image via instagram @kanti.us

while product reviews are a great way to sus out which skincare products might be worth spendin’ some koin on, knowing how to determine which product will help get you the ultimate glo-up from just the label will do you good. read on for what you need to be checkin’ for.

read from top to bottom 

when building a skincare routine, you need to be sure you’re gettin’ every penny's worth out of your products. to keep your bank account from cutting you up, check for the first five ingredients of whichever skincare product you were planning on picking up. skincare ingredients are stacked from most concentrated to least concentrated. if you decide to kop a serum or an essence for a certain extract, antioxidant, or other ingredient that you’ve been eyeing and you see that it’s listed all the way at the bottom, save yourself some koin and ditch it. it won’t do you much good. on the flip side, if you see an ingredient all the way at the bottom that you aren’t that into, you can probably try out the product without a problem. just be sure to patch test it before you officially add it into your routine. 

forget about fancy labels 

don’t let these other brands play you, boo! a lot of the labels skincare companies like to use to describe their products don’t actually hold any weight. terms like “dermatologist-tested” and “clinical-grade” aren’t federally regulated. brands can use them any which way they want to without ending up in trouble, so they don’t mean much. if your skin is sensitive, try not to buy into the hype of “hypoallergenic” products. just try to avoid fragranced products and check to see whether or not a new product has ingredients you’re allergic to. if you’re a glossy gal havin’ a hard time finding products that won’t break you out , side-eye any products that promise to be “non-comedogenic” or “oil-free.” despite how sweet that might sound, there’s no test these kinds of products have to pass in order to be labeled “oil-free” or “non-comedogenic,” so they still might break you out, sis. your best bet is to run through the ingredient list to see if there are any pore-clogging ingredients in the product’s formula like heavy butters and oleic acid-based oils. 

remember to keep it fresh

before you open any new product, check to see how long it’ll last. look out for an icon of an open product tub with a number and the letter “m” next to it, somewhere on the packaging. it will tell you the amount of months you have to use the product before it goes bad. even if an old product looks fine past it’s expiration date, it probably has bacteria hiding in it which will mess up your skin barrier. while your hands should always be klean before you dive into your skin routine, all that touching you do while you run through your skincare can bring bacteria into your skincare products which will grow over time. 

as long as you stay consistent with your current routine, you shouldn’t have to worry about your products switching up on you. it’s the product junkies who really need to pay attention to this part of packaging. we wouldn’t want y’all to accidentally dip into a face mask that’s gone moldy. 🤢

keep an eye out for what's cruelty-free  

for those who’d like their skincare to be inline with their environmental lifestyle, check for a bunny logo on whichever skincare product you’d like to pick up. it’ll let you know whether or not a product is cruelty-free. even if animal testing isn’t something you normally check for, knowing whether or not a product is cruelty-free can clue you in to how gentle a skincare product might be for your skin. cruelty-free brands tend to stay away from harsh, chemical ingredients that tend to give sensitive skin types a hard time. btw, seeing a bunny on a new product’s box doesn’t mean you can skip out on patch testing.