Jill Stetson
How to Care for Your Skin

How do you care for your skin? Do you Skin Cycle?
Caring for your skin at home each day is so important. Think about it - caring two times
a day, 365 days a year, is a lot of care. And your skin will benefit from all this love.
Caring for your skin at home requires a commitment, but once you’re in the groove it’s not overwhelming, but actually fairly simple. The key is getting the steps down and using skin care products with ingredients that focus on your skin concerns. Simply
focusing on the latest product trend may not be the right solution for you.
Here are several concepts for your daily care regimen:
1. Protect in the day; treat at night
Daytime care requires you to wear sunscreen every day all year long. During the day you
are protecting your skin from sun exposure, pollution and blue light, to name a few.
Nighttime is when our bodies restore and repair during sleep. This is the time you use
your treatment products to get the full benefit for your skin
2. Use your products on your face, neck and décolleté, and include your hands
when you can both morning and night.
3. Seasonal Skin Care Changes

In the Midwest, there is a seasonal aspect to caring for your skin - we really only have 2
seasons, summer and winter. Summer is more forgiving with the higher humidity levels,
although sun protection is essential. Winter is harsh on our skin and requires extra moisture
and protection on the outer layer of the skin. The furnaces suck all the moisture out and
the wind and cold can damage the outer layer or the barrier layer of your skin. Changing
your cleanser and moisturizer can help your skin throughout the winter. And don’t forget
to wear sunscreen every day all year long.
4. Change your skin care routine as you age
What worked for you a couple of years ago may not work for your skin now. Your skin
changes as we go through the aging process especially hormonal changes reflected in
your skin. If you feel your skin is dull, dehydrated and not looking healthy it is essential
to change your skin care products to aging beautifully.
What’s in your products?
Do you know what’s in your products? Do the ingredients match your concerns? If not,
you may be wasting precious resources for no results or potentially hurting your skin. To
learn more about what’s in your products schedule a session at SkinTrust with Ask The Esthetician.
What is the right order of applying your products?

I get a lot of questions about the order of applying products and it’s important so you get
the best benefits from them. Here’s some guidelines:
AM - Morning
Cleanse *
Toner - there should be a specific reason you are using a toner, otherwise it’s not
necessary
Eye Cream - yes eyes need special care with specifically formulated products
Treatment Serum - always want this closest to your skin for best results; If using a liquid
and cream serum, the liquid goes on first.
Hydrating Serum
Moisturizer or face oil
Sunscreen**
Makeup
*It is important to cleanse your skin in the morning. For mature skin, you could use a
hydrating toner especially in the winter. For other skin types, cleansing is essential
because bacteria builds up during the night along with unwanted oil that needs to be
removed.
** Remember sun damage is cumulative; even ten minutes of exposure a day over the
course of a lifetime is enough to cause major problems.
PM - Evening
• Makeup Remover - remove eye and then face makeup. Makeup removal is not the
same as cleansing. Be sure to remove above the eyebrows and around the nose.
You can use a makeup removal oil, a wipe, dampen a cotton round with toner or
place a small amount of cleanser on a cotton round to remove your makeup. Then
proceed to double cleanse.*
• Cleanse
• Exfoliate - 2 to 3 nights a week & can be your second cleanse
• Eye cream
• Spot treat blemishes
• Treatment serum
• Treatment product or moisturizer
• Lip balm
* Never go to bed with makeup on. If you do it can result in clogged pores and breakouts,
and the development of milia - white heads. And over time not taking off your makeup
can cause premature aging. If you are too tired to really remove your makeup and
cleanse your skin, grab a wipe and at least get the makeup off. But, don’t do this every
night.

What is Skin Cycling?
The new buzz in skin care and social media is Skin Cycling. Developed by
dermatologist Dr. Whtiney Bowe, this approach to daily care of your skin treats and nourishes while reducing or stopping inflammation. That’s important because
inflammation can lead to increased sensitivity, break-outs, and might even accelerate the aging process.
In my practice, I see clients that over exfoliate or over resurface their skin, don’t nourish
at all. Many people believe more is better, but really that’s not true with your skin. Skin
Cycling is a great approach to gently, but effectively treat skin. As Dr. Bowe explains,
and The world of skincare was becoming needlessly complicated. After listening to my
patients and examining how their skin was reacting to different routines, I saw the need
to streamline their routine to optimize skin health, she says. "The truth is you only need
a few products used in a very deliberate way to drive amazing results. And the few