Keep it Simple, Sweetness! The Secret to Your Healthiest, Most Beautiful Skin is Right Here…
Feel overwhelmed or in the dark about what skin care products to use? Feel tempted by all the products showing up on your social media feeds? (They sound so promising!) Wonder why nothing seems to work the way you hoped (Hello? Is this working?)? Coerced into trying new products all the time? Disappointed and frustrated by products that don’t deliver? Have a bathroom cabinet full of half-used products that don’t work?
Let’s get your homecare fully locked down, once and for all, with a simple skin care routine that makes your skin healthier, more resilient, and more luminous, starting right now.
Your skin will thrive with this routine.
The end.
Here is your trust-worthy routine. Follow this order every AM and PM starting right now through the end of time. (Your skin will thrive with this routine. The end.)
1) Cleansing~
Our skin will thrive with an appropriate for our skin cleanse every AM and PM! (Some of us with really dry skin may do okay with cleansing in the PM only, but most of us do best with a cleanse both AM and PM). Just water alone, unfortunately, can’t do the job.
This is what you are looking for~
· If your cleanser leaves your skin feeling tight and dry (or even irritated), it is not a good match for your skin.
· If your cleanser leaves a residue behind (such as straight oil does), it is not a good match for your skin.
· If your cleanser leaves your skin fresh and clean, but also soft and supple, and over time helps your pores to be clearer, this is a good match for your skin!
Good Cleanser Options (click)
The right cleanser…
used consistently, will pay off.
2) Exfoliating~
Well-exfoliated skin is more refined, softer, smoother and brighter. We can use multiple types of exfoliation (scrub, exfoliating mask, exfoliating serum, etc.,) or we can use one type, depending on what is best for our skin. Exfoliation usually works best when done after cleansing, 1 to 4 times per week (or more or less often as needed by your skin).
This is what you are looking for~
· If your skin looks dull, feels rough/bumpy, has enlarged pores and seems to not absorb products very well, your skin needs more exfoliation and/or a different exfoliating product.
· If your skin feels dry, sensitive or irritated, you are exfoliating too often and/or your exfoliating product is not a good match for your skin.
· If your exfoliating product(s) leave your skin smoother, more refined, softer and brighter, it is a good match for your skin (and you are using it the right amount)!
Good Exfoliation Options (click)
(optional) Treatment Masques
Not essential, but luxurious and beneficial. They can help to improve everything from hydration and smoothness to encouraging a softer, more luminous, or refined complexion. Treatment masques can deepen the health of our skin. Masques will provide the greatest benefit to our skin if used regularly after cleansing and exfoliating. Masques can be a beautiful way to give some extra love to our skin between professional facials.
Good Masque Options (click)
Luxurious. Beneficial.
Masques give extra love to our skin between professional facials.
3) Toners, Hydrosols and Hydrating Mists
The liquid, light-weight nature of toners, hydrosols and hydrating mists allows them to penetrate easily and rapidly, which makes them an especially effective way to infuse your skin with beneficial ingredients. (Skin supportive minerals, botanical acids, vitamins and antioxidants will readily absorb.) toners, hydrosols and hydrating mists can also provide your skin with quenching, water-rich replenishment. (Good ones will never leave your skin feeling tight or dry.) Finally, applying a toner, hydrosol or hydrating mist to your skin before applying your serum and moisturizer will enhance your skin’s permeability…so will increase the absorption and effectiveness of all your following skin care products.
This is what you are looking for~
· If your toner leaves your skin feeling tight or dry or irritated, this is not a good product for your skin.
· If your toner or hydrosol or hydrating mist leaves your skin supple and moist, and over time leaves your skin more hydrated and balanced (less likely to feel dry or oily), this is a good match for your skin.
Good Toner, Hydrosol & Hydrating Mist Options (click)
The right serum…
applied under your moisturizer is not s step to miss.
4) Serums
Serums are the essential “rock star” products of any skin care regimen. Need to increase hydration? Reduce hyperpigmentation? Diminish fine lines? Balance oiliness? Refine pores? Bring out your glow? Maintain firmness and elasticity? The right serum applied under your moisturizer is not a step to miss.
This is what you are looking for~
· A good serum will provide benefits over time when applied consistently. Depending on the chosen serum, it can offer brighter, or more refined, or smoother, or clearer, or dewier skin. When you receive positive benefits with consistent use, you know have a good serum for your skin.
Good Serum Options (click)
(optional) Eye Cream
While regular serums and moisturizers do provide benefits to the eye area, a specific eye cream can do even more, such as diminish dark circles and puffiness and fine lines, and moisturize and replenish deeply without causing clogs or irritating the delicate eye area.
This is what you are looking for~
· When your eye cream leaves the skin around your eyes smoother and firmer and even helps with dark circles and puffiness without causing irritation, you have a good eye cream for your skin.
Good Eye Cream Options (click)
5) Moisturizers
A good moisturizer can help to balance your skin's moisture production, no matter if you are oily or dry. It will also protect your skin daily from moisture loss. Additionally, good moisturizers will help to bestow specific benefits necessary for healthy, luminous skin such as antioxidants and skin-specific nutrition.
This is what you are looking for~
· If your moisturizer eventually leaves your skin feeling dry, it is not a good match for your skin.
· If your moisturizer eventually leaves your skin feeling greasy, or increases clogged pores or breakouts, it is not a good match for your skin.
· If your moisturizer leaves your skin feeling soft and supple, dewier and more balanced, not too dry and not too oily, it is a good match for your skin.
Good Moisturizer Options (click)
The right home care
makes your skin healthier, more resilient, and more luminous.
(optional) Facial Oils
Facial oils are supremely effective for keeping our skin's vital moisture locked in where it belongs…within our skin, keeping it supple, glowing and velvet soft. Good quality facial oils are also replete with skin-supportive nutrition as well.
For best results, apply facial oil before your moisturizer application, or along with your moisturizer application, or after your moisturizer application.
Facial oils can be applied both daily and nightly, or as often as needed.
Facial oils are not recommended for breakout prone skin or for skin prone to clogged pores or oiliness.
This is what you are looking for~
· If your facial oil leaves your skin dewy soft and does not cause clogged pores (or irritation), it’s a good match for your skin.
Good Facial Oil Options (click)
6) Sun Protection
The quintessential age prevention tool. Applying high-quality sun protection as your final layer each AM (and re-applying as needed) is one of the most significant ways you can care for and preserve the health and vibrancy of your skin. A good sun protection product will not only provide protection from uglifying ultra violet light damage, it will also offer additional benefits as well, such as antioxidants and moisture.
This is what you are looking for~
· SPF at least close to 30 or higher, and it feels and looks good enough so that you will happily wear it every single day and it does not cause any irritation or clogging or oiliness.
Good Sun Protection Options (click)
Good Sun Protection
protects the health and beauty of your skin.
(optional) Lip Balm
A good lip balm has a high-nutrient formulation that richly nourishes, protects and prevents aging in lip tissue. A good lip balm can also keep your lips smoother, softer, fuller and rosier. (Did you know that you can apply most of your other skin care products to your lips, too? Lips benefit from occasional exfoliation, as well as being included in your hydrating masque, hydrating mist, serum, moisturizer, facial oil and sun protection applications. Finish with a good lip balm and you’ve provided your lips with far-reaching benefits. Don’t be surprised if your lips start looking more rosy, soft, smooth and plump! For best results, apply your lip balm daily and nightly after applying moisturizer, and re-apply as needed. Lipstick or lip gloss may be applied over the top as desired.
Good Lip Balm (click)
Along with your great homecare routine, see your esthetician once every 2 to 12 weeks. This will keep your skin at its freshest, most luminous best.
Professional facials
keep your skin at its healthiest, most luminous best.
Three Essential Things to Know~
1) Give your products a chance to do their best work:
Most skin care products work gradually, over a period of time. Your skin needs at least one month (and sometime two or three months) of consistency just to begin to show any change instigated by a skin care product. If you stop too soon, you’ll never really know what your product can do. If you are inconsistent (don’t use as directed) you will also never really know what your skin care product can do for your skin.
*The exception to this is when your skin has a sensitivity or allergic reaction or other negative response (such as breakouts, etc.,) to a product. Then, full stop immediately. Report back to your esthetician.
2) Always Listen to Your Skin:
Our skin quite often does a pretty bang-up job of telling us exactly what it needs. Let’s listen up!
Take notice of the signs that a skin care product may not be a good fit for your skin, such as increasing redness or pinkness, increasing irritation, sensitivity, dryness, increasing oiliness, clogs, breakouts, or any issue getting worse. These are signs that something is off in your homecare routine and it needs a tune up.
Also take notice when positive things occur…brighter, smoother, calmer skin? This is what the right skin care products can do. These are glorious signs that your home care is paying off and shows you which products are most effective.
If you are ever confused about what is working or not, go see your esthetician.
3) Stay on the healthy skin care train:
How often do we start off like gangbusters with a great skin care routine (We are doing it every AM and PM! Our skin is looking and feeling great! Hurray!), then we peter out as time goes by…We don’t replace skin care products when they run out, we stop following our good routine every AM and PM, etc... Before we know it, our skin has reverted back to clogs, enlarged pores, dryness, dehydration, dullness, redness/inflammation, showing more wrinkles/lines, uneven skin tone, on and on…
Don’t get lost in the woods, dear hearts! Keep up with what is working. Even when our skin is doing well, and it seems we don’t need the fuss of a regular routine, keep it up. It’s like regular teeth brushing and regular sleep. We need this all the time. Consistency yields the best results both for now and for the years ahead. The end.
If you need any help getting back into a good homecare groove, go see your esthetician.
Stay…
on the healthy skin care train.
BONUS TIP: Don’t fall for the “miracle” skin care products being strongly marketed to you on social media…
Here is just one example: I’ve seen acne clients worsen their breakouts by using “tallow” moisturizers. Tallow moisturizers are all over social media right now. Tallow is a heavy, animal fat and it can and does clog pores (even though some marketing claims state that it is good for breakout-prone skin…umm, no.)
Worse, I have noticed that tallow moisturizers (remember tallow is rendered, highly processed animal fat) often have essential oils added to them, and I assume this is because tallow smells…not good. Essential oils mask the smell. Essential oils though, unless well (and lightly) formulated, have a high chance of causing irritation (redness, sensitivity, etc.,).
Don’t just take my word for it, though. Plenty of knowledgeable, experienced estheticans and dermatologists have the same thoughts.
Beef Tallow is a Terrible Idea for Acne Prone Skin…(click)
Why Your Dematologist Doesn’t Recommend Tallow for Your Face…(click)
To date, I’ve yet to see anyone’s skin improve with the use of a tallow skin care product. (I have seen increased clogs and sensitivity a plenty, though.)
Other countless examples of not great skin care products showing up in your social media feeds include “magic” eye creams and moisturizers, etc.,that were supposed to do dramatically wonderful things in an all-natural way, but, alas, did not.
At best, these online “finds” are simply inert duds, and at worst, they are so wrong for our individual skin’s needs they create new skin issues for us to deal with or make existing issues worse.
If you do feel you get some improvements from a hyped product you bought online, this is because that product utilizes science and ingredients that are abundantly available already, and your skin could receive those same benefits from other products, too.
Be wary of someone confidently trying to sell you skin care when they have never evaluated your skin, and don’t know anything about skin physiology or product chemistry. Please remember, most of these people hawking products just want you to buy something so they can make money, and they have no idea how to make your skin more healthy and beautiful. (They may even naively think that if they like a skin care product, it must be good for everyone.)
An esthetician on the other hand, who you see in person for regular treatments, is trying to help you achieve your healthiest skin for a lifetime. She can’t get away with selling you products that don’t work. She’s potentially going to care for your skin for years, so she must understand what your skin needs, and what product will deliver the best results to you.
Whenever I hear, “This skin care product is all over my Insta/FB/TikTok/YouTube feed- should I use it?”
The answer, always, is no.
Here is an excerpt from a fellow esthetician (full article here.)…
“What Are Your Thoughts on the Shame Around Skincare, Influencer Hype, and Products That Promise ‘Magic’ Results?
The market is incredibly predatory right now. Everyone is trying to make a buck — including influencers and even some plastic surgeons.
If a product were truly medical grade, scientifically backed, and biologically active, you wouldn’t be able to buy it without a consultation, skin assessment, and follow-up. Anything sold to the masses is designed for the masses, which means it can’t make that much of a real change.
Influencer marketing pushes fear.
‘Is your neck crepey? Do you look old?’
It’s meant to make you feel bad.
Aging is not bad. We’re lucky to age. But taking care of your skin affects how healthy you feel 10–20 years down the road — not just how you look today.
The $10 cream that an influencer claims ‘changed their life’ is usually paired with Botox, lasers, fillers, peels, and sometimes surgery. It’s false advertising. People buy it, it doesn’t work, then they buy the next one, then the next one… bags full of expired products.
You don’t need a 20-step routine. You need biology that works. I use AnteAGE myself…”
We know what to do
to light up our own luminosity.
You know your own skin, and your aesthetician knows your skin far better than the randos online trying to get you buy products that will never produce miracles. We don’t, thankfully, need their fake miracles. We now know what to do to light up our own luminosity.
I’m cheering for you and rooting for you, gorgeous!
xoxo marna
“A year from now, you will wish you had started today.”
~Karen Lamb
“Cleanse, tone, hydrate, moisturize and protect-can skincare get any easier?”
~unknown
"Great skin doesn't happen by chance, it happens by appointment."
~ Kate Somerville
"Confidence is the best makeup, but great skin comes close.”
~unknown
“Taking care of your skin is both physical and emotional, you’ll know it once you get started.”
~unknown
“Skin care is one of the most important things for the body and feeling good.”
~ Denise Bidot
“Life is not smooth, but your skin can be.”
~unknown
“Treat your neck the same way you do your face. It's a delicate area, and the first to betray age.”
~Joan Crawford
“Being able to follow a skincare regime religiously is also a success.”
~unknown
"Skincare is not just a routine; it's a form of self-respect."
~Lauren Conrad
“The best tip- Religiously follow a good morning and night skincare routine.”
~unknown
Blog written by Marna Herrington with Rich Earth Organic Skin Care Studio
Blog copy editing and polishing provided by Karen-Eileen Gordon (MsGordonLovesWriting@gmail.com)
This blog is not intended to take the place of in-person consultations with qualified skin care and health care practitioners. This blog is for the purpose of education and fun only. All images and text in this blog are under the legal ownership of Rich Earth Organic Skin Care Studio or are unambiguously in the public domain. Permission is not granted for this text or these images to be copied and used out of the context of this blog, or for commercial purposes. If any part of the text is quoted in an article or other blog for educational purposes, a hyperlink to this page must be included.