My Everyday Skincare Routines
Morning and night. Nonnegotiable. A decade + in the making. This is my everyday skincare essentials for brighter, more even, glowy, and hydrated skin.
And to note: while I have a specific skin type and am working on specific concerns (evening skin tone and preventing aging) I would love to help you with any skin questions you may have!
A Quick Overview of How I Got Here
As noted above, I have been trying to figure out how to heal and improve my skin for the majority of my adult life. I started going to a dermatologist in high school, like many of us did, and found some slow success. Then fell away in college and early adult life until truly my skin was at the worst it ever has been.
My face was covered in red, inflamed acne to which nothing seemed to help. I had oily parts, dry parts, it was just a mess. After years of googling, raiding the Sephora skincare aisles, and doing my own guesswork based on clever marketing schemes, I was lucky enough to find an incredible wholistic facialist in D.C. who healed my skin over the course of 2 years. During that time, I really learned what my skin type was, what products would work best for the concerns I was trying to address and then built a routine that has carried me through the last 3 or 4 years to continue maintaining my progress and heal past scarring.
So, let's get into what I do each day to combat acne, brighten my skin, and target aging... because, ya know, 30.
My Morning Skincare Routine
I have dry, acne prone skin with a little bit of sensitivity. So, I don't actually wash my face in the morning. Excessive washing can strip your skin of essential oils needed to protect your skin's natural moisture barrier. I like to keep it simple and just use a toner to get any excess oil built up from the night before and then go straight into my brightening and hydrating serums. And of course. sunscreen is a must, every single day, to finish your skincare routine to protect against the damaging affects the sun can have on your skin and ageing.
Toner: I wipe my face with a gentle pH balanced toner, to keep moisture barrier intact while swiping away any oil or debris built up from the night before.
Exfoliate: layer on my blemish serum with 2% salicylic acid to treat any active breakouts and protect against new ones.
Serum: next onto Vitamin C serum, an absolutely ESSENTIAL for any and all skin types, especially those who are aging or have uneven skin tone.
Serum: Depending on the season or if I've done a chemical peel recently, I will either add a Ceramides calming serum here or a hyaluronic acid serum here (or both) to calm/soothe my skin and provide a burst if hydration.
Eye Cream: I use a pink-pearly eye cream fortified with caffeine to brighten my dark circles and hydrate the under-eye area.
Moisturizer/SPF: I love using a moisturizer + spf combo here (and even layer with more spf as needed) and my current one is packed with anti-aging ingredients to promote skin cell turnover so we can keep erasing past scaring and brightening my skin.
My Nighttime Skincare Routine
Nighttime is the perfect way to pack in active ingredients that promote skin cell turnover and "fix" things as your skin does most of its recovery work and detoxing at night. During the night I will do a bit more exfoliation, followed by intense hydration, to really put my skin's repair abilities to the test.
Cleanse: At night, its best to double cleanse, especially if wearing makeup/sunscreen during the day. I use an oil-based cleanser to handwash away the top layer of yuckiness.
Second Cleanse: I wash my face the second time with the worlds #1 cleansing device to get alll the grime out of my pores and ensure my face is prepared for all the active products I'm going to add on top.
Tone: I use the same pH balance toner as I do in the morning.
Exfoliate: I add first my blemish serum to protect against acne and then follow up with a second exfoliator that has glycolic acid to target any texture or uneven skin tone. (This may sound like a lot of exfoliating, but acids are incredibly useful for all skin types to target concerns. I wrote about different acid types here!)
Serum: I like to do my ceramides serum at night to replenish my skin after the exfoliation.
Eye Cream: At night I use a firming and hydrating eye cream to combat any lines coming in and prevent puffiness in the morning.
Moisturizer: Having dry skin, I loooove a rich moisturizer. I use a luxe anti-aging cream and top with the most amazing gel sleeping mask to increase hydration while my chemical exfoliants work their magic.
This routine seems to be working magic for my skin and I'm super happy to have unlocked the mystery of skincare. Shop all my products here or as I said earlier, please reach out for any thoughts or recommendations for your skin care concerns! I love sharing all the knowledge I have gained over the past decade and have many fails that have taught me valuable lessons of what not to do.
Thanks for reading!!
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