Caring for your skin is necessary for both your overall health and delaying early signs of aging. Hence, finding a simple skincare routine and adhering to it is something you cannot skip.
As you know, there are thousands and one benefits for having an effective skincare practice to ensure your skin is at its healthiest. Most importantly, by correctly taking care of your skin and improving your outlook and health, you can also experience better self-esteem and self-confidence, ultimately this will create a positive impact in your daily life.
A good regime can help to prevent issues such as flaking skin, inflammation and pimples, as well as dryness, wrinkles and other signs of aging in the long term.
No matter how busy or how tired you are at the end of the day, please remember not to skip your daily skincare routine. Whether you have 5 minutes or 15 minutes, cleansing your face should always be the first step of a basic skincare regimen.
Step 1: Cleansing
Cleansing is the most important step in a morning and evening skincare routine. Cleansing helps get rid of dead skin cells and build-ups of makeup and dirt. Throughout the day, impurities, pollutants, dirt and excess oil got accumulated on the skin’s surface, which needed to be cleaned off properly in order to avoid congested pores. Our skin also creates impurities and excess oil as we sleep, so it is important to cleanse our face both morning and night.
During the morning and night routine, just rinse your face with water and massage a small amount of gentle cleanser all over your face using gentle pressure. Rinse your face thoroughly until you have removed the cleanser and grime. Gently pat your face dry with a soft towel.
On the other hand, if you wear makeup, you may need to cleanse twice at night. First, you need to remove your makeup including your eye make-up with a cleansing cream or oil, depending on your skin type. Follow up with a full-face gentle cleanser.
Should you double cleanse every day?
According to skin doctors, a daily double cleanse is only necessary if you wear makeup or if you have oily skin. Double cleansing is definitely not compulsory as an everyday practice. It is essential not to over wash your face as this will lead to dryness and damage the skin’s moisture barrier. Only double cleanse when you want to ensure there are no traces of makeup left on your skin as the residue can lead to breakouts and skin aggravation.
Cleansing is at the core of a good skincare routine, and sets you ready for the next level. Applying toners or serums without a clean base is less effective, therefore the first step of cleansing is definitely important. And do not forget to wash your face after working out as sweat can clog pores and make acne worse.
Regardless of the time of day, never forget to remove your makeup before going to bed.
Step 2: Toning
You need to tone your face after cleansing. To use a toner, simply pour a few drops of toner on a cotton pad and gently swipe onto your face and neck. Begin with the center of your face and gently sweep the cotton pad outward.
What does a toner do?
A good toner can ensure that your skin is totally clean, clear and fresh while also restoring balance and hydration. Some people assume that toners are second cleansers. Though toner helps to remove dirt and oil after your cleansing step, it is actually not a second cleanser. The actual function is to balance the pH of your skin after cleansing and also work to restore skin with the nutrients that cleansers might have removed.
Using a toner can also help to hydrate your skin and better absorb the next products you put on. When your face is hydrated with a toner, the next ingredients can penetrate the skin and work more effectively. As it replenishes your skin with nutrients, it also balances your complexion.
If you have acne or oily skin, toner is an invaluable step in keeping your skin clean and clear and if you have dry skin, it can help restore the much-needed moisture.
One more valuable function of a toner is that it helps to keep pores clean, shrinks them to a certain extent and this refines your skin texture, making your pores look smaller and tighter with regular use.
Step 3: Serum
Face serums are lightweight skincare formulations that contain a high concentration of active ingredients. Their thinner viscosity allows faster absorption into your skin, making them an excellent step after toning so as to ensure that it can effectively penetrate your skin.
Serums are formulated with key ingredients to achieve a range of benefits including hydration, collagen and skin-brightening. A good serum tailored to your skin concerns can treat, protect and tackle a number of skin issues including dry skin, fine lines and dark spots.
Day/Night time serum
There are many different types of serums, each with its unique function and different ingredients. Some serums help to brighten your skin or reduce hyperpigmentation, while others focus on boosting collagen. And you need to know which serums work better in the morning or in the evening.
Morning is a great time to use a serum with antioxidants such as a brightening Vitamin C serum. This serum works effectively to protect your skin from free radicals that you will encounter throughout the day. Moisturizing serums with collagen boosting or hyaluronic acid are best kept for night time use to help keep your skin hydrated and moisturized.
Serum should be applied once in the morning on a cleansed face, before the rest of your makeup, and once at night before bed. And since you need to seal the serum to maximize the benefits, which is why a moisturizer or face cream is the next step.
Step 4: Moisturizer
Remember to apply a moisturizer after you have applied your serum. This will form a protective barrier on your skin’s surface and lock in the active ingredients from the serum.
Moisturizer improves skin hydration, maintains and replenishes your skin’s moisture and skin elasticity. Just because you have oily or combination skin, it does not mean that you should skip out this moisturizing step! As a matter of fact, your skin needs it to prevent environmental damage to your skin.
Choosing a right moisturizer for yourself will depend on your skin type. If you have dry skin, you may like a richer formula, so choose a moisturizing cream. But if you have oily skin, you will probably prefer lighter formulas, so lotion will work better for you.
Moisturizer both hydrates skin and locks in all the other ingredients that you have applied. If you have oily skin, look for a lightweight lotion for the morning and keep the cream for night use. But if you have dry skin, you may want to use a cream for morning and night.
Apply moisturizer twice a day: once in the morning and once at night. If this is your night time routine, you can stop here as this would be your last step.
Night Cream
Moisturizing while you sleep is crucial as it creates a barrier that seals in your skin’s natural moisture. While daily moisturizers focus on improving the natural moisture barrier of the skin only, night creams contain higher concentration of ingredients that assist with improving the skin and also help induce repair by amplifying cell turnover.
Night creams are generally thicker in consistency than day creams, and tend to have a lot of ingredients that boost cell turnover, hydration and circulation. Fundamentally, night creams are generally thicker in consistency which does more intensely in boosting cell turnover and hydration.
Additionally, the active ingredients in night cream have been specifically chosen to work most effectively in this thicker formula and most night creams are designed to be anti-aging. Because a night cream is so much thicker than a daily moisturizer, accordingly you can achieve higher doses of anti-aging goodness overnight.
Step 5. Sunscreen
The final step is the most important: no matter your skin tone, sun protection is the most important part of any skin-care regimen. Seriously.
Dermatologists said this: Sunscreen is the most important step in any skincare routine, for every skin type and age.
If you skip sunscreen, you might as well skip the other steps. The sun is the number one reason skin ages prematurely. Adding to this, if you are treating hyperpigmentation without daily SPF use, your effort is to no purpose.
UV damage affects skin all year round and wearing an SPF is compulsory when it comes to your skincare routine. Not a moisturizer with SPF or a foundation that includes SPF but to apply an actual sunscreen product.
Sunscreen is its own layer of skin protection and should not be added to a moisturizer or foundation. Combining both products can dilute the formulas, thus using them separately will allow you to reap the full benefits of your SPF and moisturizer.
The sun is responsible for 90 percent of our skin’s aging, so sunscreen with SPF between 30 and 50 is the best to be worn every day, may it be rainy or sunny. Don’t forget that lights and lamps emit UV rays too.
UV rays from the sun, which we all encounter every day will not only cause skin cancer, but are also the biggest factor in our skin’s aging. Daily sunscreen is the most effective anti-aging product we should have. It also helps prevent photoaging, such as wrinkles and dark spots.
Taking it to the next level
Caring for your skin is as simple as using a cleanser, toner, serum, moisturizer, and sunscreen. These are the most basic of the basics that you really need to follow so that your skin is well protected.
Now that you have your basic skincare routine and if you have the time, you can start adding other products you need into it. Stopping here is totally fine if such a simple practice works for you.
We all want to look young and beautiful, but a lot of factors may contribute to the health of our skin, and we must consider each factor properly if we want our skin to appear its best.
We must keep our skincare routine as our daily top priority. Always remember that taking care of our skin is important for maintaining a healthy and youthful appearance.
5-step skincare routine that keeps your skin healthy and beautiful at any age
