A 12-year-old watches a “get ready with me” video. Then she adds a retinol serum, exfoliating acid and several “anti-ageing” products to an online shopping cart.

An adult repeatedly checks their pores in a magnifying mirror. They then buy each new product promising “glass skin” and become anxious if they cannot complete their nightly routine.

Skincare can be enjoyable, creative and soothing.

But when does self-care become something more concerning?

The quest for flawless skin

Cosmeticorexia is a recently proposed term for an excessive or compulsive preoccupation with achieving flawless skin. It’s sometimes called dermorexia.

It can involve elaborate routines, repeatedly buying products, using ingredients or cosmetic procedures that are unnecessary or inappropriate for someone’s age. People become distressed when they cannot complete their routine.

However, cosmeticorexia is not a recognised medical or psychiatric diagnosis. The main academic article defining the term is an editorial, rather than a large population study.

We should therefore be careful not to medicalise enthusiasm for skincare or apply a clinical-sounding label to every lengthy beauty routine.

Because cosmeticorexia is not an established concept, we do not know whether it is a distinct phenomenon, how to measure it, or how common it is.

One small study described in the original cosmeticorexia editorial identified “cosmeticorexic traits” in 18 of 217 dermatology patients (around 8%) who had undergone multiple........

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