliating serums like peanut butter on bread? Have a skincare cabinet consisting of 20+ products?

As the saying goes, more isn’t always better. In fact, sometimes applying too many skincare products can be pretty damaging to the skin, causing adverse effects such as dryness, irritation, and blemishes.

There’s nothing wrong with indulging in various lotions and potions, but you need to watch out for signs that you might be overdoing it with your skincare routine. Here are six reasons to drop your excessive skincare habits today, and enjoy better skin because of it.

#1: You’re Irritating the Heck Out Of Your Skin

You don’t have to have sensitive skin to experience irritation from skincare products. While sensitive and dry skin types are most prone to irritation, all skin types can experience redness, dryness, and flaking if they’re using the wrong product or too many products. This is especially true if you’re overdoing it with active ingredients like retinol and exfoliating acids. As fantastic as these are for sloughing away dead skin cells, stimulating collagen and elastin production, and spurring cellular turnover, they are potent ingredients. That means you need to use them in small doses, and infrequently, to prevent unwanted side effects such as redness and irritation.

Do your skincare products leave skin red, dry, and stinging? It could be that you’re using too many of these actives in your daily routine. Or that you’re using too high a concentration of them. Less is definitely more when it comes to the likes of retinol, glycolic acid, and salicylic acid.

#2: It’s Bad for the Environment

It’s not just the skin your habits impact, but the planet too. These 12-step routines are creating so much plastic waste — and it’s having catastrophic consequences for the environment. If you want to lead a clean and kind life, try to limit your routine to just a few daily steps. You really don’t need a dozen products and steps to get healthy skin. That’s possible with just a handful of products.

#3: You’re Doing Dry Skin Zero Favors

A skincare routine with so many steps and so many actives can be detrimental for dry skin. Let’s say your daily routine consists of a cleanser, toner, scrub, moisturizer, and a slew of serums, that’s a lot of ingredients that could be drying out your skin. You might think you need several daily serums — perhaps a vitamin C serum for brightening, a retinol serum for anti-aging, a salicylic acid serum for acne, and a hyaluronic acid for hydration. You don’t need all of them.

If you’ve got dry skin, all you need is a gentle cleanser, hydrating serum or face cream, and a broad-spectrum sunscreen with SPF 30 or higher. That’s three products! You can obviously add in an additional serum — like a hydrating or antioxidant-rich formula — but don’t go OTT with the actives.

#4: You’ll Save a Ton of $$$

Those dozen step skincare routines don’t come cheap. If you’re using numerous products per day, your monthly skincare bill is sure to rack up fast. You’ll save a ton of money just by streamlining your skincare regimen to 3, 4, or 5 products per day. You also don’t need to apply lots of product. Many people make the mistake of layering their serums and lotions on thick. There’s no need!

Especially with serums, the active ingredients inside can only penetrate so deep. Applying more won’t make them work any harder.

#5: You Might Be Making Breakouts Worse

A bad skincare habit you might not realize you have is over-applying creams and lotions. Especially if you have oily skin or acne-prone skin, applying too much or too many creams can clog pores and lead to blackheads and whiteheads.

If you’re pimple-prone, applying too many spot treatments can also make your skin issues worse. That’s because these formulas are typically drying and potentially irritating, causing skin to produce excess sebum, resulting in further breakouts. Go steady on the skincare products and stick to gentle formulas to prevent making your blemishes worse.

#6: A Simple Skincare Routine is Enough

Taking care of your skin doesn’t need to mean following a dozen step skincare routine or spending a fortune on several luxury serums and creams. All you really need for optimum skin health is a daily gentle cleanser, serum, moisturizer, and sunscreen. That’s four products, and it’s more than enough to alleviate skin problems and promote your best skin.

Sun protection should not be skipped. After all, even on cloudy days your skin is exposed to UVA and UVB rays which can contribute to premature aging (fine lines, uneven skin tone) and even skin cancer.

In addition to protecting skin against sun exposure, make sure you get enough sleep, eat plenty of vitamins, and check in with a dermatologist from time to time.

TRY THIS 2-STEP SKINCARE ROUTINE

Looking for a super streamlined routine to give your skin some much-needed R&R? Try Rainbow’s Hydrate Bundle. It features a serum and mask formulated with hydrating hyaluronic acid and nourishing vitamin B5 to seal in lasting moisture, plump out fine lines, and improve skin texture. It’s gentle enough for all skin types, and is guaranteed to leave your skin smooth, dewy, and glowing after every single use. Add in a facial massage to stimulate blood flow and get your skin beaming after these two steps.

Nowadays, there are so many new products and trends, it’s easy to wind up trying everything in a bid for flawless skin. The trouble is, your excessive skincare habits might be getting your skin in trouble. If you want to maintain clear, healthy skin, keep things simple. You should also limit the use of actives such as retinol and exfoliating acids to 2-3 times a week to prevent your skin from freaking out.