You Skin Care Routine Order

If one thing is certain, you need to take good care of your skin, especially since it's your body's largest organ. Not only will taking good care of your skin help with damage that causes signs of aging, but it will help with your overall health (it's true, good skin care keeps you body). Anymore, there are so many skincare brands with endless product options, and even if you have products you love, you might not be getting the most out of them because of how you use them. Depending on how you apply the product, and the order that you apply it in, you can get better absorption and optimal results from your skin care routine.

So, what products should you use and in what order? We asked the Pretty Pro's to get our skin care regime in order.

Makeup Remover and Cleanser
Cleansing your face at the end of the day is nothing new, but have you heard of double cleansing? Double cleansing is great because the first time around it takes off any makeup, dirt or oils. Where the second cleanse allows the product to deep clean your skin and treat any other problems your cleanser might take care of.
We start our skin care routine by taking off our makeup. Taking off your makeup at night is so important for not only healthy skin, but for clear skin as well. Your skin needs to breathe while it's regenerating itself and when you sleep in makeup it doesn’t get that opportunity.  
After we take off all our makeup, we recommend using a quarter size of cleanser with lukewarm water to remove the day. We use cleanser to remove the day's impurities, free radicals and oxidative stressors and anything else that works to break down our skin health.  We recommend finding a cleanser that works with your skin type - not sure what your skin type is? To find your skin type Click here.

We love the Dermalogica brand because they have a large selection of cleansers that address a variety of skin care needs.  Having trouble with adult breakouts? The Dermalogica Clearing Skin Wash has beautiful botanicals to clear skin, including salicylic acid, eucalyptus and tea tree, making it a favorite of ours at Pretty Lane.

Exfoliation
After our skin is clean, we choose to exfoliate if our skin is dry or flakey. To find out more information on exfoliation Click here.

Toner
If you’re double cleansing there isn’t a need to also use a toner as well. On days where you don’t wear makeup and still want to double cleanse, to make sure all the dirt and oils are off your skin, you might want to use a toner. Toner removes excess dirt and oil from the skin while returning your skin to its natural pH level. The pH balance of your skin is important because that is what protects it from allergens, bacteria, and pollution while helping it to retain moisture.

The holy grail favorite toner, Thayers Witch Hazel Rose Petal Toner, is a great toner when you need a deeper cleanse!

When applying skincare products we want everything to be absorbed by the skin, so, we must apply the products in a particular order. 

Serum
The first product we will want to apply is our serums - everything we put on our skin goes from thinnest in texture to thickest. Serums are a great way to target specific needs and are more concentrated to penetrate deeper for extra repair or prevention in the skin. There are serums for about every skin need! Is your skin thirsting for some hydration? There is a serum for that! Are you wanting to rid yourself of your crow's feet? There is a serum for that! We love making a "serum cocktail" that pinpoints our skincare needs. 

Our favorites are the Multivitamin Power Serum by Dermalogica, for anti-aging, and the BioLumin-C Serum, for brightening. We also love the Ere Perez Quandong Green Booster Serum, which is filled with superfood for the skin.

Eye Cream
Next comes eye creams which are one of our most important products! The skin under the eyes is thinner and shows signs of aging far before the rest of your skin, so it is important to make sure the skin under your eyes is even more hydrated than the rest of your face.

*Pretty Pro Tip: Many people don’t start using eye cream until they see signs of aging around 30 years old. Truth be told, the best way to get rid of wrinkles is prevention. Your skin will, unfortunately, wrinkle no matter what, but for the best looking under eyes you should start using eye cream in your 20s.

Our favorite eye creams you ask? We love the Dermalogica Intensive Eye Repair and the Belif Moisturizing Eye Bomb!

Spot Treatment
While your eye cream sinks in you can apply any spot treatments you might need. This step rotates in and out out of our skincare routine depending if we have breakouts or not. 

Moisturizer is our second to the last step. It is super basic but necessary for hydrated skin! Just like you get thirsty, so does your skin. During the day, it is super simple to kill two birds with one stone and use a moisturizer with SPF in it. During your nighttime skin care routine, SPF isn't necessary.

*Pretty Pro Tip: Use SPF in rain and shine. It doesn't matter if the sun isn't able to be seen, your skin is still absorbing UV rays.

For the daytime we recommend the Cetaphil DermaControl Oil Absorbing Moisturizer with SPF 30, while for the nighttime we recommend Dermalogica Barrier Repair.

Last but certainly not least is retinol! Retinol is the secret to slowing down the aging process and, as a derivative of Vitamin A, is the most studied and proven skin care ingredient to turn back the hands of time. Loss of collagen in the skin is what causes signs of aging and retinol is actually proven to increase the production of collagen and normalize skin cells. 

*Pretty Pro Tip: Some skin can be quite sensitive to retinol, so, for sensitive skin we recommend Herbivore Bakuchiol Retinol Alternative Smoothing Serum. This retinol is actually in the form of a serum, so it should actually be applied with the rest of your serums, before this step.

For normal skin, we love the Dermalogica Overnight Retinol Repair.  Ready to take the next step in your skin repair?  We recommend consulting your doctor about trying prescription Retinoic Acid for dramatic results.

Retinol should be used only at night because it may make your skin hypersensitive to the sun, but also the sun actually deactivates retinols and their effectiveness.

So, remember your skincare products should be applied in this order. 

Save this post, write down this order. Do everything possible to remember this order if you want to get the most out of your skincare products!