The beauty industry will have you believe that the most marketed product du jour will solve all of your skin care woes. Better yet, combining three or four (or more) of a company’s (promoted) products to emulate the current influencer skincare routine will leave you ever flawless.  Season after season, year after year, new products with new promises flood the market. If you feel like you’re no closer to your skin care goals than when Sea Breeze was a thing, you’re not alone.

Jennifer Christie has been dealing with ‘skincare resistance’ for more than 25 years. She’s heard it all, from clients claiming that some new amazing product is the answer to all their problems, to the argument that some special gene from some ancient ancestor rendered a client’s skin unresponsive to anything but the products that said client is attached to.

“The reality is that most women and men don’t really know what it means to choose the correct skin care products, so they leave it up to big name chain stores to sell them.” Christie is no stranger to comparisons between some popular product currently being pushed by ‘influencers’ and a clinical product that might not look as flashy, but works twice as well. “It seems like they are seeing it backwards.” She says. “What I’ve learned is that people will believe a sales person at a large chain store or an influencer, over an actual skin care professional.” So she let’s the client say their piece, and then does her best to redirect their attention to ingredients or products that are actually proven and effective.

“As a professional, it’s my responsibility to properly diagnose and prescribe the most effective products.” And that diagnosis is specifically based on the client’s needs. Christie does not believe in ‘one size fits all’ skin care, which is why she finds influential recommendations so concerning. A company’s primary objective is to sell as many units of any given product as possible. So in addition to product recommendations, there are also recommendations that a person use all of the things in any given company line. This can lead to skin care issues that might easily be solved by skipping a bunch of complicated steps in the quest for perfect skin. For Christie, a precisely targeted, effective, and understandable regimen with only the necessary products goes a long way to healing and maintaining any skin type. “A skin care routine doesn’t have to be fancy, expensive, or complicated.” Christie says. “It doesn’t have to take an unreasonable amount of time. It just has to work.”