Senior Audrey Svoboda believes skincare is a must, not a liability.

Every day, morning and afternoon, Audrey does her skincare routine, ensuring that she has a healthy, glowing face.

“When the sun is out you have to take care of your skin because the sun is dangerous,” Audrey explained. “You don’t know how important sunscreen is until you get to a certain age. [Even though sunburns] aren’t that important now, they are going to show later in life if you’re not prepping your skin well enough. You don’t want those wrinkles and lines on your face when you are older.”

To prevent any damage or wrinkles, Audrey washes her face with the CeraVe face wash then uses a Cetaphil moisturizer in the morning. In the afternoon, she uses The Ordinary Niacinamide serum after using the same facial cleanser from the morning. To finish off her routine, Audrey applies a dicyanamide serum and Differin Adapalene gel, an acne treatment, to her face. 

As the well-being of skin and skincare as a whole have become a necessity and a hobby throughout this past year—especially with teenagers—Audrey found herself getting involved with it over the summer, learning new tips and tricks on social media.

One of the most popular skincare brands on social media now is CeraVe, which is spoken very highly about by Hyram, a skincare expert, who shares his knowledge through YouTube and TikTok. Audrey feels the same way as Hyram and all of his followers about this brand being the best, saying that it is her favorite skincare product. 

“It’s very gentle and makes your skin feel clean and not irritated,” Audrey said.

Audrey isn’t a skincare fanatic because it is “trendy,” and she genuinely cares to avoid irritation and rashes. She does it for her own well-being, her skin, and the way it makes her feel refreshed and complete after executing her routine.

Just like Audrey, senior Abigail Cool is also into skincare for similar reasons. The complexity of Abigail’s skincare routine began to grow around the seventh grade when she started to notice her acne was becoming harder to handle.

“[My acne] wasn’t super bad [at the time],” Abigail said, “[but] it was pretty consistent, and going into high school I was like, ‘Oh shoot.’ I didn’t really know how to do makeup, so my main goal [was] just to clear up my acne.”

Starting a good skincare routine was very important to Abigail during this time. She only washes her face at nighttime because her skin tends to be quite dry, and she has experimented with products from Glossier bu now consistently uses the Equate Beauty Hydrating cleanser, describing as “off-brand Cetaphil.” To end her routine, Abigail uses the CeraVe retinol cream.

With all of these products, Abigail went on Accutane for around six months beginning in the summer of 2019 to get a better hold of her acne. Accutane is a vitamin A derivative used to treat acne with harsh side effects ranging from dry skin to joint pain.

As Abigail does a lot of sports, naturally, those six months were not the most pleasurable for her, and the chapped lips did not help.

“It’s kind of a scary medication because you go through a purge in the first two months,” She recounted. “I started it during the summer, and [the acne] gets really bad before it gets better. It [basically] just purges all of the junk in your face.”

Abigail’s Accutane treatment ended in January of this year. She said that her acne does come back every once in a while, but it has never been as bad as it was before starting the treatment.

But not everyone at FHC knows what they are doing when it comes to skincare. Some people, like freshman Zack Race, have a simple routine and not too much knowledge when it comes to the topic of skincare.

Zack’s skincare regimen consists of two factors: warm water and soap. He starts by wetting his face with the warm water and follows that up with his soap. He lets it sit on the surface of his face for a few seconds before washing it off. 

“[I don’t know] a lot [about skincare],” Zack explained. “I just like to do it to [do] the best [for] my face. [My acne has] been pretty bad, so I’m trying to do it more often right now.”

The soap that Zack uses is actually Rodan & Fields Spotless Moisturizer, which he didn’t realize until his sister pointed it out to him. However, he is planning on getting Proactiv in the future to address his acne concerns.

And while Zack may not be the most well-versed in skincare, he is doing the most he can to take care of his skin. Expert or not, that’s all teenagers want, and for some, it is even a relaxing, important part of their day.

“[I like skincare because of] the way that it makes my [face] feel clean,” Audrey said. “I feel refreshed in the morning, and I feel refreshed when I go to bed. It’s just that last step that makes me feel complete.”