Steps to Skin Care Routine
Whenever you go and ask any of your girlfriends, that - what do you do for your skin or how you take of it? That will be the answer you will get. They will say, "for me, steps to skincare" are "soap and water" or "cleanse, tone, and moisturize."
Meanwhile, I do my day & night care routine quite certainly, not obsessively. Following into 10 to 12 steps skincare process is not my cup of tea.
Working in the field of Sustainability and Zero-Waste energy for ten plus years makes me less tolerant of carrying or keeping more than 3-5 products in my beauty cabinet. In the past, I have written about How to Wash your face!
But how about I walk you through my skincare regimen and steps to follow. I have found that many girls find essential skin maintenance a drag. But we are talking about a few minutes worth of work.
This work will make you beautiful. Once you follow this, you will get into the habit pretty quickly, and the result will come fast. As I said, I am not a believer that you need to have 10-12 steps to a skincare routine.
To prove my belief on this, I would like to ask you a few questions: Do you need to wear lip liner every time you wear lipstick? Or do you need to wear a primer? Sometimes! So the same thing implies here.
All those 10-12 steps are necessary, but sometimes. I want you to have a practical and natural skincare routine so that you can follow through quickly. The essential steps in caring for your skin are to cleanse, treat, moisturize, and protect.
Not all these steps need to be done every single day. However, it has to be performed in the correct number in a disciplined manner.
Steps to Skin Care Routine:
Step 1: Skincare routine: Cleanse
When I say cleanse, I mean not cleaning your face with wipes or splashing water on your face. I genuinely mean, cleansing with oil, balm or cream as the first step.
Also, separating facial cleansers by the facial organ is not a sustainable and effective way to tackle zero-waste beauty. That's why wasting money on eye make-up needs to be avoided.
I am also not keen on facial washes since they rarely remove every trace of make-up, and I find it faint foundation grains on my towel.
Although I am going to share a natural cleansing method in this blog if you are into the process of buying a new cleanser, Then I would avoid cleaners containing mineral oil. Cleansers containing mineral oil are the worst enemy for spot-prone skin.
The last thing, use flannel cloth once you apply soap and water. Grab a piece of fabric from an old terry cotton t-shirt that you are already going to throw.
Don't use those muslin clothes. Those are for cleaning your kitchen tables. So now we know all no-no; let's get down to the method of cleansing.
Method: Message a giant blob of cleansing cream or balm into your face. Make sure you cover eye area, forehead, neck, and jawline. Don't be choosy, enjoy this process and massage it thoroughly in a circular motion.
Soak a flannel cloth into hot water and kept the warm towel for 2 minutes. The hot water steam will help you with cleaning your pore and remove all the debris of make-up.
Now slowly wrap it around your hand like a mitt and buff off the product. Starting with eyes, then more pressure in another part of your face. Rinse the clothe halfway and remove all the dirt.
Frequency: Twice a day! Morning & Night. Generally, I do my morning cleanse before stepping in to shower while night-time washes, right before I get into my PJs.
I used to get very sleepy and lazy for night time cleanse, so I decided to stick to this schedule. Whatever you do - stick to it. Your skin will show you the difference.
Step 2: Skincare routine: Treat - Exfoliate - AHA & BHA
This is a treatment; no one needs this treatment every single day. If you are doing this treatment every single day, then you are damaging your skin.
Exfoliation of your skin can be done in two ways:
1) Alpha Hydroxy Acids
2) Beta Hydroxy Acids.
AHA based exfoliation can be done a few times a week, while BHAs can be done in an effective way to cure spot-prone treatments. AHA unplug the bond between dead cells and skin.
It works wonder in your upper skin while BHA goes deep down to your skin and cure the problem. The main function of the shedding is to take out dead upper cells and exposing virgin skin beneath.
I appreciate that acid is the word that sounds blood scary about beauty products but doesn't afraid. Try to find natural and DIY alternatives for AHA (like glycolic acid, lactic or citric acid) & BHA (Salicylic acid). Follow us on Instagram, and we have shared a few natural alternatives on AHA & BHA
Method:
After cleansing, soak two cotton clothes in liquid exfoliate. Now apply on your entire face. The eye area can be very flaky, so do not apply this solution there. You will see a bit of redness, but it will go away.
Frequency: Once a week at first, and if you do not see any adverse effect, follow two times a week schedule.
Step 3: Skincare routine: Moisturize - Serum/Facial Oil/Day Cream
Nowadays, most girls agree that moisturizer is necessary. Moisturizer is the product that will help your skin look fresh, comfortable, supple, brighter, and plumper. It is not to be avoided, whether your skin is oily, spot-prone, dry, or average.
Every single woman or girl needs to moisturize. If you are working on steps to a skincare routine, then this is one vital step to follow. I keep a few facial oils in my beauty cabinets, and I almost always choose day & night moisturizers according to how they make my skin look.
I always keep three types of facial oils: light, medium, and substantial body. Facial oils can act as a serum. Serums are a little bit tricky to me because mainly serum helps you treat the particular problem of the skin.
Since facial oils are so versatile and a one-stop product, I use them as a part of my moisturizing process.
Method:
After exfoliation, apply your day cream or oil between your fingertips. Massage into the skin using deep, firmish movements. Don't rub back and forth. Especially if your day cream consists of SPF, it can often cause to disintegrate into little balls.
Frequency: Every day
Step 4: Skincare routine: Protect - Sunscreen
There is so much confusion about sunscreen. More SPF is better, zinc-based, or not zinc-based! Etc. Etc. Many day creams also include SPF (from 15 to 30),
I am broadly in favor of those, as it will help you to decrease one more product if you are like me - Zero-Waste & Sustainable junkie.
But make sure those SPF contained moisturizer peel off in little balls when you try to apply make-up over them. If you are like me, there are many facial plant-based oils contains SPF as well.
Here is the list of oil and its SPF level:
Almond oil: SPF around 5
Coconut oil: SPF 4-6
Red raspberry seed oil: SPF 25-50
Carrot seed oil: SPF 35-40
All the above oil provides moderate coverage when it comes to UVA & UVB. But I strongly suggest using SPF as a separate product. (here is my suggestion). It is the protection of your skin, and you shouldn't be less careful about that.
Method:
Apply sunscreen right before you apply the foundation. Apply your sunscreen between two fingertips. Massage it into the firmish movement from neck to forehead.
Frequency: Every Single day
So here is our guide on steps to skincare routine!
You will get this by the below charts: