Do Skincare Products and Treatments Actually Work?

With two decades of beauty journalism under my belt, I’ve become a bit of an aesthetics buff over the years. I’m fluent in fillers and facelifts. I watch O.R. footage of plastic surgery procedures in the school pickup line (guilty pleasure!). Yet it takes just four little words to send my mind reeling: Does it really work? Whether inquiring about a buzzy skincare product or the latest cosmetic procedure, curious friends pose the question expecting a definitive yes or a no. Unfortunately, it is not that simple. The bottom line is that determining if something works—to a discernible degree, reliably and predictably, for you versus me—is not so clear-cut. What makes it even more complicated: In the age of social media sound bites and celebrity influence, facts are easily muddled by marketing, leaving people perplexed or expecting a miracle. So how do you navigate these complexities to decide what’s worth your time and money? I turned to a few of my favorite, tell-it-like-it-is experts. Keep their tenets in mind as you consider the next viral potion or trending treatment.

There are plenty of things that work for most people

Noticed your skin is feeling a bit parched after a night sleeping in an air-conditioned room? A moisturizer with glycerin will likely help draw in hydration. Dealing with a dull complexion? A swipe of glycolic acid is exceptionally good at ungluing clingy old skin cells. Cursing over a random zit that popped up? A hydrocolloid acne patch should dry out a pimple effectively. In other words. there are many beauty ingredients that have proven to be effective when it comes to addressing common complexion concerns.

But what about when you’re looking for a bigger transformation? Say you want to tackle serious bags under your eyes. An eye cream can only do so much. It may hydrate or pep up the sensitive skin under there, but it’s not going to give you the under eyes of a teenager. For more drastic results, you’ll want to consult with a dermatologist or a plastic surgeon. Be honest about the changes you’re hoping to see and ask them what their options are for getting there. “Discussing with your doctor the degree to which something quote-unquote works is especially important,” says Jessica Weiser, MD, a board-certified dermatologist in New York City.

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Manage your expectations

Weiser says that when it comes to significantly lifting or tightening anything, only surgery will achieve those goals in a meaningful way. Yet you’ll find “experts” all over the internet using the term liquid facelift in relation to fillers and Botox (even serums!), or likening the latest “skin-tightening laser” to surgery. This language deliberately overstates their power. To put it simply, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.

I stretch their skin and say, ‘This is what a facelift can do. That is not what this device will do.’

Even when visiting a professional, you’ll need to be sure to keep your skin hopes and dreams rooted in reality. A good derm or surgeon can help you do that. Boston-based board-certified dermatologist Mitalee Christman, MD, starts every nonsurgical skin-tightening consultation with a show-and-tell. “I hand patients a mirror and say, ‘Here is your jowl.’ Then I stretch their skin and say, ‘This is what a facelift can do. That is not what this device will do. What you can expect is a six-millimeter lift.’ And I show them what that looks like,” she explains.

Before committing to any treatment, work with your provider to define your yardstick, says Mike Nayak, MD, a board-certified facial plastic surgeon in St. Louis. Some things to consider: Do you equate efficacy with the redness, flakiness, and swelling that comes with powerful resurfacing lasers? Or do you view no downtime as a win? Does a treatment have to deliver a lasting change (like surgery), or can its effects be fleeting (like Botox and other noninvasive treatments, which require maintenance)? Sharing these answers with your provider gets you on the same page.

Don’t underestimate the feel factor

There are loads of products on the market that do a sort of invisible work: antioxidant serums fight free radicals, retinoids spark collagen, ceramides bolster the skin barrier. With skincare, “you’re often going on blind faith that it’s working over time,” says Amelia K. Hausauer, MD, a board-certified dermatologist in Campbell, California. “If you’ve been using something consistently, you’ll never know what you would’ve looked like without it.”

Noninvasive in-office procedures that require multiple sessions also tend to yield small changes to nuanced effect. Some may even deliver benefits we can’t spot in a picture, but that doesn’t mean they’re duds. Microneedling, for example, doesn’t generally make the skin look markedly better in photographs, notes Nayak, “but patients love how it makes their skin feel firmer and their pores seem smaller.” In their estimation, it works, even if their skin appears relatively unchanged.

Finally, remember this: The simple act of taking care of your skin feels good. And what people are seeking is often intangible, Christman has found. “What they truly want to know is: Can it make me feel more confident, like a more authentic version of myself?” This is perhaps the ultimate benchmark in beauty.

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Jolene Edgar is a former New York City beauty editor turned freelance writer living in the Ocean State with her husband and two kids. She's been in the beauty game since 2000—she asks that you kindly don't do the math—writing primarily about skin-care and plastic surgery for Cosmopolitan, Allure, Harper's Bazaar, Women's Health, and other outlets. #LifeGoals include raising respectable humans who always wear the right amount of sunscreen, conquering a 60-minute Peloton ride with @robinnyc, and still being here, doing this, in another 18 years.