I never had a skincare routine until last year.
I washed my face in the shower, and only applied sunscreen if I was headed to the beach.
But now Im kicking myself for not starting earlier.
But I still wondered: What else should I be doing?
As it turns out, a good routine doesnt have to take forever or cost a lot of money.
The essentials are: Wash your face as needed, moisturize as needed, and wear sunscreenevery damn day.
Set two daily reminders on your phone, for your morning and evening routines.
Then read on for what to do and why.
Washing your face removes the sebum and dead skin cells that can contribute to acne.
Washing also helps to take off any makeup or skincare products you may have applied.
Washcloths and brushes arent necessary, and can end up irritating your skin.
Washcloths and brushes arent necessary, and can end up irritating your skin.
Cleansers active ingredients take advantage of the fact that oil and water dont usually mix.
If you just splash water on your oily face, nothing much happens.
Then, water can wash these micelles away.
Thats whyrinsing is not the same as washing.
Good old fashioned soap is good at this jobtoo good, in fact.
Katie Beleznayprefers cream cleansers, which she says tend to be especially gentle.
Its also best to avoid scrubby cleansers that contain tiny plastic beads or other abrasive elements.
These can irritate the skin, or even exfoliate youtoomuch.
This may be the case if you live in a place with year-round humid weather.
Just as the name implies, moisturizers keep water in your skin.
This is important because everything works better when the skin has enough water.
A good moisturizer will have humectants to attract water, and occlusives to keep it from evaporating away.
To understand how moisturizers work, we need to considerthe microscopic structure of skinitself.
The dead skin cells of the stratum corneum naturally slough off when their job is done.
You lose a few skin cells every time you touch anything.
Thats by design, since your skin continually makes fresh cells to take their place.
Moisturizers fix this problem by surrounding the enzymes with water so they can do their job.
Humectants, which pull water from their surroundings, including deeper layers of the skin.
Even if you have super dark skin.
Even if youre a dude.
Its also a component of many makeup products and moisturizers.
Higher SPF is better, within reason.
The higher the rating, the more UVB the sunscreen blocks.
Theres no comparable rating for UVA protection, at least in the US.
(European products use afive-star systemso consider buying some high-SPF, highly starred sunscreen if you vacation overseas.)
Sunscreen rubs off and sweats off during the day, so you may need to reapply.
(SPF 30, applied sparingly, only works out to anactual SPF of 2.)
But the most important thing about sunscreen is that its something you love the feel of.
Explore
So far, our routine sounds pretty boring.
Cleanse, moisturize, and apply sunscreen?
Where are all the masks and serums and frenzied shopping trips at The Ordinary?
Salicylic acid, one key in of beta-hydroxy acid (BHA), helps to exfoliate dead skin cells.
Because its oil soluble, it works well on oily skin.
Alpha-hydroxy acids(AHA), such as glycolic acid, are another punch in of chemical exfoliant.
Whatever you do,donttry all of these at once.
Many of the above can irritate or dry out your face, even on their own.
Combining products makes the chance of a bad reaction more likely.
glycolic in the morning and retinol in the evening.
Theres no money in telling people their same old drugstore moisturizer is just fine.
For the rest of us, its easy to get caught up in the excitement.
Maybe that product that worked for someone else is exactly what Ive been missing all my life!
And perhaps it is, but thats not going to be true foreverynew lotion or serum that comes along.
By the way, those drugstore productsareusually just fine.
Cleansers can be had fairly cheap as well: I usethis $4 onefrom Clean & Clear.
Prices go up and up from there, of course.
Its not hard at all to find fancy skincare products for hundreds of dollars.
Dr. Frey keepsa database of productsshe says are worth considering, and that she has no financial interest in.
(If you need anything prescription-strength, all the chaos of drug pricing comes into play.)
To figure out what works for you, start by keeping track of what you use and when.
To figure out what works for you, start by keeping track of what you use and when.
Snap photos to keep track of your progress.
But also, be smart when you hear about other peoples progress.
Finally, the reddits official advicelists sunscreen as optional, which earned major side-eye from our sources.
