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