I was 23 years old when I learned my skin had a barrier, not an emotional one, a biological one. For years, I scrubbed my face until it felt tight because I thought clean meant stripped. I skipped moisturizer because my skin was oily and even reached for lemon juice because someone said it was natural. I stood in the sun without sunscreen and couldn’t understand why the dark patches kept coming back.
I knew skincare routines, knew product names, knew the influencers.I just didn’t know how my skin actually worked, and I wasn’t alone.
The truth is, most Africans were never taught how African skin works. We inherited routines before we inherited understanding.
We Learn Rituals Before We Learn Skin
Most of us learned skincare at home, watched our mothers and grandmothers and repeated what they did, and there is beauty in that, it is culture.
But our skin exists in a different world today. Different climates, different lifestyles and even more different products. Some practices have stood the test of time; others were simply the best options available then.
Tradition gave us routines, It didn’t always give us science.
Then social media arrived.
Suddenly, one person’s skincare routine became everyone’s skincare routine. Products went viral, expectations became unrealistic, and when they didn’t work, we blamed our skin instead of questioning whether the advice was right for us.
The Lesson We Should Have Learned First
Before buying another serum or cleanser, every African should understand a few things.
Your skin has a barrier, when you damage it with harsh scrubs or over-exfoliation, your skin becomes irritated, inflamed, and often produces even more oil.
Melanin is more than skin colour, It protects the skin, but it also means black skin is more likely to develop hyperpigmentation after irritation or acne. That’s why treating the cause matters just as much as treating the dark spot.
And perhaps most importantly: your skin changes. Hormones, stress, age, climate, and environment all influence how it behaves. The skincare routine that worked two years ago may not be the one your skin needs today.
Why This Matters
When we don’t understand our skin, we spend money chasing products instead of solving problems.
We mistake irritation for “purging.” We over-cleanse oily skin. We skip sunscreen because we think melanin is enough. We keep changing products when what we really need is knowledge.
Education is one of the most overlooked skincare ingredients.
Why We’re Investigating This
At Moore Organics, we believe better skincare starts with better understanding.
That’s why we launched the Moore Investigation to explore how Africans learn about skincare, why so many myths persist, and what science actually says about caring for African skin.
The early findings confirmed what many of us already suspected: most people were never properly taught how their skin works. They were taught habits, recommendations, and trends but not the biology behind them.
We are here to change that, one investigation, conversation, and one lesson at a time.
Because informed people make better skincare decisions and healthier skin begins with understanding, not another product.
