The Ordinary

Just affordable? Or really good affordable skin care?

Hello, friend,

I know that we’ve already discussed my skin care routine in the last year, but it really hasn’t been cutting it. And we’ll go more into how it has changed in post later on.

To frame this, it is a product review. Yes, I wanted to make a change with my skin care routine, but this is strictly a product review.

To start off, I went to The Ordinary’s website and went through their Regimen Builder quiz. You complete this by telling them your name and whether you know what your skin concerns are or don’t know. From there, they will ask you additional question to help their builder make decisions on what products you should try.

To clarify, I have done this quiz a couple different times, but on this round both my AM and PM routines are the same. This is not always going to be the case, so just be aware that you may have the same products for AM/PM use, you could have two different groups of products to use, or you could have more products in the morning and less products in either the AM or PM. It is all dependent upon your skin concerns.

My routine is based on protective maintenance, texture issues, and a lot of hydration issues my skin runs into because I have combo skin. While some areas get super oily, the rest tends to lean to being super dry. The regime provided to me uses the same products for both the AM and PM.

The routine:

- Squalane Cleanser
- Ascorbyl Tetraisopalmitate Solution 20% in Vitamin F
- 100% Plant-Derived Squalane- Skin & Hair Hydrator
- Natural Moisturizing Factors + HA Daily Moisturizer

Now I did order these straight from Ulta because your girl here wants to keep her Platinum Member status, but I also ordered directly from them because the Ascorbyl Tetraisopalmitate Solution 20% in Vitamin F is not available locally in store and has to be ordered. Understandable in a lot of cases.

First Impressions

Now, I did decide to wait until I could properly test the products so I had originally finished off my old skin care to move on to the new. To be perfectly clear I was and am still using Philosophy’s The Microdelivery Exfoliating Facial Wash at least once every week or so to give my skin a little help in shedding the dead skin.

Now I’m not used to a cleanser that will not foam up so the Squalane Cleanser was a new thing. And excited Trula thought this would function like my original skin care cleanser…. And when it didn’t foam up I was confused. Which did lead to me finally reading the box which then basically said “NO WATER NEEDED AS IT IS OIL BASED”.

Did you know that for oily skin areas it is actually better to use an oil based cleanser than to use a water based cleanser? I did not and this has drastically changed my skin.

I did quickly find out that you have to go with what works best for your skin. I might have used too much product in the beginning (especially with the moisturizer) so I quickly began testing how much of each product I needed to actually cleanse my face and keep it hydrated.

So while the first impressions were filled with confusion, they were actually really good regarding the results I was seeing in the beginning.

Present Day

One of my friends said to me “What foundation are you wearing?”

My answer was pretty simple. “I’m not.”

The look she gave me was the feeling that I have always wanted when it came to my skin. I know that there are so many contributing factors to what makes our acne flairs happen and everything else under the sun that can cause skin issues.

However, I definitely say finally having a regimen that I’m not just piece-milling together from different brands and not knowing what I’m doing has definitely paid off in the long term – especially considering I just started using this regimen in April of this year.

Now there are some adjustments that I have done in tandem with this new regimen, which I will cover in my update on my skin care routine because there is definitely a need for that before the end of this year. But for the most part, this regimen has pretty much been responsible to getting my skin to a happy place, and it has also done the same for me regarding the lack of need to wear foundation.

Final Thoughts

So we have come here to answer the question: is The Ordinary just affordable? Or is it really good affordable skin care?

In my opinion, it is 100 percent the latter. The regimen builder is absolutely amazing in helping you figure out what products that might be helpful when it comes to your skin concerns. Now I do know that some people cannot use their products due to skin sensitivity levels. It happens. I was honestly really concerned that would be my case as I have some allergies to certain skin care ingredients. Thankfully, my regimen didn’t include these products so I’m lucky to not have to worry about this.

But all in all, I feel that you’re getting your bang for your buck with these products considering how cheap they are compared to some products I have seen on the market.

And that’s it for this product review. Be watching for my second update of 2023 on my skin care routine because there’s some special products I will be calling out there that have contributed to the present day foundation-less skin confidence.

My love,