Either if you´re looking to start a skincare routine or if you’re looking to keep it simple and basic, these notes are for you.
I recommend an essential skincare routine that consists of four steps, each designed to treat the core needs of any skin type—the minimum your skin needs to keep it healthy and protected day and night:
Use my simple guide to select an Essential Skincare Routine based on what works best for you and your specific skin concerns, step by step.
Cleansing is the first essential step for any skincare routine. Cleansers remove dirt, excess sebum and makeup from your skin. When your skin is clean, it allows the other products you use to work even better.
For effective skin cleansing, you should clean your skin morning and evening.
Double cleansing has become quite popular recently, where you use an oil-based cleanser to break down any makeup on your skin followed by foam or gel cleanser. I recommend this step for the days you use makeup.
Squeaky clean skin? Contrary to popular opinion, you don’t need to feel that squeaky feeling for your skin to be clean. That squeaky feeling is just the soap stripping all your natural oils off your skin and it might cause your skin to get irritation and inflammation.
Read on to know more about an effective cleansing routine.
If you’re looking to amp up your skin care routine with a product that offers a bigger, more powerful dose of active ingredients, the next great step is to treat your skin with a face serum.
Face serums can add moisture and high concentrations of beneficial active ingredients to your skin and are designed to nourish, protect and treat specific skin concerns.
When it comes to choosing a skin serum, it’s important to recognize there are different types of serums, as well as specific ingredients to look for based on your goals or skin concerns. In general, face serums fall into the following categories:
Moisturizers improves skin hydration and increases stratum corneum water content by directly providing water to the skin from their water phase and increasing occlusion to reduce trans-epidermal water loss, it also provides a soothing protective film and protects skin from friction. Moisturizing everyday can reduce the chance of developing extreme dryness or oiliness. Both extremes are harmful for skin and cause common skin conditions.
Finding the right moisturizer for your skin type is an incredibly important step in your skincare. More specifically, finding the right formula is key: it needs to hydrate and restore your skin efficiently without leaving it feeling greasy or heavy.
The final step of your daytime routine is application of a moisturizer followed with SPF – 30 or higher and broad Spectrum for UV light.
Some moisturizers already have SPF. If yours do, skip step n.4. If your day moisturizer does not have SPF, you must apply on top of it.
SPF moisturizers keep your skin shielded from sun damage which is the No. 1 cause of wrinkles, skin cancer, brown spots, and other signs of aging.
In the evening, as the last step in your evening skincare routine, you should choose a specific moisturizer for night care.
A night cream should provide more than simple hydration. Moisturizers (cream, lotion, gel, or liquid texture) loaded with antioxidants and skin-repairing ingredients improve your skin’s healthy functioning and keep it feeling smooth, soft and looking younger.
If your morning moisturizer does not contain SPF factor, do not forget to apply sun protection before you leave home.
We can’t stress enough how important this step is, because SPF is the single most important treatment for your skin with massive benefits, and it’s not just for the summer months. The more sun protection you use and sooner, the better and healthier your skin will look and feel for longer. The powerful UVA and UVB rays of the sun result in aging, fine lines, wrinkles, dark spots, and of course, skin cancer, which is why wearing daily protection is key.
Make sure you look for a sunscreen with SPF 30 or higher, with 5-star UVA rating. Choose a sunscreen based on your skin type, your climate, and the intensity of your sun exposure.
The protector’s protection factor is closely linked to the formation of a protective film/layer of the protector on the skin. The sunscreen is not absorbed, that is, it must be left last so that none of the other products that come later can disrupt/undo this film formation and harm protection.
Your skin type determines which product textures are best suited for you. Read more to discover your skin type.
