Tips For Creating A Skincare Routine That Works For You

Self-care is an important part of keeping ourselves physically and mentally healthy. We work out to keep our bodies and muscles strong and in optimal working condition. We eat healthy to help prevent illness and keep ourselves energized. We cleanse ourselves to rid our body of dead skin cells and prevent infection.

With our skin being our biggest organ, it’s vitally important to make sure it’s healthy. So, having a routine that aids in keeping your skin healthy is important. Here are some ways you can best care for your skin and for yourself.

Identify Your Skin Type

The first step to creating a skincare routine is knowing what skin type you have. All skin is different, so using the wrong products for your skin might actually make issues worse than before. Observing your skin throughout the day is an easy way to determine its type. Skin can be classified into four main types:

1. Combination Skin: Skin that has a combination of oily and flakey areas.
2. Dry Skin: Skin with dry and flakey areas that may feel tight.
3. Oily Skin: Skin that looks shiny due to an overproduction of oil.
4. Sensitive Skin: Skin with red and irritated areas that are typically painful to the touch.

Once you identify your skin type, you can start to choose the right products for your skin.

Make It Manageable

Before choosing products, it is important to figure out how much time you can put into your skincare routine on a daily basis. If you only have ten minutes to get ready in the morning, you don’t want to choose an overly complicated skincare routine.

If you have more time in the evening before bed, then you can choose to add more products to your nighttime skincare routine. But keep it simple to start with and add products as needed. The recommended starting routine is a cleanser, a moisturizer, and sunscreen.

Choosing the Right Products

Now you know your skin type and have selected the amount of time you can spend on a skincare routine. Next, it’s time to start choosing the products for your routine. The first product to select is a cleanser.

Cleansers allow your face to start out fresh each day and end fresh at night. By cleaning your face you’re ridding it off any dirt and dead skin that may have built over the day and night. Choose products designed specifically for your skin type to get the best results.

A moisturizer is the next product you need to choose. We lose a lot of water during the day due to sweating, lack of hydration, and other factors. The more water we lose, the drier our skin can get. If our skin gets too dry, it can lead to cracked skin, which is painful, opens up the body to bacteria and infection, and takes a while to repair.

Dryness also means your skin will produce more oil to compensate for the lack of moisture which leads to breakouts and clogged pores. No one wants that! So a good moisturizer is an important addition to any skincare routine.

Sunscreen is another vital addition to your skincare routine. It’s an obvious thing to wear in the summer when the sun is at its brightest and worst, but you have to wear it even when it’s not so obvious. Skin cancer is a very real risk you take when you don’t wear sunscreen and increases the possibility of getting dark spots and wrinkles over time.

While there are many moisturizers, BB creams, and foundations that have SPF in them, it’s not enough to protect you from the sun! Sunscreens that contain broad-spectrum SPF 30 or higher are your best bets for staying as protected as possible.

Ways to Enhance Your Routine

So you have your basic routine down pat and it’s working well for you. But there are other issues you want to address as well. Your acne, dark circles under your eyes, dull skin, and other issues can be helped by adding additional products to your routine. Here a few suggestions of products you can add to address these and other issues.

Acne Treatments

Acne seems to be one of those things we can never escape regardless of our age! The foods we eat can cause breakouts, but so can factors like stress, increased hormone levels (like during that time of the month), and other factors.

Putting on a pound of foundation is not the solution! When looking for acne treatments, find ones that contain the ingredients benzoyl peroxide and salicylic acid. These ingredients can help reduce the number of acne breakouts you experience and help acne heal faster. Most acne treatments need between 5 to 15 minutes to dry, so plan accordingly for them.

Exfoliators

Do you notice that your skin is still looking dead and dull even though you have your skincare routine perfected? That’s because your skin is still covered in dead skin cells, preventing the new skin cells from shining through.

This is where exfoliators come into play. With ingredients like alpha-hydroxy acid enzymes from sources like papaya or pumpkin, exfoliators loosen the bonds between the old, dead skin cells and the new skin cells underneath. Exfoliators can also help with acne issues, making it an awesome 2-in-1 product.

Eye Cream

Some people consider eye cream to be an essential part of their skincare routine. For others, it’s an add-on. There are many eye creams on the market that can treat any eye issue you might have.

Crow’s feet, dark circles, dried skin, puffiness, and under-eye wrinkles can all be treated with the right under eye cream. Just find the one that’s formulated for your specific concern to receive the best treatment possible.

Face Mask

Face masks aren’t for daily routine use, but they can be used one to three times a week to help take your skincare to another level. One of the best things about face masks is that the versatile range of products on the market. From sheet masks to peel-off masks, clay masks to charcoal masks, there is a mask for everyone.

Face masks allow you to customize one to your specific needs, so if you have an oily t-zone but the rest of your face is dry, you can use different masks to treat those areas at the same time! And with the ability to use them while doing any task from reading a book to taking a bath, they can be used at your convenience.

Lip Care

Most people forget to give their lips proper attention and care. We use our mouths for so much, that we need to make sure our lips are cared for! Dead skin doesn’t just build up on our skin, it can build up on our lips as well. That’s where lip exfoliators and scrubs come in, allowing the dead skin to be removed and revealing healthy lips.

Using a hydrating and nourishing lip balm will help keep lip moisturized and healthy. And just like you need SPF for your body, you need it for your lips as well to prevent them from drying out. Keep those lips hydrated and healthy and they will be ready for every matte or metallic lipstick you apply!

Toner

Toners are another area of skin care with a versatile range that treats all kinds of skin issues. Some toners address the issue of skin redness, while another might work to balance the skin’s pH level. But all toners have one common factor to them; they remove the dirt, oil, and other impurities that linger on your skin even after you’ve cleansed it.

Toners can also help keep the skin moisturized. Rose water toner is a great choice because of its anti-inflammatory properties which help fight acne, soothes irritated skin, and helps with dermatitis and eczema. Choose the toner that best addresses your skincare needs and it will be a helpful addition to your skincare routine.

Parting Words

No skincare routine will give you overnight results, so patience is key when starting one. And you might have to try several products before you find the right ones for your skin. The process can feel overwhelming, expensive, and maybe even frustrating at times. But when you see the results of healthier skin, it will all be worth it.