How do I know if my skincare is working?

The honest version of this question is "how do I get reliable feedback?" Most mirror-and-memory checks don't qualify. Lighting is inconsistent, recent events distort perception, and skin varies within a single day enough to mask a real multi-week trend.

What reliable feedback looks like

• A consistent measurement taken on a consistent schedule (weekly is the standard)
• A defined window matched to the attribute you're evaluating (see the timeline answers)
• One change at a time, so a shift can be attributed to a single variable
• An explicit baseline before the change, so there's something to compare to

This is why tracking exists. Without it, every swap is implicitly a fresh experiment with no controls — which is why most routines end up in the "nothing's worked" category rather than the "this is slowly working" category.

The Stella take

The question "is this product working?" is almost always unanswerable from the inside. The question "is this attribute moving?" is answerable — if you're measuring it.

Appearance-level observations, not therapeutic advice. Not a medical device.