Upon graduation, my mom gave me the matriarchal equivalent of a Birchbox, filled with handpicked samples. She scrawled: “Alexis’ Post-Graduation Skin Care Regimen” across its top, immediately making me skeptical of its internal contents because as her daughter, it is my duty to be defiant towards any motherly recommendations. And, for most of my life, I successfully have been. Then, I tried SkinCeuticals Phloretin CF.

As a product, it’s an “investment” purchase: a broad-range antioxidant treatment, claiming to protect and correct the skin from future and existing environmental damage. It also retails for $159—roughly 1.5x more than the price per share of Apple, but 3.5 times less than Google.

Impervious to its corrective and preventative claims, I applied the amber colored serum that smells faintly of a chemically-produced-laboratory-grown-orange anyways, followed by sunscreen. My skin, though not suddenly, transformed from irreversible childhood sun damage, looked unusually dewy instead of greasy (as is the case with SPF). After a week, the color became more even and the texture, smoother. I apply every morning and need little face makeup—maybe some powder—as a result. After eight weeks, I finally finished the small sample my Mom gave me and purchased a bottle.

As a person, I’m what you’d call an “instant gratifier'—one who has trouble setting aside that dress or meal out towards my Roth IRA, instead. My foresight may be limited, but future prevention plus instantly visible perfection? Those are two things I’ll willingly invest in.

—Alexis Cheung

Photo by Alexis Cheung