Every morning, many of us perform a little ritual without giving it much thought.
We wash our face. Apply a serum. Add a moisturizer. Perhaps an eye cream. And then, hopefully, sunscreen.
But have you ever stopped to wonder what is actually inside all those beautiful little bottles sitting on your bathroom counter?
Our skin is an extraordinary organ. It protects us from the outside world, helps regulate temperature, participates in immune defense, and constantly repairs and renews itself. Yet ironically, while we carefully consider what we put into our bodies, we often pay much less attention to what we put onto them.
From a functional medicine perspective, I think both deserve our attention.
This doesn’t mean we need to become afraid of every unfamiliar word on a cosmetic label. Nor does “natural” automatically mean safe. Instead, I prefer a more sensible philosophy: choose thoughtfully formulated products, minimize unnecessary exposures when reasonable, and use ingredients that support rather than unnecessarily challenge our skin.
There is another issue we rarely discuss: our skin care products don’t live forever.
That lovely cream you’ve been saving for special occasions? The serum hiding in the back of your cabinet? The moisturizer that has survived three bathroom renovations?
It may be time to say goodbye.
Unlike medications, many cosmetics are not required to carry an expiration date. Over time, however, ingredients and preservatives can degrade. Products can separate, change consistency, develop an unusual odor, and potentially become contaminated with bacteria or fungi—particularly after repeated opening, exposure to fingers, moisture, heat, and air.
Sometimes healthy skin care isn’t about adding another product. It’s about knowing when to throw one away.
I encourage my patients to periodically perform a little “bathroom cabinet checkup“: Look at what you’re using. Read the labels. Check expiration dates when available and the little open-jar symbol that tells you how many months a product is intended to last after opening. And if something has changed in smell, color, or texture, don’t become sentimental about it.
Your skin deserves better than a five-year-old moisturizer.
Of course, beautiful skin doesn’t come from a bottle alone. Nutrition, hydration, sleep, hormones, stress, sun protection, movement, and overall health all contribute to how our skin looks and ages.
Skin care should complement those foundations—not replace them.
Many of my patients ask which skin care products I feel comfortable recommending. To make that process easier, I’ve created a carefully curated SKIN CARE collection with products that align with my functional approach to healthy living. If you’re looking for a place to begin, I invite you to explore it HERE! Once you have logged into the Fullscript, just look for ‘Svetlana Kogan, M.D. Collections‘ and scroll to find ‘SKIN CARE‘.
