I’m obviously not the person you posed these questions to (and also not a person with any sort of medical degree, just a person with a lot of experience with skin issues) but just wanted to say I’d be skeptical of that person who tried to sell you the ridiculously expensive starter kit too!

I’ve spent the last 2.5 years dealing with a nightmare skin issue that 4 different dermatologists haven’t been able to diagnose (it may or may not be allergy-related, and it might be showing some improvement as a result of Dr-prescribed phototherapy, but beyond that everyone is stumped).

This experience has taught me a lot of things, and two of the most important ones have been: 1. Everyone’s skin may react differently to products, and 2. You don’t necessarily need a super complex, expensive routine to solve skin problems.

My problems started after a few months experimenting with skincare routines, including throwing a lot of popular fancy products at my skin. My skin is still a slowly-healing, frequently-reactive mess, but it’s a lot better than it was a year ago, and my current dermatologist-recommended face wash and moisturizers are literally just Vanicream face wash and moisturizer, and Aquaphor on still-healing areas.

My skin reacts better to these super simple, inexpensive products (and the straight mineral oil they have me use during phototherapy prep) than all the expensive products I was trying. Once my skin heals I’ll probably look into slowly adding some additional stuff to address remaining issues, but I’ve learned it’s important to start simple and slowly add stuff, vs. just diving into a complicated routine.

What works for you may be totally different of course, I shared this story just to point out that more expensive products are not always automatically better! Something I think this site has covered a number of times too (along with myth busting the popular “natural is always better, artificial chemicals are always evil” claim).

Just one quibble–are you sure you want to claim that testing a product on yourself only is really a valid way to draw a conclusion as to the effectiveness of a product on the general public? I truly am just asking.