Your Essential, Back-To-Basics Skincare Guide
Put aside your serums, essences, oils and elixirs for a hot minute because it’s time to focus on the basics. Why? Because they might be basic but they’re actually the most important part of a kick-ass skincare routine…
The basics of a good skincare routine are simple: your skin needs to be cleansed regularly, moisturized effectively and always protected from the damaging rays of the sun. End of. Yes, eye treatments are awesome for targeted puffiness, crow’s feet, dark circles and everything else that causes you grief in the area around your eyes. And sure, antioxidant serums are the bomb for all number of issues like dryness, dullness, wrinkles and dark spots. But if you’re not down with a fabulous cleansing, moisturizing and sun protecting routine, you can forget the rest.
Feel like you’re overlooking what are undoubtedly the most important elements of your skincare regime? Then it’s probably time to get back to basics. Here’s how…
How To Nail The Basic Steps Of A Top Quality Skincare Routine
The first thing to remember with any regime is that no matter your skin type, condition, concerns or budget, your skin is super fragile and needs to be treated with the utmost of respect. This means avoiding tons of parabens, sulfates, phthalates and the like, while simultaneously taking it easy when it comes to potent, active ingredients like retinol and vitamin C. Sure, active ingredients are awesome for your skin – but only in small doses and only if they don’t cause your skin to freak out. Try to remember that.
Now, let’s get down to the specifics of a classic but effective cleansing, moisturizing and sun protecting routine.
1. Cleansing
People often dismiss cleansing as being unimportant, believing you can just wash your face with soap for a few seconds and job done. Not so. We believe cleansing is one of the most essential parts of your routine. Not only does it remove all the impurities from the surface of your skin including excess oils, dead skin cells, sweat, dirt, makeup and pollution, but creating a clean canvas helps set the rest of your routine up to succeed. If you leave all that grime sitting on your skin it will build up, block your pores and cause irritation, breakouts and premature aging. It will also create a barrier which the rest of your products will find almost impossible to penetrate. And what’s the point in investing in fantastic serums and moisturizers if they can’t do their jobs properly? No point. No point at all.
To nail your cleansing routine, do it every morning and every night (nope, facial wipes don’t count) and choose kind formulations that aren’t chock full of stripping alcohols or nasty sulfates like SLS and SLES. Gentle balancing cleansers are great for oily skin but avoid anything that’s too drying as this will overstimulate your sebaceous glands and exacerbate oiliness. Our amazing Charcoal face wash is a sweet choice for oily, combination or acne-prone skin. For the rest of you, try our awesome Vitamin C Brightening Cleanser.
One of our biggest pieces of advice for pro-style cleansing is not to rush. If you spend just a couple of minutes gently massaging your skin as you cleanse you will instantly boost blood flow and lymphatic drainage which brings oxygen to the skin and helps take toxins away. You don’t need to get too handsy, either, just be gentle and use the pads of your fingers to work your cleanser in circular motions all over.
After you’ve massaged your face and neck for two minutes, rinse well – using lukewarm (never hot) water – then pat your skin dry with a fresh, clean towel. Hot water is a major no-no as it strips your skin. And using dirty communal towels the whole family dries their hands with? Not cool for your beautifully cleansed face.
2. Moisturizing
Moisturizing your skin has to be one of the best parts of your routine. Are we right or are we right? There’s just something about smoothing cream or lotion on your skin that feels so darn good. Moisturizing is also vital for taking care of your skin’s barrier function and keeping your skin soft, supple and healthy. So, there’s that.
The best time to moisturize, if you’re not toning or applying treatment serums, is straight after cleansing while your skin is still slightly damp. This helps lock moisture into your skin for extra hydration. Neat huh? Make sure your hands are super clean – they should be because you’ve just cleansed – then apply a quarter-sized amount over your face and neck, using the palms of your hands to smooth it all over. Put your hands in a prayer position, either side of your nose, then press your hands flat onto your skin and work them up and out towards your hairline. Repeat this two or three times, then repeat over your forehead, finishing at your jawline and finally your neck. This should help you create an even layer all over.
If your skin still feels tight, dry or dehydrated, don’t go ahead and pile on more moisturizer. Instead, your skin is trying to tell you that you either need a heavier formulation or that you might benefit from a treatment serum before you moisturize. The same principle applies if your moisturizer feels too rich or heavy. Don’t scrimp on how much you apply, simply switch it up with a lighter gel or lotion formulation. Vitamin C Brightening Moisturizer and Vitamin C Deep Hydration Night Cream have both been formulated to suit most skin types, but still, it’s all about listening to your skin, people.
3. Protecting Your Skin From The Sun
The last step in any skincare routine, whether you stick with the basics or go full-on K Beauty on us, is to apply sunscreen. The fact is simple: the sun is the number one cause of skin aging. According to the Skin Cancer Foundation people who apply sunscreen with an SPF of 15 or more every day show 24 percent less skin aging than those who don’t. Now, we don’t know about you, but we’ll take 24 percent less aging in a heartbeat, thanks very much.
Our advice when it comes to applying sunscreen is simple. Smooth it generously over any area of your skin that's not covered by clothing, and apply it every day of the year. Cloudy days? Yes. Snowy days? Even more so. UV radiation is present all year round. End of discussion.
Around half a teaspoon is an ideal amount to generously cover your face and neck, according to the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD). And if you’re spending all day outside? Then you'll need to reapply it every two hours and immediately after swimming or sweating. Also, when it comes to specific ingredients, the FDA recognizes just two safe and effective ones for protecting your skin against damaging UV radiation: zinc oxide and titanium dioxide. Make sure any formulation you choose contains one or both of these.
Simple? Yes. Effective? 100 percent.
You May Also Like
View More-
![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
read more
