There used to be at time when I didn’t feel at ease unless I had backups of all the skincare that I had. I would feel a tinge of anxiety if I used up a product completely, and I didn’t have at least one tube of it waiting in the wings
Face wash backup? Check.
Serum backup? Check.
Sheet mask backup? Check.
And so on and so on for basically everything that I deemed ABSOLUTELY necessary – which, let’s be real, was basically every step in my entire routine.
But lately, I’ve found it’s a complete and total hassle to keep up with my backups, so I’ve stopped buying them – and guess what?
I’ve never been happier with my skincare routine.
I’ve also switched to a mostly one out-one in method (basically, only buying replacements) and I find that my attitude to skincare is overall way better and way more positive, instead of always anxious about “having enough.” I do buy new things sometimes, but mainly out of curiosity. I won’t deny that I buy new things from time to time, but they’re typically things I don’t already have. For example, I would literally never buy a new cleanser because I already have a really great first cleanser and second cleanser, but I would try something new like a Face Mist or a new Sleeping Pack. But even then – I’m not as drawn to new products as I used to be.
Something that I found really helped me ease into this was completely avoiding any online shopping. I stopped shopping online for a bunch of reasons, but the main one was that in a way, I was deliberately making it hard for myself to access skincare. If I decided that I fell in love with a serum that was only in stock once a month and took three weeks to get to me from Korea, I felt more compelled to buy multiples of it, just to make sure that I had enough in my personal stash.
So why else don’t I buy backups anymore?
1. It makes skincare too expensive
It’s just too easy of a trap to fall into – you really really like a product, and decide that you absolutely MUST have it accessible to you at all times, in the form of multiple tubes of it. When I shopped like this, you would think I was doomsday prepping with all of my skincare.
I get it, you really like this product, but if you know it’s always going to be available at this certain place or store – do you really need to buy an extra two every time? It all adds up, and I realized buying doubles all the time was making my skincare routine very, very expensive.
2. It’s practically hoarding behaviour.
When it comes to 99% of your skincare routine, you KNOW that you will always be able to get it, wherever you get it from. C’mon, don’t lie – it’s 2010, you can literally order anything you want with just a few taps on your phone. Hello, instant gratification!
These days, if something is hard to get ahold of, I literally don’t bother (I’m looking at you, su:m37 Rose Cleansing stick. Remember all the rumours about it being discontinued?)
To this day, I have no idea if it actually is discontinued, but to be honest – I don’t care.
Feeling like something is exclusive or scarce because it’s ‘hard’ to buy is what fed that annoying, anxious feeling whenever I actually finished anything – and the thing is, when it comes to skincare, feeling anxious about NOT having something just isn’t necessary and is honestly one of the last emotions that I want to associate with it. No more FOMO!
3. It’s wasteful.
There was a time when I had SO many backups of cleanser, that a few of them expired before I even got the chance to crack them open. Major waste of both my money AND everything that went into making them. I felt guilty for weeks! To be honest, seeing like 30+ different products in a single shelfie makes me feel awkward and slightly anxious – when you purchase a product, you’re directly responsible for that packaging into recycling or landfill, if you don’t reuse it. This is the feeling I get when I shop and as a result I really don’t buy anything that I don’t need!
I just feel like it’s a really simple equation – if you can consume less, than you waste less. I also was feeling a greater appreciation for the products that I had, because I know that I chose them for how well they work for me. It’s like that spark-joy thing in the KonMari method!
So, there you have it – the three reasons why I don’t have backups/multiples. I get that it’s a really big change and not necessarily something that a lot of people would do, but it works for me!
Did you notice any habits of yours change last year? Let me know in the comments!
A xx
