The first step to building yourself the perfect skincare routine is finding your skin type.
Knowing your skin type helps you understand how you can best help your skin become healthier. If you use products that aren’t made for your skin type, you could damage it even more.
Here is a way to know your skin type in a very short time:
1. Cleanse your face You can cleanse your face by using a facial cleanser and gently rubbing it all over your face for about 30-45 seconds before rinsing.
2. Wait 1 hour Do not moisturize after cleansing your face for an hour. Make sure you don’t expose yourself to the sun like this, as it can damage your skin.
3. Examine your skin After an hour, go carefully examine your skin in the mirror:
– If your skin glows like you put highlighter all over your forehead and nose and you look like you’re sweating, you have oily skin.
– If your skin is very tight or if wrinkles start forming on your face when you make facial expressions, it means you have dry skin.
– If you see some really shiny spots while others are tight, you have combination skin.
– If you don’t notice any particularly bright spots or spots that seem strained, then congratulations! You have normal skin, which means you’re basically God’s favorite.
Another (slightly more difficult) way to check your skin type is to look closely at your pores in a mirror. The larger the pores, the more active your skin. It is therefore more likely to be fat. And the smaller the pores, the drier your skin.
One of the biggest misconceptions is that dehydrated or sensitive skin is a skin type. Dehydrated or sensitive skin is a skin problem, not a skin type. You can use different products to treat these skin problems appropriately depending on your skin type.
Cleaning
Our skin goes through a lot every day – a lot of damage from the sun, pollution, and to top it off, you may be using the wrong products. We need to make sure that we remove all the dirt and unnecessary things from our skin so that we can moisturize it properly later on so that our skin has a youthful and fresh glow.
The first mistake you can make is not cleaning your face every day. I know a lot of people only wash their face with cleanser when they feel their face is getting a little dirty or extremely oily.
The second mistake is choosing a random cleanser that you find in a pharmacy. Now, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with drugstore cleansers, but you may be using a cleanser that’s not made for your skin type and that ends up damaging your skin even more.
Feel free to do some extra research and find a perfect cleanser for your skin, but here are some recommendations for different skin types:
1) Dry skin: crave beauty matcha hemp moisturizing cleanser, hydro boost fragrance free cleanser, la roche posay toleriane moisturizing cleanser, vanicream gentle facial cleanser
2) Oily skin: cerave renovating cleanser with salicylic acid, cerave foaming face cleanser, la roche posay toleriane purifying cleanser
3) Combination skin: Youth to the people kale and green tea spinach cleanser earth to skin super greens simple micellar gel facial cleanser
The third mistake you can make is applying cleanser to your face the wrong way. I would recommend using a cleanser on your face for no more than 45 seconds. You should use about a penny of cleanser for your face. Gently rub it all over your face like you would someone else’s face to make sure it’s not too harsh. Then be sure to dry your face with a TO CLEAN towel. Using a dirty towel can promote bacteria buildup, which is definitely not good for your skin.
The fourth mistake you can make is not continuing with the rest of your skincare routine right after drying your face. I wouldn’t recommend wasting more than 15 minutes putting on the rest of your skincare. If you don’t continue, your skin will get too scratchy or start producing immense amounts of oil due to lack of hydration.
Treatment
In our next step, which is kind of optional if you’re on a strict budget you should definitely review, we look at treatment products like exfoliators, masks, serums and more.
Exfoliation: Every day we shed dead skin cells and create new ones, because that’s basically how we stay beautiful and young. It is important to exfoliate our skin because some people have major skin issues like dark spots, scars, fine lines and more. Often, just cleaning or moisturizing our face does not help us solve these skin problems.
You’ve probably heard of different types of physical exfoliation products like apricot scrub or walnut scrub. These scrubs can be extremely bad for your skin, even if your skin is soft afterwards. When using these products, it can be difficult to know when you are removing the right amount of dead skin cells and when you are overdoing it and causing damage to your skin. If your skin is damaged, it won’t be as protected as it was from sun exposure or pollution, which could increase your skin problems like dark spots and more.
If you still use scrubs, it is recommended to use it only once and extremely gently on your face – almost as light as a feather for no more than just 15-30 seconds. You should apply moisturizer and sunscreen after exfoliation. Sunscreen may not seem necessary but it is absolutely necessary!
Chemical exfoliation is much better for your skin in the long run, even if you don’t notice much in the short term. As a beginner, you should only use exfoliating products once a week and progress to no more than every other day. There is absolutely no need to use an exfoliator every day as it can seriously damage your skin. You should stop using a product if you notice redness on your skin that lasts longer than 30 minutes and your skin feels sore. Here are some recommendations to try:
1) The regular 30% AHA scrub solution : this product dissolves all the dead skin cells in just 10 minutes and makes your skin very radiant and fresh.
2) Paula’s Choice 2% BHA Liquid : This salicylic acid product penetrates deep into your skin and pores to remove dirt and unclog pores. This is a great product to use if you suffer from acne.
3) Ordinary 10% lactic acid serum : Lactic acids are very gentle exfoliants, perfect for beginners. You can mix it with a moisturizer if you prefer, but it can also be used alone on your skin.
4) Krave Beauty Kale-lalu-yAHA : Glycolic acid is the most intense of all exfoliating acids and works to dissolve even the tiniest of dead cells from the skin’s surface. Krave’s serum, while containing a good percentage of acid, is rarely sensitive to the skin and works well.
5) Youth to the People 11% Power Toner : The final most extreme type of exfoliation you can use is multi-acid. In this toner, several types of acids are used to quickly dissolve all the dead skin cells. This toner is formulated with lactic and glycolic acids, so those experienced in exfoliation are recommended to use it as it can be very powerful and intense.
Hydrate
Hydration is one of the most popular steps in a skincare routine, but there are a lot of misconceptions surrounding it. The most important thing you need to know before choosing a moisturizer for yourself is your skin type. There are a few ingredients you should avoid when choosing a moisturizer, regardless of your skin type, and these are: alcohol and fragrance. Both of these ingredients can be extremely irritating and harmful to your skin, so keep an eye out for choosing a moisturizer with these two present in the ingredient list.
There is a very simple reason why we have to use a moisturizer: the loss of water from the epidermis. Every day a certain amount of water leaves our skin and our skin starts to become dehydrated. And the more our skin becomes dehydrated, the more it will age and therefore we may see more fine lines, dark spots, loss of firmness and other problems. A moisturizer’s job is to keep moisture and water locked into our skin.
oily skin : A water-based gel or cream is ideal for people with oily skin because it is very light and absorbs quickly into the skin, so it does not feel heavy on the skin or sweat during the day. Here are some recommendations for people with oily skin:
First Aid Beauty Bonjour FAB
Coconut water cream Versed cream dew point gel
Neutrogena Oil-Free Combination Moisturizer
Mixed skin : Gel-to-cream moisturizers are best suited for people with combination skin because some parts are very oily and some are very dry.
If you have combination to oilier skin, a good recommendation for you is Even Prime Daily Moisturizer. And for people with a combination of drier-prone skin, Youth To The People Adaptogenic Deep Moisturizer with Ashwagandha + Reishi will be a great choice for you.
Here are some generally good recommendations for people with combination skin:
1) Cerave Shea Moisturizing Lotion
2) Olay Skin Rescue Moisturizer
3) Hungarian Water Essence Cream
Dry skin : People with dry skin need the most intense moisturizers for their skin that provide deep hydration to the skin.
Here are some recommendations for people with dry skin:
1) CeraVe Moisturizing Cream
2) Elf Happy Hydration Cream
Solar cream
We’ve come to the final step in building the perfect skincare routine. Some people don’t see the importance of wearing sunscreen, but sunscreen protects you from the main source of all skin problems – the sun. You may want to avoid a product that contains sunscreen and moisturizer, because while your skin may need continuous sunscreen while you’re out in the sun, you may not need one. continuous moisturizer, especially if you have oily skin!
Here are some good sunscreen recommendations you might want to try:
Dr Jart Mineral SPF 50
Love Kinship Self Reflect SPF 35
First Aid Beauty Mineral Sheer Tint SPF 30
Sun Bum Tinted Sun Lotion SPF 30
CeraVe Sheer Mineral Tint SPF 30
MDSolarSciences Mineral Cream SPF 50
Dear Klairs Soft UV Airy Essence SPF 50
I hope this article helps you regain that well-deserved glow!
