The most important takeaway about skin concerns is that most people have multiple skin concerns at the same time. It is not unusual for someone to have rosacea, wrinkles, sun damage, brown discolorations, and patches of dryness. This is where skincare can get complicated because once you’ve identified your skin concerns, then you need to add the specialty treatment products that can address them. Your core skincare routine may be enough to handle some aspects of your skin concerns, but that all depends on how stubborn or deep the problems are. You are the only who can determine how targeted and precise a skincare routine you want and need.
There are specific treatment products, both prescription and non-prescription, targeted for the treatment of acne, rosacea or other types of redness, blackheads, very oily skin, advanced sun damage, wrinkles, eczema, hydration, skin discolorations, and so on. Those concerns, along with your basic skincare requirements, are explained in the following chapters—along with helpful tips on how to put a routine together, including the order of application.
Basic Skincare Requirements
This section presents a quick overview of the products you need to build a core or basic skincare routine. (We elaborate more on this topic in Chapter 4, Which Skincare Products You Need and Which Ones to Avoid.) In the following paragraphs, we list the products you would use every day to maintain your skin, to meet many of your skincare needs related to your skin type, and to address some of your skin concerns. Though this may sound like a sweeping comment, we believe strongly that everyone can benefit from following these steps, even teenagers. Although we know it’s highly unlikely that any teenager will follow all these steps, starting them in the right direction with at least three would be a perfect beginning.
The basics are: Twice a day use a gentle water-soluble cleanser appropriate for your skin type; more emollient for dry skin, more of a lotion style for normal skin, and a gel or pearlized lotion with a bit of sudsing for oily/combination skin. You can start or follow with a makeup remover to be sure you’ve removed every last bit of makeup; you don’t ever want to fall asleep in your makeup.
Next is a toner, and of course it must be one that contains no irritants of any kind. This step assures you that you are quickly giving back to skin the crucial substances we mentioned before, such as antioxidants, skin-repairing ingredients, and cell-communicating ingredients, in a lightweight sheer formula that’s appropriate for your skin type; dry skin would have more emollients, normal skin would be a fluid without extra emollients, and oily/combination skin would have ingredients that are helpful to balance oily skin.
You then follow with an exfoliant in a formula appropriate for your skin type. We explain at length in the next chapter why an exfoliant is a basic item in any daily skincare routine.
A serum can be your next step to give your skin a concentrated dose of the brilliant ingredients skin is hungry for, including antioxidants, skin-repairing ingredients, and cell-communicating ingredients. This is a wonderful basic step that many overlook, but the benefit may be worth experiencing for yourself before you write this step off as being a waste of time.
It goes without saying, but we will say it anyway: During the day you must wear a sunscreen with SPF 30 or greater and you must experiment to find a texture of sunscreen that makes your skin happy. For someone with dry skin a creamier formula should be perfect, for someone with normal skin a lotion formula will be great, and if you have oily/combination skin, a matte-finish sunscreen would work best.
At night you need a moisturizer to feed your skin once again, with healthy amounts of antioxidants, skin-repairing ingredients, and cell-communicating ingredients. The texture of your moisturizer must be appropriate for your skin type. If you have oily/combination skin, a liquid, gel, or thin serum would be ideal; dry skin would need a rich emollient cream; and normal skin would do great with a lotion.
Layering Skincare Products
The first building block for finally achieving the best skin of your life is a core skincare routine, as mentioned above. Those basic, and critical, steps—water-soluble cleanser, toner, exfoliant, SPF moisturizer during the day and moisturizer at night—are essential products for everyone. All of these core products must have a texture that is appropriate for your skin type and must contain the same indispensable ingredients for skin.
As we explained throughout the opening chapters, and it bears repeating, everyone needs antioxidants, skin-repairing ingredients, and cell-communicating ingredients. If you have dry skin, the texture of the products should be emollient creams and serums; if you have normal skin, they should be lightweight lotions and serums; if you have oily/combination skin, then gels, liquids, and thin serums are best. For some skin types and skin concerns, the basics might be all you need to have smooth, soft, and radiant skin. If your skin concerns are more complicated, or if you have more than one skin type on your face, then additional steps are vitally important—this is where layering skincare products becomes imperative.
Depending on your skin concerns (breakout-prone, blackheads, advanced sun damage, rosacea, among many others) and/or on your special skin type (seasonal changes to skin, more dry patches than typical for combination skin, super oily skin, extremely dry skin), you might want to consider layering one or several uniquely-formulated products with the products in your core skincare routine.
Layering involves supplementing your core routine with products usually referred to as specialized serums, essences, boosters, or medical treatments (over-the-counter as well as prescription), either every day or as needed. As you will see in the following chapters, we explain how you can add a specialized product or products to your core routine to address specific problems such as skin discolorations, extra moisturizing for dehydrated skin, more emollients for seasonal dryness, anti-acne products for breakouts, increased exfoliation for stubborn blackheads or advanced sun damage, and so on.
You can add these types of targeted, or focused, products at almost any point in your skincare routine, after cleansing and toning. Depending on the type of problems you are addressing, these targeted treatments can be used daily, every other day, once a week, or seasonally.
The most important thing to understand is that no single product can do it all when you have distinct and disparate skin concerns. It’s possible that it may take only one extra product, but this depends entirely on the problems with which you are dealing. Layering is not a new concept in skincare, but given the new and advanced lightweight and highly compatible formulations that can truly make a marked difference in specific skin concerns, better skin awaits you once you understand how layering works and what products will produce the best results.
Chapter 4
Which Skincare Products You Need—and Which Ones to Avoid
Cleansers
No other aspect of skincare is quite as basic or as important as using a cleanser. Cleansing the face sets the stage for almost everything else that will take place on skin. A good cleanser removes excess oil, dirt, and makeup and helps exfoliate, leaving skin smooth and fresh without feeling greasy or dry.
If you don’t cleanse your skin regularly or if you don’t remove all your makeup, your skin will pay the price, with irritation, potential breakouts, dry patches, and puffy eyes being the cost.
Thorough cleansing is essential for every skin type, and it’s equally critical—for every skin type—that the cleansing products be gentle. Over-cleansing or using cleansers that are too drying are major causes of skin problems, especially dryness, flaky patches, and redness.
On the other hand, using a cleanser that leaves a greasy film on the face or that doesn’t clean well can lead to clogged pores and dull-looking skin, and prevent moisturizers from absorbing and doing their job. It is essential to get this step right, and that means thoroughly, but gently, cleansing your face.
Should you start with a makeup remover? Many people feel their cleansing routine should start with a makeup remover, such as a liquid, makeup wipes, or cleansing oil. Although