Skin-care spreadsheets are becoming a social network for your beauty products

Skin care is a conversation. Ask anybody about how they take care of their complexion, and I guarantee that you’ll get far from a one-sentence answer—rather, the topic opens the door to details regarding everything from specific products to steps to ingredients to rituals (you know, like jade rolling) that all work symbiotically to maintain the skin that someone’s in.

That’s why, last year when one beauty devotee shared the Google doc that she sends to everyone who asks about her regimen with The Strategist, it sent a ripple effect throughout the skin-care loving internet. People don’t just want to see a shelf with beautifully styled products anymore (though of course that’s great, too), they also want to know what works.

Enter the skin-care spreadsheet: A place where all of the complexion confusion is meant to be dismantled cell-by-cell. Here, people keep tabs on the beauty hauls they’ve invested in over the years, noting everything from the product’s texture to how effectively it works. It might seem stripped down, but skin-care spreadsheets get people talking as evidenced by the thousand-comment long Reddit chains about specific products.

Not only is it a totally shareable way to tell your friends about which products you’ve been trying and how they’ve been working for you, it’s also nice to keep track of whether it’s time to shake something in your regimen up. That way, when you find yourself facing a pile of empties, you can figure out whether you want to rebuy or move on.

Personally, I’ve tried hundreds of SKUs over the years—and this kind of document would read like a love letter to my body’s largest organ—if only I’d kept one. Because nowadays when shelves are actually overflowing with beauty products, an excess of skin-care goodies doesn’t necessarily equate to a glowing complexion…unless all of those bottles have the power of the spreadsheet to back them.

To start filling yours out, here are the best apple cider vinegar-based beauty products that’ll transform your look. And these are beauty products that help you fake it when you don’t have time to shower.