The Tried (And True?) Moisturizer Trick We’re Digging

Let me start this off by saying I am not an expert. In any way. I don't go to a facialist, and our beauty team is often put in a position to give me slightly pitying looks when I ask them questions about how to do the most basic things regarding my face. So, please take the following with a million grains of salt.

Novice (and sucker) that I am, I thought I had stumbled upon some kind of gold mine when I spotted a very old, very faded copy of a beauty tips book written by Cindy Crawford back in the '90s. It was sitting along with several long-out-of-date magazines at the drying station at the nail place by my house. What did I learn from this book? Many things, some of which were pretty ridiculous-sounding in the light of 2014! But, there was one tip that really sounded legit to me: Wait 30 minutes after taking a shower to apply moisturizer, allowing the natural oils to return to your skin before you determine whether you need additional moisture.

I have always, always, always put on huge globs of moisturizer right after a shower. My skin, normally oily, gets really dry and tight because of the hot water (in addition to whatever face wash I'm using at the time; right now, that's Kiehl's or sometimes Mario Badescu). But, shortly after, my pores actually seem more enlarged and disgusting than before, and my face feels less squeaky clean and more morning-after gross. So, when I read that Cindy Crawford tip, it seemed to make a lot of sense. I understand that the general idea of applying moisturizer right after the shower is supposed to make your skin able to absorb product better and lock in hydration, but do I actually want my open pores to get clogged up with goo? I don't think so.

So, I've been waiting, and actually, I find that after 10-15 minutes, my skin hardly feels dry at all. Generally, I apply a much smaller amount of my go-to from Simple, or the stand-by bottle of Aveeno that always seems to be lying around. Again, I can't vouch for the science of any of this, but it seemed like a common-sense tip that I've actually gotten some positive results from. I thought I'd share, because I have a feeling this might just work for some of you with similarly stubborn, dry-but-oily skin.

Try out this entirely unofficial recommendation the next time you take a shower, and you might just see what I mean — and don't forget to come back and let me know how it goes, okay?