Alright, let’s talk about this “Gen Z skincare” thing. I kept seeing it pop up everywhere, mostly online. You see these kids, their skin looks ridiculously perfect, like it’s filtered in real life. And they’re talking about routines, ingredients, all this stuff. Honestly, at first, I just scrolled past. Seemed like too much work, too many steps, or sometimes, weirdly, too simple? It was hard to pin down.
But curiosity got the better of me. I thought, okay, what are they actually doing? So, I started looking into it more. Fell down a few video rabbit holes one evening. One person’s using like, 10 different serums. The next one is just washing their face and using sunscreen. It felt kinda chaotic, like whiplash trying to figure out the “rules”.
My First Attempt: Trying to Decode It
I decided to just jump in. I saw a lot about specific ingredients – niacinamide this, hyaluronic acid that. Stuff I’d heard of, but it seemed like Gen Z were really obsessed with the ingredient list. So, I went out and bought a couple of things that kept getting mentioned.
- A simple, gentle cleanser. Okay, that seemed reasonable.
- A niacinamide serum. Everyone swore by it for everything.
- A basic moisturizer.
- Sunscreen. This was maybe the one constant I saw – they are serious about SPF.
So I started using this stuff. Morning and night. Wash face, put on the serum, moisturize. Sunscreen in the morning. It wasn’t wildly different from what I was doing before, just maybe focusing more on that one serum.
Did It Work? Well…
Honestly? It was fine. My skin didn’t magically transform into flawless glass overnight. Shocker, right? The niacinamide maybe helped a bit with redness? It’s hard to say definitively. My skin felt pretty much… the same. Maybe a little more hydrated some days.
Then I saw other trends. Like “slugging”. Putting petroleum jelly all over your face at night. I tried it. Once. Felt disgusting, like my face couldn’t breathe. Woke up feeling like an oil slick. Hard pass on that one for me. Seemed like something that might work if your skin is drier than the Sahara, but not for me.
There was also a phase where everyone seemed obsessed with exfoliating acids. Using them every single day. I tried incorporating one a bit more often than I used to, and my skin just got irritated. Red, a bit sensitive. So I backed off pretty quickly. It made me realize, maybe my skin just can’t handle what a 19-year-old’s skin can. Or maybe it’s just my specific skin type.
What I Learned and What I Do Now
After dipping my toes into the Gen Z skincare world, I kind of ended up back where I started, but with a few tweaks.
The biggest takeaway? Consistency matters more than having 50 trendy products. Using a simple routine, day in and day out, seems to do more good than constantly switching things up to chase the latest viral ingredient.
I kept the gentle cleanser and the sunscreen habit – those are just good practice, really. I still use a moisturizer. Sometimes I’ll use a serum, but I’m not religious about it, and I stick to ingredients I know my skin tolerates. I definitely don’t follow any trend that involves layering tons of products or using harsh stuff daily.
It feels like a lot of the Gen Z skincare phenomenon is driven by fast trends and marketing. Which is fine, but it’s easy to get caught up and buy things you don’t need or that won’t work for you. I realized I’d rather just stick to what works for my skin, even if it’s not the ‘cool’ new thing. My face, my rules, you know? It’s less stress, less money spent, and my skin seems happier for it.
