As one of the posts that I’m launching my blog with, I feel that it would be wrong to begin the beauty section with any other topic than this one. The basis of what should be in everyone’s skincare routine.. cleanser, moisturizer, and sunscreen. I feel so strongly about this one that I have made sure my mom, my best friend, and even my best friend’s mom are on top of it.
Step 1: Cleanser
I’m gonna call some people out right now. If you use soap to wash your hands and body, but neglect to do so with your face.. girl! who gave you permission?! If you put products on your face, the only way to remove them is to use a cleanser. Otherwise, you’ll have a buildup of sweat, products, and gunk on your skin and your pores will get very clogged.
Cleanser shouldn’t be aggressive or strip your skin of all its natural oils. The right one should make your skin feel clean and refreshed without feeling tight. The cleansers I highly recommend that would be suitable for most skin types are the CeraVe Foaming Facial Cleanser ($15.99), La Roche Posay’s Toleraine Purifying Foaming Face Cleanser ($14.99), or the Youth To The People Superfood Antioxidant Cleanser ($36.00). For more dry skin types, I’d recommend the CeraVe Hydrating Facial Cleanser ($14.64) or the La Roche Posay Toleraine Hydrating Gentle Face Cleanser ($14.99). If your skin is super super dry, you don’t have to use cleanser in the morning, but you must use it at night!
Cleanser doesn’t have to be crazy and packed with a ton of active ingredients. It just has to serve its main purpose of cleaning your skin.
Step 2: Moisturizer
When I was in high school I had oily skin and I didn’t use moisturizer because I thought it would make my skin more oily. Boy was I wrong! Every single person should be using moisturizer. The only difference from person to person is what moisturizer they should use. There’s different factors that go into moisturizers, like occlusiveness, emoliance, and humectancy, but I’ll get into that another time. For now all I’m going to say is that everyone should be using moisturizer, morning and night.
For oily skin, I’d recommend the Neutrogena Oil-Free Moisture Sensitive Skin ($9.99) or the Versed Dew Point Moisturizing Gel-Cream ($14.99). For normal to combination skin, I’d recommend the CeraVe Daily Moisturizing Lotion ($11.69) or Neutrogena’s Hydro Boost Gel Cream ($15.99) (the gel cream, not the water gel!). For more dry skin, I’d recommend La Roche Posay’s Lipikar Balm AP+ Intense Repair Moisturizing Cream ($19.99) or the CeraVe Moisturizing Cream ($13.59).
Just please promise me that you’ll give your skin the hydration it deserves!
Step 3 (only in the morning): Sunscreen
You’re probably sick of people telling you to wear sunscreen at this point – I know that I was for the longest time. But the truth is, you gotta wear it if you don’t want wrinkles and sunspots by the age of 30 (not to mention all the internal health issues sun exposure can cause). Sunscreen is one of the most important and necessary steps in your skincare routine.
There’s many different types of sunscreen, which I’ll get into in a future blog post, but I promise you that you can find a sunscreen that won’t feel like sunscreen. My absolute favorites include the Versed Guards Up Daily Mineral Sunscreen Broad Spectrum SPF 35 ($21.99), Drunk Elephant’s Umbra Tinte Physical Daily Defense SPF 30 ($36.00) (their non-tinted version is great too), and CeraVe’s Mineral Sunscreen Lotion SPF 30 ($13.99) (has slight white cast).
I don’t want to sound like your mother, but seriously, if it’s past 10am and you haven’t put on your sunscreen yet, Go. Do. It. Now! (and reapply it every few hours if you can)
If you don’t have a skincare routine or are looking into starting one, I highly recommend beginning with these 3 easy necessary steps. Caring for your skin can be super affordable, don’t let anyone tell you that skincare only works if you’re using luxury products. Even if skincare feels like a chore to you, I hope you read this and just try to implement these steps into your routine. Your skin will thank you down the road!
If you’d like to learn more about skincare and beauty tips, check out some of my other beauty related posts!
