Open your bathroom cabinet. Go ahead, I'll wait.
Count the bottles. The tubes. The half-empty containers of products you bought with high hopes and abandoned after two weeks. Now grab your phone's calculator—let's do some math that might make you wince.
The Hidden Arithmetic of Beauty Routines
Sarah from Portland sent me a photo of her skincare collection last month. Twelve products lined up like skincare soldiers: cleanser, toner, essence, serum, eye cream, moisturizer, night cream, face oil, spot treatment, exfoliant, mask, and SPF. Her routine took 20 minutes every morning and 25 at night.
"I spent $347 on this routine," she wrote. "And my skin still feels tight and looks dull."
Sound familiar?
Most people following the conventional skincare playbook—the kind pushed by drugstore brands like Cetaphil and Neutrogena—end up with cabinets full of mediocrity. Each product does one tiny job, poorly, requiring you to buy more products to fill the gaps.
Here's the breakdown of a typical "complete" skincare routine:
- Cleanser: $12-25
- Toner: $15-30
- Serum (you'll need at least 3): $20-40 each
- Eye cream: $25-50
- Day moisturizer: $18-35
- Night moisturizer: $20-40
- Face oil: $25-60
- SPF: $15-35
- Weekly treatments: $20-50
Total: $300-500+
And that's conservative. Premium drugstore and mid-tier brands push that number even higher.
The Concentration Question
But here's what the beauty industry doesn't want you to know: most of those products are 60-80% water. You're paying premium prices for diluted actives that barely penetrate your skin barrier.
Water makes products cheap to manufacture and easy to preserve. It also makes them weak.
Our Everything Oil contains zero water. Every drop is concentrated plant nutrients that actually work. While you're layering on multiple watery products hoping something sticks, five drops of our oil delivers what your skin actually needs.
What Our Customers Really Say
Three months after Sarah switched to À La Glow's Calm Duo ($120), she sent another photo. This time, just two products sat on her bathroom counter.
"My skin feels so much more alive," she wrote. "There's this internal glow now—like my skin is healthier from the inside out. And I'm saving $200+ every few months."
That internal glow isn't marketing speak. It's what happens when you stop overwhelming your skin with synthetic fillers and start feeding it concentrated nutrition. Customers tell us their skin looks more radiant, feels more resilient, and actually improves over time instead of just masking problems.
Time is Money (And Sanity)
Let's talk about the hidden cost nobody calculates: time.
Twenty minutes twice daily adds up to 243 hours per year standing in your bathroom, layering products like a human parfait. That's more than six full work weeks.
Sarah's new routine? Three minutes, twice daily. That's 36 hours annually—a difference of 207 hours she gets back for things that actually matter.
The True Cost of Compromise
When you buy skincare from companies that prioritize shelf stability over skin results, you're not just wasting money on individual products. You're investing in a system designed to keep you buying.
Drugstore brands need you to believe that skin problems require multiple solutions. Oily skin? Buy this cleanser, this toner, and this mattifying lotion. Dry skin? Here's a hydrating cleanser, a hydrating serum, and a hydrating cream. Aging skin? Time to add three more products to your collection.
It's exhausting. And expensive. And it doesn't work.
The À La Glow Math
Our approach is different. Radical, even.
Instead of selling you problems that require solutions, we created solutions that prevent problems. Our Everything Oils and Serum Bars work together to rebuild your skin barrier—the foundation of healthy skin.
Defy or Calm Duo: $120
- Replaces 6-10+ products
- Lasts 3-4 months with daily use
- Zero water, maximum potency
- Ethically sourced, small-batch fresh
Compare that to replacing a typical routine every 2-3 months at $300+. You save $180+ every quarter, plus 200+ hours annually.
Over one year, that's $720+ in savings and weeks of your life back.
The Investment vs. Expense Mindset
Here's the shift that changes everything: stop thinking about skincare as an expense and start seeing it as an investment.
Expensive skincare isn't about the price tag—it's about the cost per result. A $120 routine that actually works is infinitely cheaper than a $300 routine that leaves you searching for more products.
When customers switch to À La Glow, they don't just save money. They save time, cabinet space, and the mental energy of wondering if their routine is actually working.
Your Skincare Intervention
Ready for your own cabinet intervention? Here's your assignment:
- Calculate what you spent on skincare in the last six months
- Honestly assess if your skin looks better than it did six months ago
- Count how many minutes your routine takes daily
- Ask yourself: is this sustainable?
If the answers make you cringe, you're ready for a different approach.
Our Mini Duo Trial Kits ($53) let you test the À La Glow difference without committing to cabinet overhaul. Use them for two weeks alongside your current routine, then start eliminating products you don't need.
Most customers realize within days that they've been overcomplicating something that should be simple.
The Bottom Line
Your skin doesn't need a dozen products. It needs the right products.
Quality over quantity isn't just better for your skin—it's better for your wallet, your schedule, and your sanity.
Stop funding the skincare industrial complex that profits from your confusion. Start investing in products that actually deliver results.
Your skin (and your bank account) will thank you.
Ready to simplify your routine and see real results? Start with our Mini Defy Duo Trial Kits for just $53, or dive into the full experience with our Defy or Calm Duo for $120. Because your skin deserves better than drugstore mediocrity.