Understanding The Steps of Your Skin Care Routine
Written by Lauren Arent
Owner of Bewitched Esthetics & Licensed Esthetician since 2013
Hello my darlings,
The most frequently asked questions when it comes to skincare are based around this renowned, celebrated routine everyone must have. Like there is some sacred text that explains how a routine should be performed.
While I would love for these words to be seen as this “sacred text” please understand that everyone’s personal routine is going to be unique. So there isn’t going to be some magickal formula that I lay out for you. However, I am going to explain in detail each step of the routine, how and when it should be performed, and why it is important.
What’s Stopping You From Creating A Skin Care Routine?
The biggest hang up people seem to have with their skin care routine is time. I have clients who are business owners, mothers, students, lawyers, travelers, nurses, you name it. And each of these can say that they are too busy to take time for a routine.
My hope by the end of this will be that you can at least start with a Base Level routine, if not a more advanced one because I am going to be very honest with you: EVEN the more advanced skin care routines can be done in 10 minutes.
*There Is An Astrix
This is a mighty bold claim, so let me add a caveat to this. You can condense an advanced skin care routine into ten minutes, however on occasion, a self care ritual can expand your routine as long as you would like. Keep reading to find out what I mean.
THE STEPS OF YOUR SKIN CARE ROUTINE
Alright, so the main categories of a routine are as such: Pre-cleanse, Cleanse, Exfoliate, Masque and/or Treatment, Toner, Serum and/or Concentrate, Eye Cream, Moisturizer and/or Oil, SPF, Night Cream.
Before you get overwhelmed, remember that I am going to explain WHY each one of these is important and give you different levels to decide from. Meaning, not every routine will have each of these steps and you can mix and match these categories as it pertains to your needs. I will give you the Base Level that in my opinion is the very least you should do (it literally only has two steps).
Pre-Cleanse: Steps of Your Skin Care Routine
I’ve included Pre Cleanse because for those of us who wear make-up. It might be necessary to use a separate product and step to remove the make-up before we actually cleanse our face. Sleeping in your mascara can cause concretions (a build-up of make up that forms a solid mass under the eyelid) which can scratch the cornea and even cause blindness eventually. You are also inviting bacteria into your eyes which has its own complications. It’s very important to get ALL of your makeup off every night (PRO TIP use the Herbal Eye Make Up Remover). Sleeping in your makeup can cause breakouts, dryness or irritation, and can age you up to 7 times faster as it interrupts cell turnover.
Cell turnover is the process of our bodies creating new skin cells to replace dead and damaged ones. This is how we can attempt to repair fine lines and wrinkles. Wouldn’t want to interrupt that process right?
Cleanse: Steps of Your Skin Care Routine
The cleansing process is pretty self explanatory. This is the step in which we clean our faces. In this step we wash the day off. Cleansing is important to preserve the skin’s pH balance. So even if you don’t wear makeup throughout the day, it is important to cleanse the skin for 60 seconds to return the surface of the skin to its homeostasis of between 4.7 and 5.75 pH.
As far as to how many times a day you should cleanse, this one I will say depends on the person and the type of cleanser they use. Over-cleansing can create issues just like with over-washing your hair. We don’t want to dry out our skin by cleansing too frequently, this can trigger an overproduction of sebum (skin oils). Oily skin types should cleanse twice a day while dry to combination should stick to once.
I recommend cleansing at night to wash the day off your face. Then, after sleeping on a clean pillowcase, rinse your face in the morning to refresh and revitalize your skin for the day.
Exfoliate: Steps of Your Skin Care Routine
The exfoliation process is one of the most important steps of your skin care routine and often the one that is most neglected. Exfoliating your skin involves using either a physical or chemical medium to polish the skin, remove dead skin cells, dirt and debris from the surface. This ensures the cell turnover process can operate smoothly as well as allows your products that you love so much to absorb onto fresh, healthy skin cells instead of sitting on the layer of dead skin cells and debris that builds up.
Exfoliation should be done two to three times a week. Again, this depends on skin types and varies from person to person. Oily can easily do three times a week if not more and Dry should stick to only once or twice. For me, I know I need to exfoliate (my go-to is the Strawberry Rhubarb Dermafoliant) when I start to feel rough texture on my cheeks and, if I’ve really neglected this step, if I start to experience any unusual breakouts. For if the dead skin cells/dirt/debris aren’t removed, they can build up and block the pores.
Masque or Mask: Steps of Your Skin Care Routine
This step is a fun one. Masques are concentrated products that are meant to deal with a problem. This is a treatment step. When a client comes in to pick out a product, I ask what they would like to see from their skin. If we talk about a specific problem, I always mention a masque.
Yes I spell masque a little different than most, this is how Hungarian products are spelled and since I am an Eminence obsessed esthetician, this is how I’ve almost always spelled this step. And Hungarian masques are different than your average mask! A large portion of these are creamy, too heavy to be worn during the day under your makeup but perfect for sleeping in. I often will recommend a masque as a night cream to clients working hard to achieve specific results.
There are also gel masques, best worn in the shower. And treatments like the Yam and Pumpkin Enzyme Peel 5% or the Turmeric Energizing Treatment that are most fun applied for a short time (like on during a self care ritual) and then washed off.
Toner: Steps in Your Skin Care Routine
The toner or tonique products are another of the steps in your skin care routine that seem to be glanced over quite often. My eminence rep once described this category like the conditioner for the skin and ever since then I have not gone a day without using one because I could honestly never go without using conditioner on my hair so why would I on my skin? A toner can provide extra hydration, it assists your products in absorbing deeper into the skin and it can even be used at the end of your routine to set your makeup!
Serums & Concentrates: Steps in Your Skin Care Routine
This is another one of the steps of your skin care routine for solving problems. Serums are a way to ELEVATE your routine, an extra step, definitely for a more advanced routine as a way of bumping up the efficacy of your products and your daily routine. Trying to really hone in on those dark spots? I have a serum for that (Bright Skin Serum). Attempting to really boost your hydration? I have a concentrate for that (Strawberry Rhubarb Hyaluronic Hydrator).
These products are applied under your moisturizer. Remember to always apply your serum under the concentrate if you are applying both. Product penetration is key and we always want to make sure the smaller molecular structure goes first, so it can reach your skin without hindrance from other products with bigger molecular structures.
It is important to press serums into the skin, you may even feel the serum turn almost tacky as it absorbs. You can absolutely layer serums, however I would recommend allowing the serum to absorb completely before applying another, taking roughly five minutes between applications.
Eye Cream: Steps in Your Skin Care Routine
Eye creams are another advanced routine addition in my opinion, however at a certain age they become necessary AND to be honest, if you are smart, you’ll be using one at age 18 because it is so much easier to focus on prevention than it is to reverse damage. Eye creams can assist with many issues from puffy eyes to dark circles (Wild Plum Eye Cream), fine lines to crepey skin (Lavender Night Eye Cream).
Moisturizers and Oils: Steps in Your Skin Care Routine
This is a key component to any routine. Hydration is a crucial step in your skin care routine, for any skin type. In my professional opinion, you can never have too much hydration, even oily skin types.
I have my own personal trauma with this. My whole life I thought I was oily and that was why my acne was so bad. Only to discover that I was actually incredibly dehydrated and my dryness was triggering my skin to produce natural oils to hydrate itself which trapped dirt on my skin and caused a large portion of my acne. Once I started hydrating, combating the oils with the moisture from the Facial Recovery Oil , is when I finally found relief from my cystic acne.
There are different looks people prefer: matte vs. dewy. Then you have textures – dense & creamy or lightweight & swiftly absorbing. There is a form of hydration for everyone. This can easily be found through a consultation with myself. Again when we are talking about molecular density, please apply moisturizer first, then oils!
SPF Sun Protection: Steps in Your Skin Care Routine
This is a given. The number one way to prevent aging is to block the sun during peak UV hours (typically between 10AM to 3PM, varying depending where you live).
I want you to forget about chemical spfs PLEASE. Sun screen products are another cause of cancer and defeat the purpose of using these products. Use physical barriers, products labeled as “sun block” with ingredients like zinc oxide, like the Daily Defense Tinted SPF 50 and the Radiant Protection SPF 30 Fluid or the Lilikoi Sport SPF 30 for the body. You can even try the Sun Defense Minerals if you’re looking for a mineral powder make-up with SPF!
It’s the final step of your routine as we don’t want to interfere with the coverage by layering on over top. You can mix with your fav moisturizer or oil if you desire more hydration but this will knock down the levels of protection a bit, so just keep that in mind.
Night Creams: Steps in Your Skin Care Routine
This one is for advanced routines and night time routines only! Most night creams actually contain ingredients best used at night, like the Marine Flower Peptide Night Cream. If it’s the right night cream, I stand fully behind it. My top two actually are the Marine Flower Peptide Night Cream and the Monoi Age Corrective Night Cream.
I have very few clients who have as advanced a routine as myself, but every day I help people just like you take their routine to the next level.
It's Not Quite Over Yet
So there you have it. The What, When, Why, and How of each of the steps in your skin care routine. As this article gained momentum, I decided I should break down all this info into two parts. Little bit more manageable and easier to read through depending on which topic you want to learn more about: the steps themselves or the routines we build with them. I personally feel like they go hand in hand like me and my husband or chocolate and peanut butter, they just make each other better. So if you like what you read here, be sure to check out How to Build a Skin Care Routine for Beginners!
Wishing you a life full of beauty and blessings!
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