Why Jhanvi Bhatia Is Choosing Less Over Every Viral Beauty Trend – Elle India

Jhanvi Bhatia is embracing “skipcare,” personal style and fewer products, proving that the freshest beauty philosophy today might just be doing less.
Beauty has entered an age of abundance. Every week introduces a new ingredient to obsess over, another aesthetic to recreate and yet another routine promising the skin you’ve always wanted. Conversations around acne and textured skin have become more common and honest, and people who rarely saw themselves reflected in beauty campaigns are finally finding representation online. But the democratisation of beauty has come with an unexpected side effect. Between accessibility and endless scrolling, beauty has also become exhausting. Nobody is more privy to this phenomenon than beauty influencers and social media creators whose work revolves around beauty trends and testing new launches. Jhanvi Bhatia makes her case for a personal and measured approach. 

“There was a certain societal standard regarding beauty in the last generation that was unfitting for the majority of women,” Jhanvi says. “Today, people question products instead of simply believing the marketing. People talk about clear skin, but they also talk about skin that is acne-prone — The definition of beauty has expanded.” This inclusivity and broadening of spectrum has arrived with another reality: overconsumption. “There is also a certain pressure attached to it because of the limitless trends coming in and out,” she says. “People try to adapt to every trend and use all sorts of products.”
Content creation means her skin is rarely left alone. New products, new actives, makeup on more days than not. Her skin, sensitive and acne-prone, tends to protest. So every so often, she skips the routine entirely. “Sometimes taking a break and doing absolutely no skincare and giving your skin a breather is necessary,” she says. It’s a way to see what her skin looks like without interference, and whether the ten-step routine was ever solving a problem in the first place. “One doesn’t always need a 10 step routine to get their dream skin.”

There was a period when she wouldn’t leave the house without concealing her under-eyes. Then one day she noticed the need, the way her hand went to the product before she’d even looked in the mirror properly, and she stopped. “My under eyes feel more free and less judged by my own self now that I know I am not relying on it,” she says. It’s a small admission, but it sets the terms for everything else she has to say about beauty. That instinct, catching herself before a habit calcifies into a rule, shows up everywhere in how she approaches her own routine. Nowhere more than in what she calls “skipcare” meaning exactly what it sounds like, skipping things that are not essential. It is an unexpectedly refreshing perspective in an industry where complexity is often mistaken for effectiveness.
Rather than chasing every recommendation online, she has also developed a simple filtering system. One creator with a similar skin type and one dermatologist whose ingredient-focused advice she trusts. Together, they help her separate genuine necessity from algorithm-driven temptation. “Not every product is to be tried,” she says. “That’s one motto everyone should have to avoid overconsumption.” 

Ask her about fashion and the same principle resurfaces. Long before beauty became central to her content, fashion was her first creative language. While she enjoys experimenting with trends, she believes, confidence comes from recognising your own visual identity rather than borrowing someone else’s version of it.
“If the clothes are wearing you and not the other way around, there’s a high chance you are drowning yourself in the trends and not letting yourself create an identity there.” A pantsuit can be a power look for one person and simply a uniform for another, the garment doesn’t decide, the wearer does. For her, it is the saree, “Every time I wear one, it makes me feel the prettiest in the room,” she says. “It gives me the confidence to present who I am, display my authenticity and show up to the world feeling confident in what I speak.”

If her vanity shelf told the real story, she says, it wouldn’t be about achieving a look. Skincare, for her, is closer to repair, an attempt at health rather than a bid for a societal standard. Makeup on the other hand is expression, for her and never an obligation.
Given the choice of where to put real money, she doesn’t say serums. She chooses wellness, specifically the parts that involve moving her body and actually resting it. “A massage therapy is where the fix to a bad mood lies.” It’s a small habit alongside bigger ones: soaked basil seeds, ghee for the lips, a trick from her mother that does more for her than most things on a shelf.
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