Your Daily Skin Care Regimen

​As a skin care clinician I spend a lot of time with clients analyzing their individual issues, and creating an at home skin care program that complements the treatments we perform at the spa. Ideally, your home care regimen should be customized to your personal skin profile to help get the results you want and still be completed in a reasonable amount of time. 

​After selecting the products, and explaining  why the key ingredients work best, I started asking my clients if they know the technique to apply their products. I found that many of us just don't know. We do what we have always done, or what is fast and gets us on to the next task. Let's take a minute to establish the best way to get the most out of your home care regimen.

In the following, when you see the word "face", think face, neck, and décolleté

A.M. Routine        P.M. Routine

Morning Cleanse
In the morning, a light cleanser and water is sufficient, as your skin should still be clean from the evening cleansing. Gently coax the skin clean with light circular motions. Rinse with cool water and a soft washcloth if you desire.

Apply Toner
or Light Exfoliant
Remove any dead skin cells with a light chemical exfoliant like lactic acid or gentle exfoliating grain. On alternate days, apply a balancing toner over the entire face with a cotton ball. The eye area should be avoided.

Treatment Products
​or Serums
Now that skin is clean and ready to receive your products, you want to apply those products that are designed to treat  issues like acne or pigmentation. Avoid any products during the day that would make you sun sensitive. Save those for night.

Eye Cream and
Face Cream
You may need to use a different eye cream for day and  night if your skin is very dry or you're combatting wrinkles. For most, one non-greasy eye cream will be  sufficient. You will want to apply it before the face cream. 

Sunscreen
Apply a non-greasy  sunscreen to face, neck, and décolleté. Don’t forget your ears as well.

Evening Cleanse
If you have a fair amount of makeup or even lots of sunscreen, I suggest a two cleanse approach.
1 -  Cleanse with an oil cleanser, balm or rich cleanser in circular motions until the makeup emulsifies, then rinse with warm (not hot) water and a soft wash cloth
2 - Cleanse will be with your skin specific cleanser.

Apply Toner
or Light Exfoliant
Evenings, I just apply my toner. Once a week, I like to do a deep exfoliation. This is where I would usually use a blend of acids - If you aren't sure what is best, speak to your skin care professional.

Treatment Products
​or Serums
At this point, you apply the heavy hitters like retinols, pigmentation lighting products or  stronger acne products -  basically the items that don't mix well with the sun.

Eye Cream and
Face Cream
My night time eye cream is then applied in the same manner as in the morning.
Face cream  follows the eye cream.

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In My Purse...

Small spray mist for travel and just keeping makeup fresh and moist -
Natura Bisse diamond mist feels and smells amazing.
Sunscreen - MAD Sunscreen/moisturizer - double duty and light
Lip oil - better than
chapstick and prevents pigmentation - lipstick can be applied right on top.

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It's All In The Technique

Cleanse
People either don't get all their makeup off or are too aggressive in their daily cleaning. My mom once told me, "Treat your skin like you treat your eyeball". Don't be rough. The delicate tissues of your face can be easily damaged, so mom was right about this one. 
Cream and Serum Application 
I use the "lightly dot" method for my face.  I will put six dots on my browline, equally spaced, with a couple dots higher up. The motion here is up. I dab upward joining the dots until my forehead is uniformly covered.

My nose gets a dot on the bridge and a dot on the tip.  I pat straight on, careful not to drag my skin downward as I apply.
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​I use three dots on each cheekbone, and three that I place just below the corner of my mouth, going up toward my ear, (on both sides of course).

My chin just gets the residual that is left after applying to my cheeks, and, now my face is done
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Never forget to take the time to care for your neck and décolleté as well. Maintain the upward motion to gently get complete coverage and maximum benefit from your skin care products.

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​​By using these techniques, I feel you can improve the quality of your skin while getting the most out of the products you buy. My mom was right when she said, "Treat your skin like your eyeball". It was one of those things that sounded funny at the time, but really makes a lot of sense. She also calls blue jeans "dungarees", but you can't win them all.

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