Welcome to Skindergarden - The Basics of Starting a Skincare Regimen
I need Jesus to send the flood on SkinTok (skincare TikTok) already. During this pandemic, there’s been an increasing amount of people stepping into their self care bag - which is amazing - but the misinformation on what’s necessary to form a skincare routine has been stressing the girls out. Here is a simple guide for the skincare newbie, male or female identifying, that just wants to keep their skin healthy.
Before I dive in, I just want to call out the fact that skincare is genderless. Both men and women should take care of their skin, even if it’s on a basic level. While skincare products are heavily marketed towards women, the same ingredients and products would work for men as well. Skin is skin, despite the gender.
The Big Three: What you need to be doing, no matter how clear your skin is, in order of application.
Cleanse - Washing your face is basic hygiene. It’s like washing any other part of your body, it should be washed daily. While many people wash their face both morning and evening (myself included), the most important time to wash your face if you only have time to do it once a day is at night. After being outside all day exposed to dirt, pollution, and free particles while building up sweat, oil, and dead skin cells on your skin’s surface, it’s important to properly wash that off before you go to sleep. This is especially important if you wear makeup. Why is leaving the day’s dirt and oil on your face overnight bad? Because the glands under your skin that produces sebum (oil) use hair follicles on your skin as a route to allow the oil to reach the skin’s surface (aka your protective skin barrier) and the excess dirt and oil clogs those follicles. When that happens the dirt, oil, makeup, etc gets trapped in the follicle which allows bacteria to penetrate the skin and cause acne. Best Practice - Cleanse your skin at night with cold water (to fight inflammation and prevent dryness, which cleansing with warm water can cause) for 60 seconds minimum to allow your cleanser to fully do its job.
Moisturize - Moisturizer is important to allow your skin to maintain moisture, which is important to how the skin functions. A hydrated and healthy skin barrier fights acne better, heals from scarring better, regenerates skin cells better, and protects your skin from dirt and bacteria better. Also, for those who have oily skin, moisturizing your skin will help your skin regulate oil production better. Excess oil production is a result of your skin being dehydrated, which is why the oil is being produced. When you hydrate your skin with a moisturizer, your skin will be significantly less likely to produce excess oil. For dry skin, the moisturizer will hep bring the hydration and moisture your skin is not producing. In short, everybody needs a good moisturizer. Best Practice - Apply after you’ve cleansed your skin on slightly damp skin so the moisturizer can bond with the water and deliver some extra hydration.
SPF - SPF is the most important thing in your daytime skincare routine (you do not need to wear SPF after the sun has set). This is not about not wanting to get darker (you can still tan with SPF on, you’re just SIGNIFICANTLY reducing your chances of developing melanoma and damaging your skin in the process), it’s about basic skin health. SPF not only protects you from skin cancer, but it also prevents you from aging faster, protects your acne from being further irritated (unprotected skin in the sun will make your acne worse since your skin barrier is already damaged from the acne), and prevents hyperpigmentation. If you are trying to treat acne or dark spots, SPF is a must. None of your other products will be nearly as effective without it. If you have oily skin, you can skip your moisturizer and wear SPF in it’s place. You don’t need both, SPF is already a moisturizer as is. Best Practice - Check out this guide on my skinstagram on how to properly wear SPF.
So in short, a basic skincare routine to maintain healthy skin would be cleansing, moisturizing, and applying SPF in the daytime and cleansing and moisturizing in the nighttime. These are three steps and practices to follow no matter what your skin type is, what gender you identify with, how clear your skin naturally is.
Cheers,
Kahina