Great skin isn’t just something you’re born with. The choices you make each day play a huge role in what you see in the mirror. This guide will help you create a skin regimen that is tailored to your specific needs.
With so many choices out there when it comes to skincare products and techniques, it can get overwhelming trying to find what works best for you. We’re here to guide you as you figure out what products work best for YOU.
What is a Skin Regimen and Why Should You Create One?
Do you know what the largest organ in your body is? It’s your skin! In addition to keeping all your insides inside, it also protects you from outside pathogens. Just like you brush your teeth each day to protect them from cavities, your skin needs regular attention and care to keep it healthy.
Developing a skincare routine isn’t just a hot trend. It’s also an important part of lowering your risk of skin cancer, reducing signs of aging, and managing any skin conditions you may have. The medical and cosmetic benefits of skincare are easy to attain with a little consistent self-love.
If you have a skin condition like acne, psoriasis, rosacea, or eczema, skincare may not be a choice. Treating specific skin conditions typically involves a specific skincare regimen that is targeted towards your skin’s needs.
Another benefit of establishing a skincare routine doesn’t have anything to do with your skin. Creating a consistent regimen has been found to have mental health benefits. It gives you space to regularly celebrate your body and build positive habits, in addition to being fun and relaxing.
Basic Steps of a Skin Regimen
You can have a crazy complicated skin regimen if you want, but skincare doesn’t have to be complicated. A basic skincare routine has three basic steps.
- Cleansing: You should use a cleanser every morning and every evening (like our HD Gentle Creamy Cleanser). If you find that you still have makeup or sunscreen on your face when you’ve cleansed, or if your skin still feels heavy or greasy, you can try double-cleansing. This means washing with an oil-based cleanser first and then using a water-based cleanser (or micellar water on a cotton pad) afterward to remove any lingering traces.
- Moisturizing: When you’ve finished cleansing your face, it’s time to moisturize.
- Sunscreen: You want to use a sunscreen that is at least SPF 30 and broad-spectrum (like our HD Defend SPF 36). Many daytime moisturizers will have an SPF rating and can be used as sunscreen as long as they’re over SPF 30.
3 Benefits of Building a Skincare Regimen
Building a skincare regimen that is designed specifically for your skincare needs will help your skin to stay smoother, be more resilient, and keep that youthful glow. The benefits to your skin are great, but a good skincare routine will give you benefits that extend into other aspects of your life as well!
1. Slows Down Aging
Our skin hits peak health at around the age of 18. Yeah. That shook us too. Everything is fine throughout your 20s, but once 30 comes around, the whole body seems to slow down. That includes our skin.
As your skin ages, it becomes less able to regenerate itself. This shows up in decreased skin elasticity, strength, and smoothness. As you age, your skin is more likely to tend towards dryness, ruggedness, and frailty.
This means that the best time to start your skin regimen is right now, especially if you’re in your thirties.
A skincare routine designed to prevent or reduce signs of aging includes cleansing, exfoliation, and moisturizing. If you want to keep your skin looking youthful, a good skincare routine will work wonders.
The most important tool in reducing aging is consistency.
Related: 7 Expert Anti-Aging Skincare Tips You Need for Winter
2. Creates Consistency
The key to success, in skincare as in all things, is consistency. Doing your skincare routine randomly a couple of times a week or month isn’t going to give you the results you want. Your body craves consistency; it’s the best way to create change.
This is as true for skincare as it is for learning to play an instrument or losing weight.
One of the reasons consistency is essential to your skin regimen is a little something called desquamation.
Desquamation is your skin’s natural renewal cycle, during which your body sheds off any old, damaged, or dead skin cells and replaces them with a whole bunch of fresh new ones. This cycle occurs again approximately once a month as your skin cells die out and get replaced.
Because this cycle happens once a month, you need to be consistent in your routine to make lasting change – it’s why it’s so hard to get rid of acne quickly. But you can give your skin all the help it needs in between cycles, by using products daily that boost your skin’s self-healing properties.
Without consistency, your skin can’t fully make use of everything you’re giving it. Think of your skin like a plant. If you water it twice a month, it’s probably going to dry out. If you water it consistently, giving it just the right amount of water, your plant will grow and bloom and thrive.
Your skin is the same way. Consistency in caring for it will help your skin thrive and glow too.
3. Helps Save You Money
Maintaining a daily skincare routine is the best way to ensure your skin is healthy. When you’re regularly taking the time to give your skin the attention it needs, it becomes more resilient and actually gets better at repairing and maintaining itself.
One of the best side effects of this is that once you’ve figured out a skin regimen that works for you, and identified the products and ingredients that make your skin glow, you don’t have to experiment anymore! If you’re not constantly buying new products to try, or jumping on the latest shiny new beauty trend, you’re saving that money for other things.
You are also saving money by preventing problems down the road. Following a daily skincare routine can help keep your skin strong and flexible, fending off skin disorders and injuries. You will save money on future reactive treatments by being preventative now.
Another benefit that saves you money is the confidence boost and improved mental well-being that can come from feeling good in your skin. If you’re less stressed out, you’re less likely to indulge in your vices.
Less stress (good for your skin) can lead to less smoking (good for your skin) and less drinking (good for your skin), saving you both money and wear and tear on your skin.
What to Know Before You Develop Your Skin Regimen
Before you can figure out what the best products are to use in your skin regimen, you need to know what your skin type is and identify any specific problems you want to work on.
Remember that everybody’s skin is different and what works for your friends or favorite beauty guru may not work for you.
Before you get started, let’s figure out your skin type. Take a shower and don’t put any makeup or products on afterward. After a few hours, take a look at how your skin has reacted.
If it gets a little greasy or shiny, you likely have oily skin.
If it feels a little dry or gets flaky, you probably have dry skin.
If it’s dry in some places and oily in others (typically the T-zone), you have combination skin.
If it isn’t dry or oily, you have what’s considered “normal” skin.
Knowing what type of skin you have is crucial because it will allow you to choose products that are designed to either manage oiliness or improve dryness.
You also need to know if your skin is sensitive or not. You probably already know if you have sensitive skin. If you’ve ever had an allergic reaction to a product you used or if you have experienced certain skin conditions on your face (conditions like psoriasis, eczema, or rosacea for example), that’s a clear sign your skin may just be a little more sensitive than average.
Having sensitive skin doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy a skin regimen, it just means you need to be more careful in choosing products that are designed to be gentle on the skin and don’t contain any allergens you have a sensitivity to.
The best skin regimen for you is one that is designed with your specific needs in mind. It can be as simple or as complicated as you want because your skincare routine shouldn’t add stress. It should be a relaxing highlight of your day as you indulge in some self-care with far-reaching benefits.
What does your skin regimen look like?
