The count
I kept the books for a family-owned furniture company for 34 years. When something doesn't add up, I count it. That's just how I'm made.
So one Saturday in January, when I couldn't close the cabinet under my bathroom sink, I took everything out and counted it on the bath mat.
Eleven. Eleven bottles, tubes and jars for my face. Two cleansers, a toner, an essence, two serums, an eye cream, a day cream, a night cream, a mask I'd used once, and something in a dropper I could not identify.
Then, because I'm me, I added up roughly what I'd spent on them. I'm not going to tell you the number. I'll just say I sat on the edge of the tub for a while afterward.
How it happened
None of it happened on purpose. A friend swore by an eye cream, so I bought it. My granddaughter, who is 16 and knows everything, told me I needed a toner. A woman at the mall gave me a sample and I liked how it smelled, so I went back for the full size.
Every new thing came with its own little instruction. Use this first. Wait two minutes. Then this. Not at the same time as that. Only at night. I'd follow the instructions for a week, then life would happen and I'd skip one, then two, then I'd just splash my face with water and go to bed feeling guilty.
I worked out that if I'd done the full routine the way all those labels said, it would have taken me about twenty five minutes a day. I have never, in my whole life, spent twenty five minutes a day on my face. I wasn't about to start at 60.
The question I asked myself
Sitting there on the tub, I asked myself the same question I used to ask about expenses at work. Which of these am I actually using, and which ones am I just paying for?
The honest answer was one cleanser and, most days, nothing else. Everything else on that mat was something I meant to use.
And meanwhile my skin was doing what skin does at 60. Drier than it used to be, especially on my cheeks and around my eyes. Lines around my mouth that showed up more when I was tired. It didn't need eleven things. It needed one thing that I would actually put on every day.
The rule
So I made a rule, the kind I used to make for the business. I could keep one cleanser and one other thing. The other thing had to meet three conditions.
It had to take less than a minute. It had to need no instructions I'd forget. And it had to be small enough to live in my purse, because the only habits I've ever kept are the ones that are right in front of me.
I threw out the expired ones, gave the unopened ones to my sister, and put nine empty or nearly empty containers in the recycling. The cabinet closed for the first time in a year.
What I kept
The thing I chose came from my granddaughter, funnily enough, the same girl who told me to buy the toner. She'd seen her friend's mother use a balm that came in a stick, like a big lip balm, and rub it straight onto her face. She said, "Grandma, it's literally one step. Even you could do it."
I bought one. It was called Vitro, a Korean balm stick. You twist it up, swipe it across your cheeks, forehead, under your eyes and around your mouth, and blend it in with your fingertips. That's it. I timed it the first morning, of course. Nineteen seconds.
I kept it on my nightstand at first, and then in my purse, and that's what made the difference. I'd put it on after my morning wash, and again in the afternoon if my face felt dry, sitting in the car at the pharmacy or waiting for my granddaughter after school.
What changed and what didn't
I want to be fair about this, because I'm a bookkeeper and I don't like inflated numbers.
What didn't change: I still have lines around my mouth. I still have crow's feet when I laugh, which is often. I didn't turn into someone else.
What changed: my skin stopped feeling tight and dry by the middle of the day. The flaky patches on my cheeks that I used to cover with powder were gone within a few weeks. The skin under my eyes looked less crepey and a bit more cushioned, especially in the afternoon, which used to be my worst time. My face looked like it had slept well, even when I hadn't.
The biggest change wasn't on my face at all. It was that I actually did it, every single day, for the first time in my life. Turns out the best routine is the one you don't skip.
Who noticed
My sister noticed first, at Easter. She said, "Your skin looks so soft," and then, suspiciously, "What are you using? Is it one of the ones you gave me?"
It wasn't. She's still working her way through my unopened toner.
My granddaughter noticed second, which I enjoyed more. She said, "See? I told you." I didn't remind her about the toner.
What I'd tell a friend
If your bathroom cabinet doesn't close, take everything out and count it. Be honest about what you actually use. Most of us are carrying a lot of good intentions in little bottles.
You don't owe anyone a ten step routine. Your skin needs what you'll really do, day after day, not what you meant to do. For me that turned out to be one small thing in my purse and nineteen seconds.
The cabinet still closes. I check.
