Our Dads Tried Our Skin-Care Routines — & It Was Predictably Hilarious

Here's what happens every year I go home for the holidays: I, being the good beauty-editor daughter that I am, select and wrap loads of high-end skin-care goodies to gift my dads (yes, I have two). Each collectively ooohs and ahhhs whilst opening — only to toss every single bottle into a corner shortly thereafter, never to be seen again. At that point, I feel both desolate and disappointed that my enthusiasm for beauty goes unrequited, but the truth is? They couldn't tell a toner from cleansing oil if their lives depended on it.

"Show me a product that takes care of every step at once and I'll use it," my dad says. (Yeah, dad, me too.)

He's not alone, of course. While many men are skin and makeup savants, countless others — whether it's your father, brother, uncle, boyfriend, or cousin twice removed — don't even bother washing off the days-worth of grime at night. (Whereas I go one day without cleansing and a pimple arrives precisely one hour later, like clockwork.) And for our team of beauty whizzes — for whom caring for and preaching the importance of skin care is part of our jobs — we find it damn-near depressing when a parent can't appreciate a five-step ritual as much as we do.

So we used the holiday season as our chance to open the collective eyes of the men who brought us into the world by bringing them into our world of complexion care. We asked our dads to try out our entire nighttime regimes (though, TBH, most of us pared it down to keep them interested) and documented the entire thing for your viewing pleasure. Some willingly volunteered; others required more of a push. But in the end, I think their taut, smooth faces will thank us. (And it was more than worth it for the adorable bonding experience.)

Click through the slides ahead for proof that a family that masks together, stays together.