Everybody wants beautiful, soft skin, but where to start? With so many different products on the market, it’s easy to get lost or overwhelmed. That’s why I wrote this skincare guide for you to fall back on if you want a skincare routine, but don’t know where to start. This is my Morning Skincare Routine. Check out my Evening Skincare Routine here.
An ideal morning skincare routine contains 4 steps. With the evening skincare routine, your whole skincare routine should contain about 8-10 steps (steps, not products!). This might seem crazy, but believe me, with all the pollution and UV rays, you’re going to want to follow a similar routine. And if you’re still sceptical, Korea is known for elaborate skincare routines with at least 10 products and for beautiful skin…so there’s an obvious link there!
I used to be sceptical myself for a really long time, but seeing my own skin transform after following this routine has convinced me otherwise!
Your skin is precious and you want to treat it that way, because it’s going to be the skin you’ll live in for the rest of your live! So without further ado, let’s get started.
Morning routine
In the morning your skin has different needs, it mainly needs protection. That’s why your morning routine should ideally contain these 4 steps:
1. Cleansing
You just woke up, so of course you want to cleanse your face and freshen up! Lots of people use very aggressive face cleansers: that’s not good for your skin at all. Especially since you’re not even washing off makeup in the morning (we aren’t, are we ladies? :p). Use a gentle cleanser, you want to stay away from very foamy cleansers. These type of cleansers strip your skin from its much needed natural oils and irritate your poor, poor skin. I’m in love with the Body Shop Vitamin E face wash, it’s so gentle and nice. (I also review their Vitamin E face oil here!)
2. Toner
After cleansing use a toner for your skin type. While different skin types require different ingredients, you never want to use toners with lots of alcohol in them. It’s just seriously drying and bad for your skin, don’t do it. My personal favourite is rose water! Rose water not only smells delicious, but it’s also great for a variety of skin types. It contains anti-inflammatory properties, so it’s great if you have acne-prone skin, but it also helps with dry, flaky skin. Best of all, you can often get it for a great price. This Organic White Rose toner by Alteya is $17.50 for a whopping 17oz (about 500ml) of product! That’s going to last you a long time and you can also use it on your body.
3. Moisturizer
Next step is moisturizing! You want to use a nice cream that feeds your skin and makes it feel soft and supple. If you have dry skin, go for thicker consistencies, if you have oily skin go for light-weight creams or gels. For normal skin, use a lotion or light-weight cream. My personal face is Philosophy’s Hope in a Jar. For me it really is Hope in a jar and it works for all skin types. And they’re one of my favourite skincare brands! (a review on one of their famous products is coming soon 😉 )
4. Sunscreen
The most important step of all. Seriously, never skip this. Too many people skip this step and it’s damaging their skin! The sun damages your skin, period. Even if you don’t see the effects now, the damaging process does take place and wrinkles and sun spots will appear. We’re bound to become wrinkly one day, but the longer it takes, the better. View sunscreen as that magical ingredient that extends the life shelf of smooth, healthy skin. If you already have sun damage, using sunscreen will help slow down more damage. It does not matter whether the sun is shining or not and whether it’s winter. The reason for this that it’s the UV rays in daylight that are damaging, so if it’s daytime, you oughta be wearing a sunscreen, preferably at least spf 30! Most moisturizers don’t contain spf, if this is the case with yours, add a sunscreen immediately. If you find a moisturizer with spf that is nourishing enough for your skin type, go ahead and just use that as a moisturizer and sunscreen in one : ) Currently I’m using the Laura Mercier daily face shield spf 40, I add it on top of my moisturizer. It doubles as a primer, because of how smooth it leaves the skin and I prefer it over my previous one, which was the Chanel Essentiel Daily Defender (flashback+too expensive).
Recap
That’s it for the morning routine! It only takes me about 5 minutes, which is absolutely worth protecting and caring for my skin!
My evening skincare routine takes me 10 minutes, so in total it’s about 15 minutes a day. Honestly, that’s a small price to pay for the health of your skin ; )
Check out my blog post about my Evening Skincare Routine!
