The beauty editor conundrum
Sunday, July 10th, 2005
The beauty editor conundrumAs a beauty editor, in addition to the aforementioned blowouts and manicures and pedicures (for research, of course), you also get boatloads of products thrown at you. To the uninitiated, magic little bags arriving at your office everyday stuffed with conditioner and moisturizer and lip gloss might seem like the coolest thing in the world. But after only a few months, it gets really, really old. (I promise.) I still love getting to try the newest beauty products before anybody else, but once you’ve sampled literally everything on the market, you can’t help but play favorites. And slowly but surely, you resent having to put aside your beloved-and-oh-so-efficacious creams to test the new blah, or the new whatever, or the new I don’t really care.Okay, sure, I’ll forgo the Phytodefrisant for a morning to see if this new anti-frizz gel works as well. Nope? Not as good? Tomorrow, back to my Phyto. (Or—let’s be real—in four days. You don’t think I actually wash my hair everyday, do you?) But when it comes to moisturizers and serums and cleansers, that’s when I dig my heels in. The whole idea of a skincare regimen is to get your skin into a therapeutic routine, and give the products enough time to really start working. But how can you give a routine a fighting chance when you have fifteen other serums and tonics and potions lined up on your bathroom sink, begging, “Pick me! Try me! Write about me!”?You could just stick to the same old routine, of course, forgoing research in the name of a pretty complexion. You could spend every day of every year using a different product, until your skin is raw and confused—but you’re, like, a total expert. Or you could perform the insane science project (a little of the old favorite, a little of the new, a little more of the new) that is my daily skincare experience, applying layer after layer of various product in a mad desire to try them all until your poor skin is beaten into submission—yet still glowing!It’s a tough job, but somebody’s got to do it.
The beauty editor conundrum
