Beauty Magazines Only Make You Feel Ugly

I'd used a particular facial scrub made with natural apricot (S$7.50 from Watson's) when I was 13 and used to think that my skin was in such good condition only because I was young (natural elastins in the skin, youth still prim and in spring, age hasn't crept in, no pimples miraculously until 17 due to lack of stress etc. etc.) and gradually, through the subliminal but unfortunately persistent in-roads that beauty magazines and advertisements for expensive cosmetics have, migrated myself over to branded cosmetics and beauty products like Estee Lauder, Clinique, Lancome and Biotherm. Only to find the results surprisingly disappointing. My skin rashed to Biotherm, broke out into pimples with Clinique, greased up with Estee Lauder and had no reaction (cleanliness or otherwise) whatsoever to Lancome.

Sick of it all, I dumped my Harper's Bazaar and did the skin test. Washed my face yesterday (normal day and all) with Clinique Extra Mild Soap bar and did the toner thing to close my pores and wash off exceed invisible "dirt" on the skin. The result was that I had to use 4-5 cotton pads and cleaned my face twice over to get the cotton pad and toner liquid coming off absolutely clean. I tried the same thing again (normal day after work) after washing my face with St Ives's Invigorating Apricot Scrub (what I used to use when I was 13) and the first sweep of my face with the toner came out clean! Good grief, was that because there were scrub beads present? Somehow, the creamy texture of the scrub, coupled with the gentle, natural scrub beads just seemed so stabilizing compared to the astringent packed stuff that usually comes in today's combat-your-oil-by-sucking-it-out-with-alcohol face cleansers.

My conclusion (and this is not an ad): so often than not, it's the cheap, reliable, boring, mom's recommended type of things you find out when you were young that sticks with you best throughout your life. More so than the expensive, fluffy, pretentious schticks that ad themselves throughout your consciousness. I'd hated to come to this conclusion after 24 bloddy years of living. But the sad truth horribly - beauty magazines really do make you feel ugly.