When preparing for standardized testing in school, do you remember how everyone used to say, when in doubt, choose letter C? Someone, somewhere, decided that option C was more likely than A, B or D to be the right answer, and millions of adolescents (myself included!) blindly followed suit. Of course, this is utter nonsense, but I’d like to think that the kid who started this myth grew up to be the Chief Marketing Officer for a major skincare brand.

Most people (myself included!) do not have time to dissect the ingredient list of skincare products and understand, for example, exactly what level of salicylic acid a product must contain to be effective in the treatment of acne. Most of us are blindly guessing when it comes to our skincare products but unlike staring at a row of lettered bubbles of equal size and color on a standardized test, we’re staring at rows of beautifully packaged products with mesmerizing words like “anti-aging,” “nourishing,” “wrinkle-reducing,” or “skin-clearing.” How do you know which products present the right solutions to your unique skincare challenges and which are just smoke and mirrors?