How to Create a Skin Care Routine that Gets You the Radiant Skin You Want
Everyone wants flawless skin, but there are so many factors in our day-to-day lives that can get in the way of having a clear, radiant complexion.
From diet and stress to pollutants and UV rays, there are plenty of factors that affect the health of your skin.
To ensure your skin is healthy, clear, and protected from damage, follow a healthy lifestyle and a skin care routine. Not sure where to start? We’ve put together a handy guide to help get you going!
How Can I Get Flawless Skin?
A combination of a skin care routine and a healthy lifestyle can give you healthy-looking skin.
A new skin care routine may not show results overnight. So give it about six weeks of regular daily use to see a difference in your skin.
The most basic skin care routine should include:
- Cleansing – washing your face
- Toning – balancing the skin
- Moisturizing – hydrating the skin
Wash Your Face Twice a Day
Washing your face in the morning and at night gently removes dirt and environmental pollutants from your face. This helps prevent clogged pores, acne, and dullness.
Remember, always wash your hands before washing your face! Otherwise, you’re just rubbing dirt and pollutants back into your skin.
Ideally, you should only use exfoliating cleansers once a week, and one suited to your skin type, at that. Overusing exfoliating cleansers can easily strip away healthy oils, drying out your skin, causing outbreaks, and undercutting your skin care regimen.
Suggestions for everyday cleansers based on skin type include:
- Foaming liquid for oily and acne-prone skin
- Cream or lotion cleanser for dry, red, and eczema-prone skin
- Oil cleansers (i.e. argan oil) for sensitive skin
- Melting balm for mature skin
- Micellar water for any skin type
Use Non-Comedogenic Products
Non-comedogenic means the product shouldn’t clog pores and cause acne. These products are recommended for every skin type, especially sensitive skin.
Common comedogenic ingredients include shea butter and coconut oil. So make sure to read the ingredients when choosing skincare products.
What’s the Best Order for Skin Care?
As a general rule of thumb, apply skin care products in order of consistency from thinnest to thickest.
While you may not use all these products in your skin care routine, the order below is still a good guide to follow. In essence, you’re looking to cleanse and treat the skin to improve hydration and tone before reapplying makeup and other products.
Here’s our recommended order for cleansing and caring for your skin:
- Makeup Remover
- Cleanser
- Exfoliator or Toner
- Treatment Products
- Hydrating Mist or Serum
- Chemical Sunscreen
- Moisturizer and Eye Cream
- Face Oil
- Mineral Sunscreen
What Does Toner Do for Your Skin?
Not familiar with toner? Toner and other related products help balance your complexion by removing leftover dirt and dead skin cells while adding nutrients to your skin. This helps your skin better absorb other products, thus enhancing your skincare routine.
Toner is best used after cleansing your face but before you moisturize and apply any other products to your skin. As mentioned earlier, though, toners with exfoliating acids should only be used after washing your face at night, or every other day.
To apply toner, pour a small amount on a cotton pad and wipe your face with it. Alternatively, you can add a few drops to clean hands and gently apply it to your face.
Toner ingredients you should look for include:
- Alpha and beta hydroxy acids: These gently remove dead skin cells that clog pores and cause the skin to look dull. These acids also help treat sun-damaged skin.
- Green tea and rose water: These contain anti-inflammatory properties that reduce redness and irritation.
- Hyaluronic acid: Hyaluronic acid increases your skin’s hydration and plumps up the skin to subtly reduce fine lines.
- Vitamin C and E: These vitamins protect your skin against free radicals that cause skin damage and ageing.
What’s the Best Order to Apply Makeup?
Like skin care products, the order you should apply makeup products should be based on texture.
Once you’ve completed your skin care routine, you can start applying makeup. Think of this entire process like painting a picture: you’ve applied a base coat to act as a foundation for the details to come later.
Always dry your hair first before applying makeup since the heat from the blow dryer will cause your makeup to melt and clog your pores.
Here is the ideal order for makeup application:
- Foundation or BB cream
- Concealer
- Blush, bronzer, or highlighter
- Eyeshadow
- Eyeliner
- Mascara
- Lip colour
Frustrated by Acne? Try These Tips
Even with a proper skin care regimen, acne still frustrates many people. Thankfully, there are plenty of ways to help reduce outbreaks and restore beautiful, clear skin.
Eating a well-balanced diet, limiting sugar and processed foods, helps many people, as does drinking a cup of green tea every day to help fight off bacteria and free radicals. Cutting dairy and alcohol, or at least limiting both, can help reduce acne flare-ups from hormonal changes.
Of course, one of the biggest contributors to poor skin and thus acne is hydration. Are you getting enough water? When you’re dehydrated, your skin produces more oil to compensate, which can easily clog pores and cause pimples and breakouts. Sip on water throughout the day, and make sure you’re getting the hydration your body and skin need.
Exercise is also a big help, as contradictory as it might seem; after all, you’re working up a sweat! Sweating helps your body clear out toxins, though, and is a great excuse to have a shower to freshen up.
We’ve also got a few more handy tips to help prevent acne outbreaks:
- Change your pillowcases every week to prevent hair oil accumulation from getting on your face.
- Stop touching your face! Dirt and bacteria from everything you touch during the day will end up on your face and cause breakouts.
- During the summer, use a tinted moisturizer with SPF to reduce the number of products you use on your face.
- Use a heavy moisturizer in winter, and a lightweight moisturizer in summer.
- Use retinoids at night to prevent acne and treat specific areas.
- Since stress also causes acne, find ways to reduce stress in your life, like doing yoga.
- Clean your glasses and sunglasses with rubbing alcohol.
- Clean your makeup brushes every two weeks using warm water and mild anti-bacterial soap.
- Use antibacterial wipes to clean your cell phone screen regularly.
- Get rid of makeup products after six months since they will have a buildup of bacteria on them.
- Let your skin breathe by going at least one day a week without makeup.
Keep these tips in mind and consider speaking with a dermatologist about the best skin care routine for your skin.
By following a skin care routine and a healthy lifestyle, you can protect and nourish your skin from the inside and out for clear, radiant skin.