Everyone has their basic evening skincare ritual – little things we do to take care of our skin after a long day. For some, that means giving your face a quick cleanse after you brush your teeth. For others, that means completing a 10-step Korean skincare regimen. No matter what steps or products are involved, everyone wants to take care of their skin. But what are the most crucial steps that will give you the best results? What steps and products are essential to every evening routine to give you your dream skin?
In our busy and on-the-go society, taking care of your skin can feel like another chore on the to-do list. It can be difficult to find a skincare routine that will actually be effective and efficient in our busy lifestyles. By breaking down which products will maximize your results in the least amount of steps possible, it becomes easy to see how you can implement these into your own lifestyle and achieve your desired results.
No matter what type of skin you have, adding these steps will make your routine more effective. These four steps will help to boost and maximize the products you are using, making your routine as easy as possible while being as effective as possible.
The Four Most Effective Steps:
Double Cleanse
Toner
Serum
Moisturize
Specifically, these steps are most crucial in the evening because they will give you the best results. According to L’Occitane En Provence researchers, “the evening phase (9-11 pm) is when the skin’s epidermal barrier function is less optimal. That means skin can be penetrated more easily, making it more receptive to treatments.” Therefore, your skincare will be the most effective when you take proper steps during your evening routine.
1. Double Cleanse
The first step is the double cleanse. While most people understand the importance of washing their face, nearly 60% of consumers feel uninformed about how to properly clean their skin. On top of that, according to a survey done by Cerave, a dermatologist-developed skincare brand, 52% of Americans report only using bath wash or hand soap to wash their face. This is where the double cleanse comes in.
The reason why this step is so crucial is that your skin is absorbing bacteria, germs, and harmful air qualities throughout the day. Your skin can come in contact with these things from almost anything – from the pollution in the air to every moment you touch your face throughout the day. Thus, it is imperative to cleanse your skin from these harmful conditions after a long day.
The first step of the double cleanse is to use a balm or oil-based cleansing product. Using these types of formulas will allow the ingredients to breakdown any makeup, pollution, and overall bacteria that are harmful to the skin. In other words, it breaks down and removes any unwanted elements on the surface of the skin. An excellent product for the first step of the double cleanse offered at JBIER is the Fresh Soy Face Cleanser. This is a gentle and powerful gel cleanser that breaks down makeup and buildup on the surface of the skin without stripping it. The first part of the double cleanse is crucial for removing harmful surface-level factors, but what about the deeper levels of your skin?
That’s what makes the second part of the double cleanse so crucial. The second step is to use a treatment based cleanser based on your skin's needs. Finding a treatment-based formula will allow the product’s ingredients to reach a deeper level within your pores and clear out any impurities. This will essentially “treat” your skin with the specific detox that it needs. JBIER suggests the La Roche-Posay Cleanser for a detox of the deeper layers of the skin. With salicylic acid and lipo-hydroxy acid, this product effectively reaches the deep within the skin and cleans out the pores and impurities.
2. Toner
The purpose of a toner is one of the most overlooked, yet critical, steps of a skincare routine. Using a toner will maximize the effectiveness of your previous and future steps. Toners have three main benefits that will ultimately change your skin routine:
The first benefit is a toner’s ability to remove the excess dirt, oil, and makeup that your cleanser could not fully reach. Not only that, but it removes the remainder of the cleanser left over from the previous step. Any time you wash your face, cleansers will leave a layer of product on your skin, but toners can successfully remove it.
Toners also help to balance the pH levels of your skin. Our skin should be between 5 and 6 on the pH scale; however, according to Dr. Hadley King, a New York City board-certified dermatologist, “that balance can get out of whack after cleansing due to the alkaline nature of soap.” Toners are able to help restore the skin to its normal balance after you wash it.
One of the most important and most effective benefits of toner is its ability to maximize what you put on your skin afterward. It helps to prep your skin for moisturizer by removing any impurities on the skin. According to Dr. Hadley King, it allows the moisturizer to reach its full potential by binding moisture to the skin.
With that being said, adding a simple and easy-to-use toner to your skin regimen will maximize both the usefulness of your cleanser and the effectiveness of your moisturizer. By adding this step, you are making your other steps easier and more beneficial. JBEIR offers Rodan + Fields Skin Lightening Toner which incorporates salicylic and kojic acid to ensure smoother and brighter skin while prepping it foe the next steps in the routine.
3. Serum
Once the skin has been cleansed and toned, the next essential product to apply is a serum. Serums are essentially a “treat” for your skin because they contain the highest concentration of ingredients within a product, allowing each component to thoroughly do its job. The purpose of a serum is to treat the skin by reaching the deeper levels of the epidermis layer that moisturizers can not. According to skincare specialist, Malvina Fraser, this allows serums to “penetrate through the pores and get deep beneath the epidermis of the skin, absorbing all good ingredients and nutrients deep within the layers of the skin, where it's needed most.”
Donnabella 24K Serum is the holy grail of skincare. In order to get the most out of your products, it is imperative to add a serum to your night routine so your skin can take advantage of its ingredients during the most optimal time. Its ability to reach deeper levels of the skin while providing it with the highest concentration of ingredients will boost your overall routine. It treats your skin from deep within and is able to provide a treatment that no other product can. This Donnabella 24K Serum at JBIER is the perfect "treat" for your skin. Not only does this serum hydrate, but it also helps the skin to produce more collagen and improve elasticity.
4. Moisturizer
The final step to add to your routine is a moisturizer. Moisturizing your skin has more benefits than simply fighting dryness. By hydrating your skin, you are not only alleviating dryness, but you are also limiting oily and acne-prone skin. Many people assume that if you have dry skin, you do not need to add more moisturizer; however, oily skin can often be the result of dry skin that is overcompensating. When your skin is not receiving the proper moisture it needs, it will over-produce oil. Thus, adding a moisturizer can help your skin to maintain its balance.
Moisturizing your skin will help retain a youthful glow. Moisturizer provides the skin with the vitamins it needs to protect itself. It essentially helps the skin to repair itself as it “allows for younger skin cells to rise to the surface.” Applying this moisturizer during the skin’s evening phase will accentuate this cellular turnover and keep the skin refreshed and nourished. Terre Mere's Concentrated Firming and Brightening Moisturizer with Retinol contains botanical hyaluronic acid to help the skin retain moisture. Retinol helps prevent dullness and brightening the skin, making this the perfect product to complete your night routine.
Why does this work?
These steps are the best way to get the most out of your routine in as few steps as possible. This process works together to bring out the effectiveness of each step while maximizing the ingredients in each, especially when applied during the evening phase. The purpose of each step is to make your routine efficient without sacrificing the benefits of each product. These four steps are crucial to help you to find your dream routine and your dream skin.