If you'd prefer to listen instead of read, here's a link to the podcast episode on Spotify:
SOME NUANCE REQUIRED, Ep. 4: I Don't Believe in Skincare
That title is a bit clickbait-y. Stay with me.
Obviously I believe skin exists. I believe products can help. I believe ingredients matter. I own a skincare brand. I am not confused about that.
What I do not believe in is skincare as it is commonly sold to women now: an endless project of correction, obsession, layering, fear, and dependency.
That version of skincare? No, I do not believe in it.
The Modern Skincare Fantasy
Modern skincare is often presented as if the skin is an unstable, isolated surface that must be constantly managed.
You are told to monitor it, diagnose it, exfoliate it, strip it, flood it, correct it, stimulate it, rotate acids, cycle retinoids, protect it from everything, and purchase a specialized solution for every shift in weather, mood, age, pore, patch, and pigment.
It is exhausting.
And more than that, it is psychologically corrosive.
Because underneath all of it is the message that your face is a problem to manage.
Not a living part of you.
Not a responsive organ.
Not something that reflects a deeper system.
A problem.
And once you accept that frame, there is no end to what can be sold to you.
I Think We Are Training People to Dissociate
A lot of skincare culture does not actually teach people how to care for their skin. It teaches them how to fixate on it.
That is different.
It trains people to stand too close to the mirror (been there done that). To analyze every texture change. To panic over every fine line. To notice themselves in fragments. To look for flaws before they look for health.
That is not care.
That is surveillance. Helicopter-parenting your face. Surely we have better/other things to focus on?
And I think many women know exactly what I mean. You can feel when your relationship with your skin has tipped from supportive to adversarial. You can feel when your routine is no longer about nourishment and has become a ritual of low-grade self-rejection.
That is one of the reasons I recoil from the whole industry, even while participating in a piece of it. Because I think a lot of what gets sold as care is actually insecurity with nicer packaging.
Skin Is Not Separate From the Rest of You
One of the biggest lies in skincare is that the face can be dealt with in isolation.
As if your skin is just sitting there, unaffected by sleep, stress, food, hormones, light, temperature, nervous system state, or overall metabolic health.
It is absurd when you say it plainly.
Of course the skin is connected to the rest of you.
Of course it responds to how you live.
Of course no serum in the world can fully override a body that is under-slept, inflamed, overprocessed, undernourished, overstimulated, or generally out of rhythm.
That does not mean topical products are useless. It means they belong in the right place.
Supportive, not central. Helpful, not sovereign.
The More Products, the More Fragile People Seem to Feel
This is another thing I have noticed.
For all the explosion in products, information, and routines, people do not seem calmer about their skin. They seem more anxious.
More products, more confusion.
More steps, more sensitivity.
More ingredients, more second-guessing.
More intervention, more vigilance.
That is not progress.
If your “skincare journey” has made you more fearful of sunlight, more dependent on constant products, more self-conscious, and less able to understand your own skin without outside instruction, then I am not convinced you have been helped.
I think you have been captured.
What I Actually Believe In
I believe in skin health.
That is a different thing.
I believe in a body that works better when supported properly. I believe in nourishment. I believe in barrier support. I believe in ingredients that make sense. I believe in less but better. I believe in rhythms that reduce inflammation instead of constantly reacting to it.
I believe in not making people need twelve products when one or two good ones would do.
I believe in whole, recognizable inputs where possible.
I believe in skin that looks alive, not “perfect.”
And I believe that calm, resilient, well-supported skin is usually a reflection of something broader than a good bathroom shelf.
Why I Started FATSKN
This is honestly part of why FATSKN exists.
Not because I wanted to add more noise to skincare, but because I wanted to cut through some of it.
A simple, nourishing product can be a relief in a market that profits from confusion. A tallow balm that actually supports the skin barrier can be a much saner offering than a ten-step routine built around disruption and correction. A product can say, in effect: maybe your skin does not need to be attacked into submission.
Maybe it needs support.
That is a very different philosophy.
And I think people can feel the difference when a product is built from that place.
The Ritual Piece Matters Too
Now, this is where I want to be careful, because I do understand that skincare is not always about outcomes in the obvious sense.
Sometimes it is ritual. Sometimes it is quiet. Sometimes it is how a woman comes back to herself for five minutes at the end of a day that belonged to everyone else.
I respect that.
But even there, I think we need better language.
Because if what you want is ritual, then say ritual. Say comfort. Say nervous system support. Say touch. Say pause. Say beauty. Say softness.
Do not pretend you need nine chemical interventions in order to justify having a moment to yourself.
There are gentler, truer ways to frame that need.
A Better Relationship With the Mirror
I think one of the most radical things a person can do now is spend less time scrutinizing their own face.
Not neglectfully. Not in a collapsed way. Just less compulsively.
Less magnification.
Less inspection.
Less fixing.
Less chasing.
There is something healthy about allowing your skin to be part of your life instead of a full-time project. Something healthy about seeing your face in normal light, at a normal distance, in the context of an actual day.
That shift alone can change the emotional tone of “skincare” more than any product ever could.
I Don’t Believe in Endless Maintenance
At the deepest level, what I reject is the idea that women should spend their lives maintaining themselves into acceptability.
That we should always be treating, improving, preserving, preventing, correcting, tightening, brightening, and refining as if simply being alive in a female body is a condition requiring constant management.
I do not believe in that.
I think it steals attention from better things.
From family.
From work.
From health.
From sunlight.
From reading.
From conversation.
From building a real life.
And ironically, the women I know who feel the most beautiful are usually the least trapped in self-monitoring.
So What Do I Believe In?
I believe in simple products that actually help.
I believe in letting skin be connected to the body.
I believe in thinking about light, food, sleep, stress, and rhythm before assuming the answer is more topical intervention.
I believe in supportive rituals that do not require self-criticism.
I believe in healthy skin, not obsessive skincare.
And that is why I say I do not believe in skincare.
Because what most people mean by skincare now is not really care at all.
It is a consumer identity built around dissatisfaction.
And I think we can do better than that.
xo Caitlin