Radical proposal: What if you left your face alone?

We're all probably doing too much skincare.

Here’s a startling idea: You’re likely using too many products on your face. You could get rid of nearly all of them and save money, time and mental bandwidth.

A core principle of design I learned from the tech world is that good design has nothing extraneous. In elegant design, everything serves an essential function. I consider a well-designed house machine to be similar: nothing extraneous. I’m therefore always interested in rooting out the unnecessary and enjoying the simple elegance of a more efficient home. As always, I share my discoveries here for consideration, not as a mandate.

After my last treatise about why you don’t really need to buy kids toys, I feel like I’m on a bit of a rant roll about unnecessary purchases. Me right now:

So buckle up for another category of stuff you don’t really need to buy.

Here’s how I got here: I read the book Beyond Soap about 5 years ago. The author, a dermatologist, deconstructs what is going on with the skin problems and sensitivities that land people in her office. In most cases, she says, the problem is all the products people use on their skin. Stop using the products, and usually the problem clears up.

Score! My favorite kind of advice is the advice to do less.

She goes through all the reasons why modern skincare is generally overkill, and shares recommendations for the few science-backed products that actually help skin (there are only a few).