Skincare Routine
Hey guys!
Today's post is going to about my skincare routine- what products I use and how I use them to keep my skin nice and healthy and clear! Skincare is incredibly individual so what works for me may not work for you, but if you have a similar skin type to me then you may find this helpful, otherwise you may just be nosy and want to know the (probably excessive) amount of products I throw at my face on a daily basis.
First of all, my skin type: I have oily dehydrated skin, but no other issues other than the fact that my face looks like you could fry an egg on it after a few hours.
Lets start with my night time skincare routine: Cleansing: Cleansing is a very important, if not the most important step in your skincare routine. Cleansing helps to get rid of all the dirt, debris and makeup off your skin so the next things you put on your face can actually penetrate beneath the surface of your skin.
I personally love to double cleanse, as someone who wears a lot of makeup every day, it leaves my skin feeling amazingly clean. First I cleanse with either Dermalogica Pre Cleanse Balm, or just the standard Pre Cleanse oil. I love this "pre cleanse" range as it is solely made with the purpose of removing all the longwearing makeup, mascara, sunscreen, dirt and debris on your face. To use I either pop one pump in my hands if using the oil, or put a 20c coin piece of balm onto the cleansing mitt that comes with it and massage it into my dry face, making sure to concentrate it in areas of stubborn makeup (for me usually my eyes-- damn mascara.) When I feel as though my makeup has all melted down, I then go in with a little bit of water in my hands and massage that into my face. When you add water the balm or oil instantly turns into a milky cleanser and gets rid of that last teensy bit of makeup and washes off easily! If you have ever oil cleansed before you know the struggle of getting oil off your face at the end of cleansing, this stops that right in its tracks.
Next I use SkincareRX Cleansing gel to actually cleanse my skin, once all that dirt and makeup is thoroughly removed; this is when the active ingredients in your cleanser can actually get to work cleaning your skin. I love the SkincareRx Cleansing gel as it is a hard working cleanser that has ingredients such as Vitamin C for brightening your skin and Lactic acid for a slighty exfoliating and hydrating action. This also helps get rid of the excess mascara from around your eyes which I find incredibly helpful.
My favourite part of my skincare routine is definitely my serums, they make the skin feel so fresh and glowy and help immensely with any sort of skin issues you may be facing. Serums are the ones that get right down deep into the skin and do the dirty work for you to fix things such as pigmentartion, hydration levels and acne to name a few. Multi B Plus Serum: My vitamin B serum is probably my all time favourite skincare product! It is ideal for all types of skin conditons, such as hyper-pigmentation, sun damage, sensitive skin, ageing and dehydration. As i mentioned above I have super oily skin, which does come from my skin being dehydrated. This serum has literally changed the game for me and my skin is far far less oily using it. It reduces the amount of sebum (oil) your skin produces and also hydrates while preventing Trans Epidermal Water Loss which is the amount of moisture that passess through the top layer of your skin and out into the atmosphere making your skin dehydrated. It's brightening, hydrating, mattifying and firming. What more could you want in a serum? I always use it morning and night as it is just a super super hydrator!
Active C Serum: This is another serum I use and really enjoy, although it is not as necerssary for me as Multi B. Vitamin C is great for pigmented, sun damaged and inflamed skin as it is calming, hydrating and brightening, but also has the amazing benefits of stimulating collagen to be made which helps with anti-ageing. (Collagen breaks down as we age and doesnt come back unless we stimulate our skin to produce more.) Vitamin C is also awesome for skins that are looking to reduce and prevent pigmentation as it brightens the pigmentation spots that are already there, but also helps to prevent the cells that make pigment (melanocytes) from making pigment in the future.
This is a great one for New Zealanders as our sun is incredibly harsh.
Vitamin A: Vitamin A is your helper for anti-ageing (that's where a lot of you probably know about it from) but also can help with acnaeic skin, hyperpigmentation and sun damage as it helps to keep the cells turning over at a faster rate. It is best to use Vitamin A only at night as it is a metabolic vitamin so it works best when your body is at rest. Vitamin A also helps to assit in the deep delivery of nutrients from your other serums and moisturisers because of the faster rate of cell turnover, there are no dead skin cells blocking the way for those glorious nutritents to do their work on your skin.
Moisturiser:
I also use the Resveratrol Moisturising Cream from Aspect Dr as well. This is a really nice lightweight moisturiser that feels soothing to put onto your skin. Its packed with antioxidants which means its fights off environmental factors that cause us to age and is just super nourishing and hydrating for the skin. (As you can tell by the very worn packaging, this moisturiser and the rest of the products are well loved)
Essential Fatty Acid Supplements: These have essentially (hahah pun totally intended) changed my life. As i've mentioned- probably too many times- throughout this blog post I have very oily skin. No makeup would ever stay on my skin a full 8 hours or if it did, it was very high maintanence having to powder and thing all day... aint nobody got time. I started taking EFAs and it has totally slowed down and controlled how much oil my skin now makes. If you imagine your skin as a big fat ball full of oils, as that cell comes to the surface of your skin it flattens, which obviously causes the oils to excrete onto your skin. When there aren't enough good oils (essential fatty acids) our cells take the nearest source of oil, which is usually trans fats. Trans fats are solid at room temperature, so you can imagine when they get to the top layer of the skin these oils will be gluggy and thick and not move anywhere, causing them to get stuck with all the dead skin cells that are trying slough themselves away. This whole scenario is whart causes your breakouts and your blackheads and the oil flow that won't seem to go away. Taking EFAs will help to hydrate your cells with good oils so they can hydrate your skin properly, will help to improve circulation, and help to build stong cell walls to allow the actives in your products to work better and harder which is something we all want.
I hope you enjoyed reading about the skincare products I use and love and maybe learnt something about the skin on the way. I love learning about the skin, and finding wonderful new products to recommend so I love writing posts like these. Thanks so much for reading. Until next time, Hayley x