why a good daily skincare routine matters

water splashed on model as part of good daily skincare routine

A good daily skincare routine really matters.

I got my first breakout at 13. A happy kid instantly became a badly depressed teenager. Maybe my acne wasn’t so terrible, but it was worse than my friends, and that devastated my confidence. I tried to tell myself no one cared, but to this day, I remember an older boy yelling, “go home and wash your f****ing face!”

Thanks for that tip bruh. I wish I had thought of that.

In reality, I was obsessively scrubbing and exfoliating (and picking, yikes!). But I was also pouring myself into the search for a cure. There were many soaps and potions but drugstore half-measures were never enough. Teenage acne is genetic and notoriously tough to treat and that hard problem set me on a life-long path of obsession with the science of good skin.

A pimply blessing in disguise

Treating my cratered complexion meant pouring over clinical studies, and of course, endless self-experimentation. All that has been immensely valuable and forms the basis of this site, but in the end, the most important thing I learned was simply that looking good is feeling good. When I finally cracked the code to fighting acne (a controversial subject for another post) suddenly the clouds lifted and a depressed teenager got back to enjoying life.

The semiotics of a good skincare routine matter

Problems with your skin, from acne to aging, are not some superficial concern. Bad skin is like a wall between you and the world. For what are likely deep evolutionary reasons, your skin is a massive part of any first impression. Are you virile and vibrant, or speckled and splotchy? The skin is the body’s biggest organ and the most obvious sign of good health. If your skin glows, so do you, and everyone will notice. That’s why a reliably good daily skincare routine matters.

The confidence that comes with good skin health — and good hair health, which is related — are hard to overstate. And fortunately, it’s also very much in your control. Unlike other notoriously hard-to-hack measures of attractiveness (height, weight, bone structure) healthy and radiant skin is absolutely achievable and there is lots of research that has shown the best way to great skin with a science-based daily skincare routine.

That’s why I started this site — to share with others what I’ve learned.