As humans, we’re always seeking ways to be that eye-catching person in the room. While we do our best in front of the mirror, we also need our skin and facial features to play along, so that we make a good impression. A simple routine of attention and care makes sure your skin is on your side, when you bring your “A game”.
Caring for your facial features and skin is like making a pact of kindness just for yourself, which will for the most part be seen on your face. Today, people turn to various practices such as contouring and facial exercises to ensure that their face is in the best shape. We know when we’re busy, the last thing on our minds is our skin. But as it’s the largest organ of our body that we showcase, neglecting it shouldn’t be an option.
A skincare routine is also not just comforting, as it helps soothe those areas of inflammation, but it even prevents your skin from further damage.
When you’re picking a routine to boost the health of your skin, it’s important to be familiar with your skin type and beauty products that you’ll be dabbing onto our face daily. These things ultimately become the deciding factor for the health of your skin.
Understanding Your Skin Type
Before we understand the products that are available, it’s essential to identify your skin type. This helps understand the products that will work best to keep your skin and face happy. There are five broad categories – Normal, Oily, Sensitive, Dry and Combination. Once you narrow down on your skin type, it’s easier to pick products that work for you in the beauty aisle.
How to come to this conclusion? Just one step – Observe and monitor your skin when there is zero product on it, and note if it matches most with the characteristics of normal, oily, sensitive, dry or combination.
When observing, you can also make note of unique facial traits, like soft curves or the shape of your jawline. Certain areas of your skin such as your jaw could be more oily, acne prone or sensitive, so the product you choose will need to cater to those areas.
Essential Products For Your Skincare Routine
Every skincare routine has a few essentials that help to keep your skin altogether happy. Creating a kit of essential products for your skin is similar to how you create a routine for a facial feature to look more chiseled or defined.
Before you take some time off from your schedule everyday for your skincare routine, remember that you’d need to give the products time to reap its benefits. The products applied don’t work immediately, but the routine goes a long way in achieving that look.
CLEANSER – A cleanser works to cleanse and soothe your face skin. It’s best used once at night, as it does the magic of cleaning all the dirt, makeup, bacteria, sweat that gets attached to our skin after a long day of travelling outside. In the morning, it works on cleaning impurities such as dead skin, or dust from your pillow cover.
Massaging a cleanser in the morning gives a fresh and clean feel to your face. Also, don’t forget to gently massage the cleanser along the line of your jaw to the chin and neck area. This is a good way to increase circulation thus strengthening your jawline.
When you choose a cleanser, make sure that it is gentle, PH-neutral and non-soap.
There are different types of cleansers in the market such as foaming cleansers, milky ones, balm and gel consistency cleansers.
Foam ones are best for acne prone skin. While milky cleaners are for normal to dry skin. All in all, post the cleanse session, your face must feel fresh and rejuvenated.
Cetaphil Gentle Skin Cleanser is a mild cleanser that is soothing and suitable for all skin types.
La Roche – Posay Toleriane Hydrating Gentle Cleanser: This works from normal to dry sensitive skin and is oil free as well.
SERUM – Face serums are a fairly new term in the field of beauty products for your face. A serum is applied to a clean face, so best use it after a cleanser and before moisturising. The quantity of serum just needs to be a drop or two and must gently be worked on your skin. From all your beauty products, your serum bottle would be the smallest bottle, but does big wonders for your skin!
Face serums target specific skin concerns, such as signs of aging, dark spots, redness and irritation. As we age, our skin becomes more loose and we develop face fat. Here is when the serum works its best to heal and tighten your skin. Working on your facial fat also helps get a more defined jawline.
TruSkin Vitamin C Serum for Face – Just 2-3 drops a day of this product helps bring more clarity to your skin and also less breakouts, dark spots or fine lines.
CeraVe Resurfacing Retinol Serum – This product helps heal your skin’s natural barrier and cure post-acne spots. It contributes to pore refining as well.
MOISTURIZER – Moisturizer does for your skin what drinking water does for your body! If you notice your skin closely, you will understand whether it requires a coat of moisturizer by its texture. The role of a moisturizer is to hydrate your skin and prevent it from drying out. In winters, because of the weather, our skins crave more moisturizer than other seasons.
A tip on choosing the right moisturizer is ensuring it has plenty of vitamins to build moisture levels for your skin. Moisturizer is probably the most important step for acne around the jaw.
Jergens – Jergens has a variety of rich hydrating daily use moisturizers. They offer products that hydrate, nourish and deep condition your skin.
Cetaphil Moisturising Lotion – The brand is committed to offering gentle skincare formulas, the moisturiser works well on sensitive skin type and it’s comforting without any fragrance.
SUNSCREEN – Sunscreen is to be used by everyone under the sun. It’s that one step to take before you step out of your door. It’s a protective shield that protects your skin from the harmful UV rays that infiltrate your skin every time you step out. Few things to keep in mind about your sunscreen. Ensure that the lotion starts with SPF (Sun Protection Factor) 30 or above, and always apply it liberally to skin that’s directly exposed to the sun. SFB 30 is a must if you work outdoors.
Neutrogena Ultra Sheer Sunblock – Thus sunscreen has an SPF of 50 plus. It’s waterproof, sweatproof and gives your face a matte look after application. The brand Neutrogena is said to have the most effective sunscreen. So it’s definitely a good option that’s also easily available.
Occasional Products For Your Skincare Routine
Now that we’ve covered the essentials, let’s move to products that you could do without. But if you’re looking for that little extra for your skincare game, these few additions would do the job.
Products that fall in this category are exfoliants, spot treatments, skin tightening creams, facial oils and facial masks.
Among these, facial masks are one of the most loved products, as it’s fun to apply and great at giving you results. Face masks feel quite therapeutic and make you feel as though you’re treating yourself in a spa. Make some time to laze in your mask after you’ve done your daily facial exercises. The act of peeling off a face mask to feel your brand new skin is great.
Another extra step you could add to your routine is exfoliating! It’s the manual act of scrubbing and rubbing dead skin cells on the surface of your skin. Do note, Exfoliating should be done once a week for newbies and maximum twice a week. This cannot be included in the daily skincare routine, but must be done occasionally. Choose a body scrub that leaves you feeling and smelling gorgeous!
Conclusion
You don’t necessarily need to start out with a perfect routine, but taking care of the health of your skin will have you feeling pumped about the way your skin feels. It also acts as a huge confidence boost. When it comes to your health, it’s best to not leave any stone unturned. Skincare is a huge part of that. So along with a routine for your skincare, a good sleep schedule, healthy diet and exercise also keeps your skin healthy and happy.
