My Skincare Rule of 3

Just wanted to put in a quick reminder that I am not a professional of any kind, and I am just sharing what I do and what has worked for me - it is so important to realize that what works for me may not work for everyone universally.

What is my "Skincare Rule of 3"?

The main idea of my skincare rule of 3 is to use at most 3 of each type of skincare product each month. This means I generally only use 2-3 of each of: cleansers, toners/exfoliants, serums, moisturizers, night creams, eye creams, SPFs, etc., and swap in new products that I want to use every month or so. Basically, my monthly skincare rotation consists of only a handful of products that I use super consistently.

Why do I do it?

1. It saves money!

As many of us probably know, skincare can be SO expensive and it is incredibly easy to fall into the temptation of new, shiny, Tiktok-famous skincare products. Controlling how many different products I use every month makes me think twice about whether or not I actually need a new product and ensures that I get the most out of all the skincare products I already have on hand.

2. Reduces waste

Though it might sound silly, using products consistently does wonders for making sure they actually get used. Like I mentioned, it's so easy to be lured into buying all the newly-released skincare products from our favourite brands, and having a more fixed monthly rotation of products helps make sure no products get forgotten on the back of our shelves and expire before we can really get into them.

3. Consistency is GREAT for the skin

In my time of following my "Skincare Rule of 3", I've noticed that my skin has been loving how I use a select few products consistently. Sometimes I find using products super on-and-off causes my skin to freak out a little since so many different things are getting thrown at it. I find that the monthly rotations are great because every month I can still switch out different products and ingredients, and during the month, my skin can really get the results from the products on rotation.

4. It's much easier to see what's working and what's not

Sort of related to the consistency of my routine when following my "Skincare Rule of 3", having a fixed set of products I use every month makes it much easier to see results and also see what might cause problems for my skin. Using different products every day can make it super difficult to narrow down what's causing a breakout or what's giving us perfect, glowing, skin, whereas having a structured routine that's consistent means it can only be a select few products making our skin behave the way it is. I also find that when rotating in new products, having this month-long rotation makes it really easy to see how the new ingredients/products are impacting my skin.

5. Less stress when picking out skincare products every day

Honestly, when there are 10 different cleansers, serums, moisturizers, night creams, the whole shebang, looking at you from your skincare shelf while you try to pick out different products to use every night can be kind of stressful and overwhelming. What products work with each other? Which ones might react badly together? To me, I didn't want to have to go through that every day (though I know some people really enjoy the process of picking out their products for the day). It's really important to still have some variation to your routine from day to day, especially when there are certain ingredients you want and need, but don't want to use on a daily basis (looking at exfoliants, and different active ingredients especially) which is why 2-3 products of each type of skincare product is sort of the sweet spot.

How did I develop this ideology?

Well, point #5 in the above section was a huge motivator for me. There are so many different essential skincare ingredients, and huge charts and tables out on the internet mapping out which ones can be used with which, and which have to be avoided when using a particular ingredient. It can be overwhelming! So every month, I started picking out different products that I made sure could be used together (at least ingredient-wise) and that I could make a consistent routine out of, and it sort of just evolved into this overarching idea of only using a select few products every month. What I've really liked is that I feel like I've gotten to know a lot of my products a lot better in terms of how much my skin likes it, and how often I can use each product to get the most out of it. For example, taking the Farmacy 10% Niacinamide Night Mask (which I just reviewed on my blog!) - I've found using it 2-3 times a week is really the sweet spot for me and my skin.

Should you do it?

I will always recommend people try it out. In my opinion, there really isn't any downside to it, unless you are someone who really enjoys the process of using different products every single night and use as many different products as possible. I totally get it, it can be fun! But I think it's worth trying out, and you can really bail out any time. Again though, I want to reiterate that while this method really works for me, it may not work for everyone. We all have unique and different skin, and that's fine!

As always, check me out on Instagram at @TOblushandbeauty, and let me know if you have any comments or questions about this post or really anything, through email, IG DMs, or by commenting on this blog post!

- J <3