u/FireBoi07302

Hiya y'all,

I've honestly tried establishing a good skincare routine so many times at this point and I'm exhausted. Part of that is probably that I was a pretentious nerd up through my first several years of University and "didn't care about my appearance that much in comparison to school". And since I've starting working on my perception of myself and to stop defining myself by one failing trait in the wake of Long Covid, I've honestly been too exhausted and depressed for any attempts at self-care to really stick. The other side of things is probably that I'm a bit too much of a perfectionist and tend to jump too fast between "doing basically everything" and "trying to do everything exactly perfect" and that's not compatible with my depression either.

However, my depression has begun easing up a bit with the return of the summer sun and a brief reprise from my inescapable attempts to eventually graduate from Uni, and I've been in the mood to make yet another attempt at self-care. I figured I'd try to be a little smarter with things this time, and so my current plan is to try and add products one or two at a time until I've built up the habits needed to actually sustain a full skincare routine.

I have no idea what I'm doing though tbh. I've had some help coming up with skincare routines in the past from friends, but I don't have most of those products anymore since I wasn't using them and was very confident I was never going to feel good enough to actually establish a skincare habit. The products I still have (or have acquired by recommendation / been gifted recently by friends) are pictured in the image below:

Products I've acquired in the recent past as gifts or through recommendations from friends. To the best of my knowledge, they are: (Top Left to Right) Dr. Melaxin Peel Shot Exfoliating Black Rice Ampoule, Garnier SkinActive Blackhead Eliminating Scrub with Charcoal, Neutrogena Hydro Boost Exfoliating Cleanser, Differin Adapalene Gel 0.1% Acne Treatment, CeraVe Hydrating Toner (Bottom Left to Right) CeraVe AM Facial Moisturizing Lotion SPF 50, First Aid Beauty Ultra Repair Cream, Gold Bond Plumping Collagen Body & Face Serum Lotion, CeraVe Renewing SA Cleanser, CeraVe Hydrating Cream-to-Foam Cleanser, HANYWIL Dark Spot Remover 360 Roller, Good Molecules Niacinamide Brightening Toner

With that in mind, I could really use some advice from those knowledgeable in this realm, as this is either above the knowledge levels of my IRL friends or they're feigning ignorance to avoid helping me.

1. Of the products shown above (and listed in the caption), are there any that are worth keeping / using as part of a skincare routine (either immediately or as part of my final routine)? And if so, how would I slot those into a skincare routine?
2. Other than those products, what additional products should I include for a good but manageable final skincare routine to work up to? (And again, how and when would I use them? 😬)
3. What is the minimum viable skincare routine I should start with given the above products and others I can easily acquire on a lower end uni-student budget? And in what order / groups should I add the other products as I do work up towards a full routine?

I know this is a long post, so I'm sorry if it's too long or if I missed a rule when reading through this sub's protocols... I'm just hoping that actually taking care of my skin and face literally at all will help my self confidence a bit and help me feel like anything other than a worthless failure of a girl. I feel like I should really know this stuff in my mid twenties and regret ignoring my femininity in my youth when it was more acceptable to learn and trying to catch up now is just so gosh darn overwhelming, so I really will be extremely appreciative to anyone who responds with literally any advice at all.

So yeah, thanks for making it this far ❤️