Written by Shamira James
If you’ve ever been perusing in Walmart, Target, Ulta or any grocery store you’ve probably stumbled into the promise land that is the skin care aisle. “Eliminate pores with this product!”, “This will give you the ULTIMATE hydration!”, “You can kiss your acne goodbye with this product!” For some they feel like a kid walking into a candy shop and for some they feel attacked on sight. While it can be a lot to handle at face value, once you educate yourself and know what you need, you’ll have all your local dermatologist SHAKING. Of course washing, toning and moisturizing are essential to everyone’s routine but there’s so much more.
- Know what your skin needs – Oily skin is not going to need the same treatment as dry skin. Sensitive skin routines and combination skin routines are not sisters. Understanding your skin type will help you so much in the long run. You won’t spend $40 on a product and wonder why it doesn’t work. You also won’t punish your skin by using something it just doesn’t like.
- Hydration, Hydration, Hydration – Drinking water is very important but it’s not the end all be all of it. What goes into your body is just as important as what goes on it. The best way to secure the moisture bags is to introduce a serum into your routine. Serums are super light weight products that concentrate all these active ingredients into a quick-absorbing liquid gold that will only ever benefit you from the second you use it. There’s also facial sprays that are that extra umph, to your routine. Mario Badescu has three types; Rose Water, Cucumber and Lavender and using these right after you moisturize your skin will give you that iconic dewy and plump look.
- Don’t get too crazy – How often you use certain products is CRUCIAL. Freeman Beauty has wonderful exfoliating masks that will be the best things you ever do for your skin, but not if you do it every day. You’re going to hyper exfoliate your skin and ultimately make it worse than before. You only need to exfoliate A MAX of 2-3 times a week
- Consistency is key – If you go out tomorrow and by a bunch of products at once you might get the urge to go home and try everything at once – PLEASE DON’T DO THAT! Instead have a group of products that you are trying and stick with that for at least six weeks to see any type of result, if something isn’t working then feel free to switch it. Skin care is a trial and error based thing and you have to trust the process.
- Acne is bound to happen – You know what sucks, is that you could spend $40 on your routine or $400 and you’ll still get acne. Acne, despite what people try to tell you, is natural. It can come from you not cleaning your pillowcases enough, touching your face too much, dietary habits, the quality of the environment or even your own hormones can betray you. Just be patient, be educated and be aware.
