Glowing Skin For the Super Lazy

With most things in life, you have to put in the work to see results. You can’t eat Twizzlers at four p.m. every day and expect to lose weight. This is tiresome and unfair.

Dermalogica Age Smart Skin Resurfacing Cleanser, $63, dermalogica.ca, is made for anyone who finds multi-step skincare routines needlessly complex and time-consuming. Made with easily-tolerated lactic acid (the greatest exfoliant for older skin because it also moisturizes) Dermalogica’s Age Smart Resurfacing Cleanser is a two-for-one hero.

Use it as a regular daily cleanser (no more than once a day) but then twice a week turn it into a mask. Massage it in and instead of immediately rinsing it off, leave it on for a minute (start slowly) and then rinse and note how the gentle-but-mighty lactic acid handily lifts off dead skin cells, speeding their turnover and leaving your skin noticeably smoother and glowing. And just like that, you’ve just given yourself a fuss-free exfoliating mask.

Follow up with Dermalogica’s Biolumin-C Vitamin C Gel moisturizer, $89, Sephora.com, for even more brightening (gràce à vitamin C) and you will have just done good things for your skin with practically no effort. And don’t forget to use sunscreen afterwards to protect your newly peeled skin. You wouldn’t want sun damage to ruin all that effort.

Charlotte Tilbury Multi-Miracle Glow Cleansing Balm: Necessity or Luxury?

Charlotte Tilbury Multi-Miracle Glow Cleansing Balm, Photo: Janine Falcon

My friend Sydney, who is juggling all the usual stuff (a life, a family, a house with all its expensive moving parts) recently asked if I knew of a cheaper substitute for her beloved Charlotte Tilbury Multi-Miracle Glow Cleansing Balm, $70. She thought she should be spending less on a cleanser, even though she is completely devoted to this one. “The fragrance is heavenly, so that’s a huge draw for me,” she says, “and the texture is so luxe that even smearing it on feels lovely.” She also uses it as mask, applying it thickly before “sitting in the bath for 15 minutes.”

After a few minutes of fruitlessly trying to think of an equally rich and scented dupe, I realized that because we all live under a cloud of uncertainty, now is not the time to jettison something that unfailingly makes you happy once a day. Are pleasures so thick on the ground that you can afford to lose even one? No, they are not and no, you shouldn’t.

Food writer Nigella Lawson likes to say “I am extravagant but never wasteful,” which I take to mean as ‘squeeze every last bit of enjoyment out of your pricey treats, but make sure they are incredibly high quality treats and carefully chosen.’

Even if you are in an ok place financially but especially if you’re not, it’s always a good exercise to audit your monthly expenses with a metaphoric red pencil and cut out anything excessive. (I need to seriously drill down on having so many streaming services.) It’s easier to keep a death-grip on your expenses — hello, buying household staples at No Frllls instead of Loblaws — if your reward is guilt-free enjoyment of a happy-making and very fancy skin cleanser.

And if you also use Charlotte Tilbury Multi-Miracle Cleansing Balm as a mask, then you’re getting two products for the price of one. That’s like getting it for half price. Right?