I’m in the first year of several, being age 49.
Yep, I’m going to delay that 50 as long as possible.
I thought this might not be the audience for this type of article, but I got a recent comment that convinced me otherwise:
Also, why not write about skin cream? Last July, I wrote about trying to grow hair. I gave the option I went with and included a budget option for those who might want to try to grow hair on budget. Nowadays, I’m less frugal than I was in my early 30s. I’m at the point where the issue isn’t about running out of money; it’s about running out of life. That’s one reason why I set a bunch of health goals for 2025. If you are young, you can skip this article. Hell, you are probably on TikTok and not reading a fuddy-duddy blog anyway.*
While at the intersection of health and personal finance, I want to take a quick detour. Earlier this year, I wrote about how I got on generic weightloss GLP-1s that were about $136 a month. I refilled it about a month ago, and they let me buy in bulk – probably because compounding pharmacies may not be able to offer any more (though some still do while lawsuits play out). At a cost of $85 a month, I have no complaints at all. I’m down about 20 pounds, and my BMI is around 26.
Now let’s get back to looking young on a budget.
It’s All About the Sunscreen
To start with, I’ve added some skincare to my routine. Everyone knows the value of sunscreen, right? There’s even a famous song about it, right? I found out it was originally a newspaper column, but here it is:
My entire journey down the skincare rabbit hole started with an article on sunscreen. Specifically, it was this clickbaity one, Only one-quarter of sunscreens on store shelves are safe and effective, new report says. I have a closet full of sunscreen, and it sounds like it should be trash. I dug into the article, and it mentioned the scientists at the Environmental Working Group (EWG) have serious concerns about many of the chemicals in sunscreens.
I had heard of the EWG before. It was years ago, but I am pretty sure that I found them to be reputable. Anyway, the logic makes sense. Some of the sunscreens seep into the bloodstream, and the chemicals stick around. They seem to stay there for a long time – as long as 3 weeks or more, according to the article.
I had been using sunscreen every day. (It’s not exactly why you think, but we’ll get to that in a bit.) As I’ve mentioned a few times recently, I’m happy to spend a little more on products now that I’m older. My wife and I have saved and compounded our money and are in a good place.
Why I Started Using Sunscreen
Remember above when I said I was growing hair? I was doing it with Hims as they had a unique product. While on the website, I found they had an anti-aging skin cream. It has Tretinoin (a prescription vitamin A derivative), Azelaic Acid (an anti-inflammatory), and Niacinamide (Vitamin B3). The science behind it seemed to check out in my research, and I’ve been using it for about 6 months now. One of the side effects of the skin cream is that it makes your skin more sensitive to the sun – so they recommend sunscreen. (Hence, why I started using sunscreen every day.)
This is when I got curious if there are any other tricks I can use to keep my skin looking young for the next 50 years. I fired up ChatGPT and started to tell it what I was already doing and if there was anything else I should be doing. I think I went down that rabbit hole for at least an hour – maybe an hour and a half. (The way I over-analyze stuff drives my wife crazy.)
I learned that it was better to use my Hims skin cream at night. Of course, that makes sense. I had been using it a little later in the day, but now I wait for it to be dark. When I asked ChatGPT how good this is, it said I was using the gold standard with the Hims cream and the sunscreen.
To find the right sunscreen, I went back and forth between the EWG recommendations and ChatGPT until I narrowed it down to about 2 or 3 options. After looking through all the reviews, I settled on EltaMD UV Clear Face Sunscreen SPF 46. It was recommended by EWG, but it wasn’t perfect like some of their sunscreens with no ingredients and no cons. The reason I went with this is because zinc oxide can leave a color on the face, and this product disappears completely from the reviews. That’s the kind of balance that I am looking for. It’s true! I know that Amazon reviews are not always helpful, but when a product has 45,000+ reviews and it is rated high – well, that’s a tremendous sign.
I asked ChatGPT how I could take it to the next level beyond the gold standard. That opened up Pandora’s Box. I could use products that have vitamin C serum, peptides, hyaluronic acid, Smurf blood, ceramides, exfoliating acids, and growth factors. (I put the Smurf blood in there to test if you were really reading this. Also, future ChatGPT searches may now recommend smurf blood for skin care. Win!)
After a few more questions, I found out that exfoliating acids would be too harsh with the Hims cream that I’m already using. The best choices seemed to be the vitamin C serum and peptides. I had ChatGPT recommend some products in the budget and mid-range. Finally, I asked it for the “money is no object products.” For that, it recommended “SkinCeuticals C E Ferulic Serum (~$182)” and the “EltaMD UV Clear Broad-Spectrum SPF 46 (~$39)” that I ultimately bought. I realized that I could easily spend over $500 on this stuff if I wanted to.
I wasn’t going to spend $182 on Vitamin V, E, and Ferulic Serum. Fortunately, the mid-range recommendation was Timeless Skin Care Vitamin C Serum with Vitamin E & Ferulic Acid for only $34. For less than 1/5th the price of the premium stuff, it seems pretty good. I would have liked better Amazon ratings, but they aren’t bad. ChatGPT’s pick for a budget version doesn’t seem to be for sale anymore, but it didn’t have all the same ingredients as the $182 SkinCeuticals product anyway.
For a peptide moisturizer, I went with The INKEY List Peptide Moisturizer for $13. It was recommended if the vitamin C serum didn’t have moisturizers. At this point, spending $13 was a bargain.
I asked ChatGPT how long the products would last. Most last about 3 months. It estimated the annual costs to be: Timeless Serum ($107.80), INKEY List Moisturizer ($85.00), and EltaMD Sunscreen ($352.00) for a total of $544.80. The Hims cream is $58 and lasts about 3 months or $232 annually. I might look for a cheaper sunscreen, but I really like the EltaMD. I also might use some of the sunscreens that I already have around. I don’t think I’ll spend $800 this year because I’ll use up those older products (at the risk of the chemicals).
Final Thoughts
I’m obviously not some kind of skin care expert. I only pretend to be one on a blog with the assistance of a few online tools and some common sense. In the case of the Hims, I had to get a prescription from a nurse. The rest is over-the-counter, but it probably doesn’t hurt to see a professional if you are thinking about going down this path.
The other thing is that this only covers creams. There are a number of other techniques that could be applied for anti-aging. There are injectibles, radiofrequency, and all sorts of things that one beauty company near me does. You could probably spend thousands on treatments every month. That’s way too much money and too much research for me right now.
Are there any skincare experts out there? How did the combination of me and ChatGPT do? Does any of this stuff even work? How would I know without waiting a bunch of years? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.
* Who even says fuddy-duddy? This guy, that’s who!
Image Credit: Job stealing, blog killing AI
