Are you wasting beauty and personal care products?
Do you know how much product is enough and how much is too much?
Your annual beauty and personal care product budget can add up. It’s especially true if you’re using the sort of high-quality professional products that give you the best results. On the flip side, low-quality products are often a waste of time and money. So, to be smart with your money, the trick is to use just enough, but not too much of the high-quality products that fix your skin problems.
I’m thrifty; I hate wasting money or time so I’m careful with my pricey professional products, and I help my dermatology patients and my readers to do the same.
Here are my guidelines for the right amount of beauty and personal care products for your skin and hair care:
How Much Sunscreen Do You Need to Apply?
Sunscreens are a “medicine” and you need to know that the sun protection you get from your sunscreen is “dose dependent.” This means that product application amount is critical for protecting your skin. The average-sized adult in a swim suit needs to use 1oz of product per application – that’s a shot glass full, or 2 tablespoons. For your head and neck application, it’s a teaspoon, but for just the face I’ve done the math and it’s about 1/3 teaspoon. If you want to know more about how to be a pro with your sunscreen application check out my post titled Apply Sunscreen and Have Healthy, Fabulous Skin Forever. Zinc oxide mineral sunscreens are more forgiving than chemical-based products because they are less easily inactivated. For my favorite trustworthy list of sunscreens click here.
How Much Moisturizer Do You Need to Apply?
For all other products, the proper amount of skin care product generally depends on product slide (how well it spreads over your skin), the size of the area you are applying product to, and the look and feel that you want to create on your skin. For moisturizers, proper application amount is about covering the skin but not using so much that you have visible or excess product that rubs off on clothing. To get products to slide better I tell my patients to take a quarter-sized amount for body or a dime-sized amount for face, put it in your hands or on your fingers, rub them together to warm, and begin to spread out the product; pat it over the area of application then rub it over and into your skin until it feels “right”. Remember, moisturizers only work if you’ve just wet your skin with water and then dried off the surface with a towel.
How Much Shampoo Should You Use?
With shampoos, proper amount of product depends on how well the product spreads over your entire scalp and how much hair you have. Some shampoos have better foaming agents and thus cover your scalp better than others. You need your shampoo to reach onto, and foam up on, your entire scalp to remove oil, scale, and old product buildup. You also should lather and rinse twice.
Photo: Thanks and Gratitude to Julija…!
Thank you so much for this post. Believe it or not, this has recently become something I think about when I do my daily skincare routine. I’ve always bought my skincare products from my local Walmart, but received a Dermalogica Age Smart Kit for my birthday from my husband. My first thought was he spent too much money on this stuff, but after beginning to use it, I realized there was a huge difference between what I had been using and the Dermalogica stuff.
Anywho, the point of my rambling is, now that I’m using the new skincare products from Dermalogica, I’m very aware of how much I use. I mean, it’s expensive to replace them, so I want to be sure I’m not wasting them. My husband says not to worry about it because I’m worth it, and honestly, I can tell a big difference between the old products and the new.
I really enjoy reading your blog. There’s a lot of great content in here. I’ll definitely be coming back now that I’ve realized the error of my skincare ways.
Dr Bailey,
What’s the point of lathering hair twice? I wash mine every day, and I think if done twice, it’ll be too stripping… Also, do you think it’s a good idea to rotate several shampoos? F.e. clarifying once a week, 2nd with cones, 3d moisturizing, 4th with protein, etc?
Could you also explain how to use moisturiser on face after Vit C? Vit C needs to go on clean and dry skin… Do I wait for a few min, then maybe spritz face with water (is Thayers alcohol free toner good for this?) and apply moisturiser?
I very much appreciate all your past responses to my questions.
Another overlooked issue, especially with teens, is the over-use of antiperspirants. Antiperspirants contain aluminum (not deoderants, but if they’re also antiperspirants they do), which has been linked to Alzheimers Disease. Studies have shown that the brains of people with Alzheimers contained more aluminum than those without it. Though they haven’t been able directly link the two, it’s definitely something to be aware of.
With washing everyday the lathering twice may be unnececessary. The purpose is to really remove the built up product and oil. One lather is often only cleans off the most superficial oil and prouduct and that second lather is necessary to really get down to the scalp skin.
In terms of applying moisturizer after vitamin C, it’s ideal to wait a few minutes to let the vitamin C product soak in and dry. No need to wet the skin as the vitamin C product will help to trap the original moisture.
Hi Cynthia, I would think that most people don’t give much thought to how much product they apply to their skin. In your first paragraph you state “the trick is to use just enough, but not too much of the high-quality products that fix your skin problems.” So my question is, are the high-quality products usually the most expensive, or do high-quality products also come in low prices?
Thanks for another great, informative article.
Andy
I appreciate your comments on using too many beauty products. I for one stopped using shampoo altogether years ago. Other than the occasional time when I’m messing in the yard or something and stuff got into my hair, the natural oils of my scalp keep my hear looking great. I think there are way too many people who over indulge on this stuff.
Hi..
Definitely a conversation worth having, but you have forgotten to mention the use of soap. Many regular soaps often contain chemicals in the form of artificial fragrance and colours. With so many toxins in our environment, do you really want to add more chemicals in the soap you use to clean yourself? Also, what about the over use of antibacterial soaps? They may kill the odd germ, but again consist of numerous chemicals.
Just my thoughts..
One option is to go totally natural. It means sacrificing pH as natural soaps are alkaline. If made carefully though excess alkali can be removed as in my natural bar soap http://www.drbaileyskincare.com/natural-bar-soap-dry-skin.shtml
So true that the amount of money spent on skin care regimes can add up extremely quick. Especially if you follow a strict daily routine consistently. I have found a good way to save a lot of money is to use natural recipes.
There are many places within a skin care regime where these recipes can fit in well, and they can be made for pennies – literally.
Thanks for the read.
Usual natural recipes for skin care are for things like facial masks and general moisturizers so those would fit in the cleansing step or the hydrating step of a complete skin care routine.