Your skincare doesn’t need to be trendy. Instead, unglamorous staples can go a long way

Everyone has a wind-down ritual: habits or routines that help them transition out of the chaos of the day. For me, Friday evenings were centred around a seven-step skincare routine to decompress after a demanding workweek. On one such day, I was especially eager for step two: exfoliation. Surely, that new Korean AHA-BHA toner would banish the stubborn breakout dotting my left cheek, an unwelcome precursor to my period. So I cleansed my face, soaked a cotton pad with the solution and pressed it firmly against the offending area for a full minute—in hindsight, a step I should have approached with more caution. The result? A chemical burn that left me with a hard brown scab the size of a fifty-paisa coin for an entire week.

Humbled, I turned to the bottom shelf of my dresser for help. It is the unassuming home of my no-nonsense skincare staples that have served me reliably for years. Out came the Cetaphil cleansing lotion and Soframycin, a dependable duo that promises healing and comfort. Neither of them has the sleek packaging of their trendier counterparts, but they offer exactly what my inflamed skin needed: gentleness and consistency. Incidents like these are reminders of the value of ‘tried and tested products, the original stalwarts of skincare that consistently deliver without drama. While the thrill of innovation is hard to resist, there’s an unquestionable reassurance in the reliability of the already proven and familiar.

If you look up the term evolution, one definition calls it the gradual development of something. The concept holds for almost everything—how we think, what we wear, what we eat or the things that capture our fancy. My interest has always been piqued by evolution in the world of beauty. A salicylic acid under-eye roller? Sign me up. A red-light mask that combats inflammation? Irresistible. An aromatherapy body scrub that guarantees baby-soft skin? Just take my money already. But if my experiences have taught me anything, it’s that experimenting too much can be a double-edged sword. Do too much, and you risk undoing the very results you hoped to achieve. The beauty industry is a playground of constant innovation, churning out skincare, makeup and hybrids that promise to solve every woe. And thanks to social media, many of these products go viral overnight—some for their eye-catching packaging, others for their promising formulas. But not everything is worth the hype.