First Things First
The first thing you have to do is figure out what your skin type is. Are you dry, oily or combination?
Then pay attention to any issues that need addressing such as acne, dark spots, fine lines associated with aging, or texture issues like large pores. Once you know what canvas you have to work with, the easier it will be to look for products with the right ingredients for your skin type and issues.
How Many Skincare Products Do I Need?
Sorry to the minimalist who is looking for one product to do it all. You actually need an arsenal of products (or just a handful) to create an effective skincare routine.
To boil it down to the bare essentials, you’d be looking at a cleanser, toner, serum, eye cream and moisturizer. If you wanted to throw in splurge worthy items you’d also be looking at an exfoliator, a night cream and a day cream with SPF.
A cleanser should remove makeup, dirt and impurities without drying out the skin. A toner should enhance the skin’s brightness while minimizing the look of pores. Your serum should really target your issue, whether it be wrinkles and fine lines, sun damage, dryness or acne. The eye cream is made your the very thin skin under your eyes. It usually helps with dark circles and puffiness, and finally, the moisturizer. Lather it on to help your skin soft and hydrated.
As for specific skin care ingredients, here’s my top 5
- Bakuchiol
- Vitamin C
- Sunscreen
- Hyaluronic acid
- Your Diet
What do all of these ingredients do? Lets break it down.
Bakuchiol – A plant based alternative to retinol. Retinol has always been the gold standard in skin care. It does wonders for minimizing wrinkles. The drawback is that it is irritating to the skin. People often report redness, irritation and stinging with use, to the point of looking like they have sunburn for a day or two.
Enter, bakuchiol. After going through medical journals and looking at a few studies comparing the effectiveness of retinol to bakuchiol, the clinical evidence shows that they are statistically the same in effectiveness. The main difference being that participants using bakuchiol report less stinging and redness. In short, it is just as good as retinol but better tolerated on the skin.
Find out more:
- From the British Journal of Dermatology here: Prospective, randomized, double-blind assessment of topical bakuchiol and retinol for facial photoageing
- From the Journal of Drugs in Dermatology: Clinical Evaluation of a Nature-Based Bakuchiol Anti-Aging Moisturizer for Sensitive Skin
Vitamin C – This is another big hitter in the skin care game. Vitamin C has two major benefits. First, it is a powerful antioxidant and helps prevent and reverse damage from the sun and the environment. Its been shown to reduce inflammation, redness and dark spots.
Second, it helps your body produce more collagen. Collagen is a naturally occurring substance that your body makes less of as time goes on. Lower collagen levels are directly correlated to appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. More collagen gives you more hydrated, plump skin without the wrinkles!
Sunscreen – In this day and age, sunscreen is a no brainer. SPF 30 of higher. You can even get foundation make up with SPF 30 in it. A lot of moisturizers have some degree of SPF in them as well, but usually only 15 SPF. If you are spending a considerable amount of time outside, a higher SPF is recommended. Prevent skin damage (ex: cancer) before it starts!! And ps: you’ll still get a tan, you just wont burn, so lather it on!
Hyaluronic Acid – Don’t let the name fool you. Hyaluronic acid is naturally occurring in the body. It is present mostly in the skin, eyes and connective tissue. Its main role is keeping tissues hydrated. It actually binds water molecules to tissues (including skin). By using a hyaluronic acid serum, you are essentially giving your skin a blast of hydration.
Your Diet – Although this is definitely not a skincare ingredient, what you eat counts too! A healthy, well-rounded diet full of fruits and vegetables from the full colour spectrum is something you can’t skip out on. You may have heard the phrase, “you can’t out train a bad diet”. Well, the same goes for your skin. It doesn’t matter what you put on your skin, if you are eating a diet full of chemical laden, processed foods without any fresh fruits and veggies you probably wont get the benefits you want to see from your skin care products.
How your body ages is 10% genetic, 10% exercise and 80% what you put in and on your body. If you need help with this, connect with me and I can get you on the right path.
As for the splurge worthy skincare items, an exfoliator can be one of the most important ones. Getting rid of the layers of dead skin cells on the surface is so important because it lets your skin care products do their magic to the living skin cells underneath. Make sure the exfoliator ingredient is something natural like milled apricot seeds and not little plastic balls or shards of glass! (How scary is that?!)
If you are looking for a recommendation of an all natural skincare line to suit your skin type, get in touch me with me on the socials or you can comment “info” below.
