🍀 2024’s Skincare

I now have 75 photos that pull up when I search Sephora in my camera roll. That feels excessive. Moving right along! 

Before I get all marketing on you, sharing my exact EXACT ROUTINE. I am aware some of these steps are redundant. I am aware you didn’t ask for this. My acne is gone and I just needed to link you in case helpful. All of these are ingredients-forward selections. I have 3 different ingredient apps on my phone and each of these pulls up as CLEAN and safe and I’ve also stopped drinking Diet Coke so you can really trust me when I tell you about these products because I’ve become an ingredients snob even though I hate it and miss Top Ramen. 

⬇️ reminder, those aren’t affiliate links. Never ever. 

1 note – each of these links is linking out to WHERE I bought each product. This is important for the marketing advice segment LOL.

MORNING

1️⃣. Caudalie Grape Water Moisturizing Face Mist (Sephora IN-STORE PURCHASE)

2️⃣. Dr. Barbara Sturm Hyaluronic Serum (Directly on the DTC) 

3️⃣. Biossance Squalane + Vitamin C Rose Brightening and Firming Face Oil (Sephora App)

4️⃣. Biossance Squalane + Marine Algae Eye Cream for Fine Lines & Dark Circles (Sephora App)

5️⃣. Augustinus Bader The Rich Cream (Directly on the DTC) 

6️⃣. True Botanicals Skin Barrier Sun Shield SPF 30 (Credobeauty.com)

7️⃣. Summer Friday’s Lip Butter Balm for Hydration & Shine (in Vanilla Beige) (Sephora IN-STORE PURCHASE)

EVENING

1️⃣. Fresh Soy Hydrating Gentle Face Cleanser (Sephora App)

2️⃣. Biossance Squalane + Amino Aloe Gentle Pore-Minimizing Cleanser (Sephora App)

3️⃣. Biossance Squalane + 10% Lactic Acid Resurfacing Serum (only a couple times a week) (Sephora App)

4️⃣. Dr. Barbara Sturm Hyaluronic Serum (Same product as morning)

5️⃣. Biossance Squalane + Marine Algae Eye Cream for Fine Lines & Dark Circles (Sephora App)

6️⃣. Augustinus Bader The Rich Cream (Directly on the DTC) 

7️⃣. Summer Friday’s Lip Butter Balm for Hydration & Shine (Same product as morning)

MARKETING

I’m a customer. As evidenced above, I pull trig often and I shop like my face depends on it. 

Why I bought each of these products and where I bought each of these products shows how powerful marketing is – on me. I am a GULLIBLE CONSUMER. It’s humiliating! But ’tis my truth. Okay, here we go. I’m only going to go deeply into 2 of the products I bought and WHY, because you’ll see that every product has a LONG STORY. I don’t buy anything by accident. Let’s breakdown the 1st 2 things I put on my face today, and HOW I CAME TO BUY THEM. 

🧖‍♀️ 🧖‍♀️ 🧖‍♀️ 🧖‍♀️

Caudalie Grape Water Moisturizing Face Mist: Ken Eurich (an influencer that I follow and really loved in 2022) posted that a specific product (NOT THE MIST – WILL GET THERE) from Caudalie healed her skin. I remember exactly where I was. In San Francisco on a work trip with my husband. I literally watched her TikTok. Got up. Left the hotel. And walked a half mile to Sephora and bought this product and about 10 others that she recommended. INFLUENCER MARKETING WORKS ON ME MORE THAN ANYTHING. I never had purchased Caudalie until I bought this (she recommended it and that’s what I bought in San Francisco). But, because I liked the product that I tried, I then branched out on my own and bought more from the brand over the months and years. Which lead me to this Caudalie mist. 

I looked in my Sephora history, and since that visit to Sephora in 2022 (where I bought by 1st Caudalie), I’ve purchased Caudalie 8 times across 6 products. Because of a TikTok that an influencer posted about a different product from the brand, 3 years ago.

The 1st product from Caudalie that I bought at Sephora from her video (September 2022)

The 2nd time I bought Caudalie, 3 months later and also in a mini-size (because everyone wants to buy mini when trying something new). The mist lives on (I repurchase this religiously and start my day with it), thanks indirectly but actually truly directly to Ken Eurich. 

I buy the full size now, because I like it and I know it but here’s when I discovered the mist that I now use.

Dr. Barbara Sturm Hyaluronic Serum: I read about this product in 2019. I know that because I screenshotted the goop article then. I have zero recollection of that moment. Then, I screenshotted the product 9 more times throughout the years. It has always been so fancy to me. Probably because I read about it in goop LOL. I finally bought it for the 1st time in October 2024. Between the goop article and the 1st purchase, I saw the Dr. Barbara Sturm spa in London (I walked by it last year en route to The Row lol), and saw the product in many influencer skin routines that I screenshotted (pictured below). 

That’s a lot of touchpoints before 1st purchase. But, it’s $300 so it took 5 years to break me down. 

P.S. Until I tried to just search it in my phone just now, I thought the last name was STRUM. It’s STURM. 5 years in and I just found that out. I don’t catch on quickly, clearly. I worry for how many times I’ve said the name of this out loud and to others over these 5 years. I am embarrassed. 

My journey to buying Caudalie and Dr. Barbara Sturm is immeasurable.

Caudalie can’t tell that that TikTok in 2022 made me a Caudalie fan. I don’t even have TikTok anymore. Caudalie doesn’t know that I’ve yet to purchase on their DTC site even though I’m 8 products deep into the line because I can’t tell how long my path-to-repurchase is and therefore I don’t feel comfortable subscribing.

And, because I don’t feel comfortable subscribing, I’d rather get the free shipping on Sephora’s App as a Rouge customer and for those reasons, Caudalie isn’t going to win my direct business no matter how much they advertise to me in the future. 

Dr. Barbara Sturm doesn’t know I read that goop article in 2019. I didn’t know either, if that helps LOL. Dr. Barbara Sturm doesn’t know that I bought $300 serum that I can’t pronounce. Dr. Barbara Sturm does know how to make me buy directly. If I buy from Sephora and subscribe, I save 5% (same is true for all Sephora subscriptions). But, on the DTC, I can save 15% and that here means $48.75. I can’t pronounce the brand, but I’m not stupid enough to spend $50 dollars more just for the convenience of my little app. Many Sephora brands give a generous discount on their DTC. But, not many Sephora brands are $300 a bottle. So, that is their direct purchase advantage (over Caudalie where my mist is $20 at full price).

THIS IS THE REAL BUYING JOURNEY! It’s sloppy and I’m sloppy and I only showed you how my brain works for 2 of the products in my routine. It gets less and less easy to track my moves on the internet the longer the consideration period is for the product I’m buying.

It’s important to remember how YOU shop when YOU market. Different types of marketing works on different people at different times and so my main point: mix it up and don’t be fooled by 1DC or 7DC or even 28DC as the end all be all of truth. You actually have no idea how people got to you. If I were to click a Caudalie ad today, it would be because of Ken Eurich who organically posted about the brand 3 years ago. AND, YOU KNOW IT. 

There is luckily 1 universal marketing truth to every product in my routine that I think we should focus on more than attribution. YOU NEED A LOT OF 5-STAR REVIEWS (I referenced reviews on every single 1 of these purchases and according to the heat maps I study on a daily basis – most of my customers do the same).