How To Master Your Skincare Routine For Better Results
Are you making the most of your skincare routine or could you do better? Nobody’s perfect, we get that, so if you’re looking for a few simple tweaks to improve the way you look after your skin, we’ve got your back…
Good news: a great skincare routine doesn’t require tons of cash, hours of free time and an encyclopedic knowledge of the ins-and-outs of every single skincare ingredient out there. Of course, it’s nice to treat yourself to an indulgent facial every now and again, and sure, it can be invaluable to know the differences between active ingredients like AHAs and BHAs. But some of the most important and effective ways to boost your skincare routine are a) super simple and b) totally free.
Now, we don’t know about you, but we’re all over that.
Read on for seven easy ways to maximize your skincare routine so you can enjoy healthier skin with very little effort.
1. Find A Routine That Works For YOU
Skincare routines are very personal things so, while it’s great to take advice from others about their favorite products, what works for them might not be right for you. Of course, this one-size-does-NOT-fit-all philosophy doesn’t make it easy when perfecting your routine but if you understand what your skin needs this is a major step to skincare success.
The best way to know your skin type is to gently cleanse it (try Vitamin C Brightening Cleanser), then leave it alone for an hour or so without applying any further products. After this time, check out your skin in the mirror. Scrutinize it, touch it and you’ll know pretty much straight away whether it’s normal (pretty unlikely!), oily, dry or combination (the most common skin type). If it looks shiny all over, you have oily skin; if it feels tight and possibly itchy, it’s dry and if it’s a mixture of the two, then you have combination skin. Does it feel totally fine and look incredible? Then you’re one of the lucky few with normal skin. And we envy, sorry, salute you!
Once you know your skin type, take another look at your skin and think about the things you might like to address in your routine – be this enlarged pores, breakouts, fine lines, dark spots or dehydration.
All these important factors will help you build an awesome regime that works for your skin and its needs – not someone else's.
2. Take. Your. Time.
Whether you end up with a three-step or ten-step routine, the key is never to rush. Slapping cleanser on your face and rinsing it off without a second thought might work to an extent, but it won’t give you the same results as spending time massaging your face to boost blood flow and drain toxins. It just won’t.
Similarly, layering products on top of each other lightning fast can cause pilling if you’re not careful so give yourself a breather between serum applications or between applying moisturizer and SPF, for example. Put some coffee on, get dressed, brush your teeth, then go back to the next stage of your routine.
Trust us, spending a few extra minutes on your skin will give you much better results in the long-term.
3. Invest In A Face Towel For You & You Alone
It may seem a little decadent to have your own separate face towel but do you really want to be using your bath towel (one word: butt) on your face? Especially if your entire family shares the same towels? Heck no!
And we’ll leave that one there.
4. It’s Not Just What You Apply, But How You Apply It
The way in which you apply certain products can have a profound effect on the state of your skin. Here’s a quick guide to our favorite tried and tested ways to apply the most common products in your routine…
Cleanser
DO apply a dime-sized amount to damp skin and use your hands and pads of your fingers to gently massage it in circular motions all over.
DON’T scrub it into your skin like your life depended on it. This can damage your skin. Not cool.
Eye Treatment
DO use the smallest amount and pat it around the eyes using your ring fingers to ensure a delicate touch.
DON’T press too hard and definitely don’t drag your skin. Bad news.
Serum
DO apply straight after cleansing while your skin is still damp, pressing it into your skin with the pads of your fingers.
DON’T use too much – four or five drops should be plenty. And don’t aggressively massage it into your skin.
Moisturizer
DO allow your serum to settle first, then use light pressure to massage a quarter-sized amount all over.
DON’T apply more just because your skin feels dry. If this is the case, use a different, richer formulation.
Sunscreen
DO be generous and use at least a quarter-sized amount. Apply it the same way as you would regular moisturizer.
DON’T forget your neck!
5. Eat Your Greens
A decent, balanced diet isn’t just great for your health, it makes a vast difference to the look and feel of your skin. How so? Well sugar, salt, processed foods and bad fats are devils for the complexion as they produce nasty little end products called AGES which, as their name suggests, age your skin up super fast by ruining your collagen supplies, killing radiance and drying out your skin.
On the flipside, fresh fruit and veggies, oily fish, nuts and seeds are incredibly good for your skin, feeding it from the inside with essential vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and more. Leafy greens, in particular, are chock full of skin-loving stuff like vitamin A to strengthen the skin, vitamin K for improving circulation, zinc which helps reduce breakouts, and zeaxanthin, a powerful antioxidant.
6. Tap Into Your Water
Tap water contains chlorine which is an essential disinfectant for killing off harmful bacteria and maintaining hygienic conditions. Great, right? Actually, not so much for your skin. Chlorine depletes the skin's natural oils, causing dryness and accelerating the aging process. Oh dear.
Tap water is also full of dissolved heavy metals like calcium, copper, iron and magnesium – especially in areas where water is notoriously hard. And what does that mean for your skin? Well, hard water has a higher alkalinity than soft water which can upset the pH balance of your skin. Also, if your skin errs on the side of sensitive, hard tap water can compromise its barrier function, causing further dryness, irritation and redness. It can even exacerbate existing conditions such as psoriasis, acne or eczema if you cleanse with hard water on a regular basis. What the…. whaaaaat?
Don’t fret too much, however. If you live in an area with soft water, you’re totally fine. However, if your tap water is hard and you feel like your skin is suffering because of it, you might want to think about investing in a shower filter or a complete water filtration system in your home to help lessen the blow.
7. Be The Queen Of Cleaning
From questionable countertops to week-old bedlinen and murky-looking makeup brushes, all surfaces trap bacteria, dirt, oil, sweat, allergens and the like. Just because you can’t see what’s lurking on something, it doesn’t mean it’s not dirty and potentially impacting the health of your skin. So, be clean.
Our general rule of thumb is as follows…
DAILY: wash face towels, wipe kitchen counters and clean your smartphone.
TWICE WEEKLY: deep clean surfaces in the bathroom and kitchen.
WEEKLY: Launder your bed linen, wipe down light switches, doorknobs and other surfaces in your home, and shampoo your makeup brushes.
Awesome skin, here we come!
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![5 Unusual Things That Can Trigger Breakouts]()
No idea why you’re getting an influx of acne right now? Many lifestyle habits can trigger your breakouts – and sometimes they’re found in the most unsuspecting places.
As you know, acne is caused by one thing and one thing alone: an excess of sebum that causes your pores to become blocked with oil, dead skin cells, bacteria and other impurities. Eating too much chocolate doesn’t give you pimples. Neither does moisturizer. Sure, they can trigger breakouts if you’re genetically susceptible to them, but acne isn’t caused by uncleanliness, a poor diet or crummy skincare routine. It’s caused by blocked pores. End of.
OK, so this begs the question: why bother trying to cure them if your breakouts are totally out of your control? Well, here’s the thing. You can’t change your genes, that’s for certain. However, what you can do is keep acne-triggering factors under control to help lessen the blow. Sleeping well, reducing emotional stress and eating a healthy, well-balanced diet; all these things are important for maintaining balanced sebum and therefore reducing the likelihood of you breaking out week after week.
But there are also some less obvious reasons why you face might be suffering with regular breakouts. So if you’ve already dispensed with things like smoking, poor cleansing and too much exfoliation, but you’re still getting pimples on the reg, it might be time to look at some of the more unexpected areas of your life.
On that note, read on for five slightly more unusual causes for your breakouts.
1. Your Pillowcase
Getting enough beauty sleep is crucial for the health of your skin, but if you’re sleeping on a dirty pillowcase for a solid eight hours every night dirt and bacteria is inevitably going to build up and irritate your pores. This is especially true if you sleep on a synthetic pillowcase because man-made fibers don’t absorb sweat as effectively as natural fibres like cotton or linen.
The answer? Go natural all the way, for starters. Also, cleanse and moisturize your skin before bed to reduce the amount of grime getting on your pillowcase. Tea Tree Super Cleanser+ is a great acne-fighting cleanser that balances and clarifies your pores. Follow this with Retinol Moisturizer to lightly hydrate and moisturize your skin while boosting cellular turnover to keep your pores free of dead skin cells.
Finally, wash your pillowcase every three or four days. And ditto, your face towel. Old, dirty towels that are used by the whole family for drying their hands and who-knows-what-else are another breeding ground for germs and bacteria. Do you really want to be swiping this all over your freshly cleansed skin? Thought not. So, invest in a couple of cotton face towels for you and you alone and wash them every other day.
2. Your Makeup & Hair Products
Your skincare routine might be spot on, but what about your makeup and hair products? Rich hair conditioners, for example, are notorious for containing heavy ingredients like cocoa butter and coconut oil which, granted, are incredible for moisturizing your precious locks, but are not so great for acne-prone skin. Of course, we know you’re not smothering your face with conditioner but still, it can settle on your face when you rinse your hair so always cleanse your skin after, never before conditioning.
Makeup can similarly clog up your pores, especially if you use formulations that contain oil. So don’t do that. Instead, look out for noncomedogenic products (this means they’re less likely to block pores) and use powder rather than liquid formulations whenever possible.
3. Your Workout Routine
Do you love to get a good sweat on when you’re working out? High fives to you. However, allow all that sweat and grime to sit on your skin and your pores are going to clog up quicker than your instructor can say ‘hit the floor for ten push-ups.’
Cleanse your skin thoroughly and swiftly after exercising (the longer you leave your skin doused in sweat and grimy workout gear, the more bacteria is likely to breed), and always use a mild but effective cleanser that helps to detoxify your skin without drying it out. Our Charcoal Clarifying Cleanser is a goodie as it harnesses the powers of coconut-derived activated charcoal which destroys skin-smothering impurities to offer a deep, gently purifying clean every time.
4. Your Winter Cover-Ups
Any fabric that rubs against your skin can lead to unwanted issues in the long-term. Remember how face masks were causing ‘maskne’ back in the pandemic? This was all due to friction from the mask combining with the obvious culprits of sweat, dirt, oil, bacteria and humidity which caused dryness, irritation and pimples.
Thankfully, for most of us, the days of having to wear a mask 24/7 are over. However, if you spend a lot of time outdoors in the winter and like to wrap yourself up in woollen hats and thick, heavy scarves, these can cause similar problems, trapping sweat and increasing friction around your chin, jaw, neck and forehead.
To help reduce breakouts caused by beanies, scarves (and even turtleneck sweaters), avoid synthetic fabrics and launder your winter cover-ups regularly. Weekly, at least.
5. Your Laundry Detergent
Speaking of laundry, your choice of detergent is also imperative. Just like your beauty routine, certain ingredients in your laundry detergent can be super irritating – especially if you have extremely sensitive or acne-prone skin. Fragrance, for example, can be a real Debbie Downer, as can harsh dyes, essentials oils, strong surfactants and preservatives.
To reduce the likelihood of your laundry detergent triggering those pesky breakouts, first up, choose liquid over powder detergents. Why? Because these leave behind less residue on your clothes and fabrics (who knew?!). Also, never use more detergent than is recommended on the label, avoid fabric softeners and try double rinsing your laundry after washing to remove as much residue as possible.
5 Unusual Things That Can Trigger Breakouts
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