You know the girl. She has a skincare fridge. A 12-step routine that starts with a ₹4,000 cleanser and ends with an ice roller. She’s 24 and has booked her first Botox appointment—not for a wrinkle but for one that hasn’t shown up yet. Welcome to ‘cosmeticorexia’, the internet’s latest buzzword for the feeling that your face is never quite finished. Except…it’s not actually a diagnosis.
“Cosmeticorexia is a sensationalised media neologism, a portmanteau of cosmetic and anorexia, designed to capture viral attention,” explains Dr Kiran Sethi, dermatologist and MD of Isya Aesthetics. It isn’t recognised as a medical or psychiatric diagnosis. But the behaviours associated with it are real.
Dr Sethi groups the results of cosmeticorexia-type obsessions into three broad buckets: skin barrier damage caused by overusing active ingredients (layer 10 to 12 actives—AHAs, BHAs, vitamin C, retinoids, scrubs, and benzoyl peroxide—all at once, and instead of glass skin you end up with a compromised barrier), body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), and obsessive-compulsive behaviours (the endless layering, mirror-checking, and ritualisation of skincare). Before you panic-diagnose your Gen Z cousin with thoughts of Cassie’s routine in season one of Euphoria on your mind, it’s worth remembering that self-consciousness isn’t exactly new. “What teenager hasn’t been obsessed with what people think about the pimple on their nose?” asks Dr Sethi.
The difference isn’t insecurity. It’s the environment it’s playing out in.
Right now, we're surrounded by images of beautiful people, and it’s no wonder that those constant triggers make us question ourselves. Just look at actors like Nicole Kidman, Anne Hathaway, and Meryl Streep who never seem to age. WSJ just dubbed our forties the new thirties. Meanwhile, the Sephora tweens, child shoppers obsessed with skincare, have been flooding beauty stores, and just this year actor Julia Fox described having started Botox and filler at 21. In an interview on E! News, she said, “I was so hung up on this idea that I needed to be attractive to men so that I could survive.” Now, at 35 and armed with self-awareness, she admits, “I probably will [get more work done one day], but I’m just not as concerned with it right now.”
Similarly, beauty content creator and Wearified founder Aanam Chashmawala first tried under-eye filler at 30 or 31, after years in front of the camera, self-conscious about her deep-set eyes and dark circles. “I liked what it did for my under-eyes, but I think that the deeper you get into a certain...let’s say, Botox or fillers or whatever, for example…you can never be fully done. There’s always some new recommendation, some new insecurity it will unlock or some piece of advice that somebody said to you 5,822 days ago that will nag you in the deepest corners of your brain.”
It’s a loop people inside skincare communities recognise too. On Reddit’s r/IndianSkincareAddicts, one user looking back at their own routine wrote: “I used to be this obsessed until it ruined my skin, so now I use 5 to 6 products.” Their advice to someone newly consumed by skincare was equally straightforward: “I think you will eventually come down to 4 to 5 products too. Don’t have a lot of steps in your routine. It can mess with your skin barrier.”
Dr Sethi has patients in their early twenties who come in for ‘preventative Botox’. Her first question to them is simple: What specific crease do you see when your face is completely at rest? Nine times out of ten, there isn’t one. “The concern is usually coming from the front-facing camera,” she says. “Front-facing smartphone lenses distort facial proportions and artificially accentuate micro-creases. If their concern is based entirely on selfie lighting, the treatment plan is education.”
In other words, your FaceTime camera might be the cause of your stress.
The problem you didn’t know you had
Along with the psychological burden of constantly trying to fix something that only you can see, the pursuit of better skin becomes the thing making your skin worse. The consequences run deeper than an irritated barrier. “Over 90 per cent of patients with BDD who undergo aesthetic procedures report no improvement, or even worsening, of their symptoms,” says Dr Sethi. Many simply transfer their fixation to another feature.
Chashmawala recognised that transference when she was looking at her own face. “I realised that while I did my under-eyes as a service, my face overall was done a disservice because then I was told to balance the under-eyes. I now need to do my jaw and my chin, etc, etc. And I didn’t want to go crazy. I didn’t want to be someone where one insecurity led to step A and B and C. I thought it was a quick fix. I realised it really wasn’t. That there really is always something new to solve. There’s something to be said about how little it is encouraged in the beauty space to just embrace your, well, quote unquote, flaws.”
Girl, put the acid down
Luckily, now there is some discussion around making peace with ageing, with beauty enthusiasts questioning whether the pursuit of perfect skin has become another impossible standard to chase.
So, what’s the difference between obsessive cosmeticorexia territory and a more gentle beauty ritual? Clinical psychologist Tanya Vasunia’s rule is simple. “If it’s a hobby, life accommodates it. If it becomes more than that, life gets organised around it.” The warning signs? Spending more than an hour a day thinking about one feature. Skipping meals to pay for a facial. Taking near-identical selfies just to compare them. Feeling, as Vasunia puts it, “rudderless” without your routine.
Even the fear of missing out isn’t driven by one thing. “For some people it’s social comparison. For others, it’s more hedonistic. For some, it’s entirely influenced by the algorithm.” There isn’t one universal culprit. Just a feed that’s exceptionally good at finding your vulnerabilities.
Both experts agree, however, that this isn’t a call to stop caring about skincare or to feel guilty about aesthetic treatments you genuinely enjoy. Instead, it’s worth asking a few uncomfortable questions. Do you inspect your face up close every day? If you skip your routine for a few days, do you panic? And if you aren’t looking your best, can you still leave the house and get on with your life?
Vasunia’s advice isn’t to quit altogether. “Don’t stop,” she says. “Delay.” Sit with the urge before booking the treatment. Build in a cooling-off period. And perhaps most importantly, give your algorithm a reset. Logging off for 48 hours can be enough to stop feeding the cycle—and give your feed a chance to forget your insecurities.
