How to Build the Best Skincare Routine in 2020

Look after your skin today;
Because you’ll wear it every day for the rest of your life.

Updated 20/10/2020

Are you serious about looking after your skin?

Then a good skincare routine should be your new best friend.

Just think about what happens to leather shoes without being conditioned.

Hopefully, you’ll see where we are heading with this, after all, the last thing you want is your skin looking like toughened, tanned, cowhide.

The point? Your delicate skin needs regular care and protection to keep it fresh and youthful; it’s a fluid dynamic river of shifting conditions that are influenced by emotions, environment, diet, and lifestyle.

Below we will walk you through the holy grail of your skincare routine, but before you begin, we advise determining your skin type, which will be the first step in your routine.

Your step by step skincare routine

Step 1: The Eye Makeup Removal

Remove your eye makeup gently with a good makeup remover, because your normal cleanser won’t do a detailed job, and the last thing you want to do is tug the delicate skin around your eyes.

Step 2: The Cleanse
Opt for gentle oil cleansers. Miracle Cleanse is a great place to start, as it will keep your skin happy and balanced. The gorgeous bouquet of honeyed essences and phytonutrients, also means you get to kick-start your day with a beautiful cleansing ritual.

Moist and warm equals absorption, so if your skin is warm, it will absorb what you put on it much more efficiently and the active ingredients will penetrate better when they are dissolved.

Step 3: The Exfoliator
Exfoliating really brings your skin back to its glory days, exfoliants help to break down the build-up of keratin, which will help your active ingredients penetrate deeper.

CAUTION: Don’t overdo your exfoliation, this part of your routine should be limited to once a week or even less if your skin is super sensitive. Avoid scrubbing bubbles, harsh ingredients, and exfoliating granules that are not totally spherical in shape, as they can irritate your skin and cause tiny micro-tears.

Step 4: The Toner
Whilst many overlook this part of their routine, “toning’ is an essential step, it helps to remove pollutants along with any residue from your cleansers, while also restoring your skin’s pH balance.

It soothes and preps your skin, helping to absorb the next step—the moisturiser.

Step 5: The Serum
These are super-concentrated formulas, where the active ingredients penetrate deep into the cellular layers.

We believe that your skin is a dynamic organ that is forever changing. Our serums referred to as “Skin Shots” are designed to treat different skin conditions from blemishes, fine lines, and premature ageing, all the way through to an upset acid mantle and impaired barrier function.

Step 6: The Eye Cream
The skin around your eyes is thinner than anywhere else on your face – 2 mm to be exact – this is why you want to treat them like the delicate things they are.

Use a specifically formulated eye cream as part of your skincare routine. Whilst this product is self-explanatory, you should take note of the technique as laid out below and no rubbing or pulling here, please.

CAUTION: How you apply your eye cream is technical. Dot your eye cream along your orbital bone, right under the eyebrow, and then under your eyes in a semi-circle shape, this should be about half an inch below your lash line – which leads to better absorption of your cream – If you apply your eye cream any closer, you could run the risk of it migrating and getting up into your eyes, which can lead to infections.

Step 7: The Moisturiser
Really, another layer we hear you say? If you haven’t noticed, here at the Naked Chemist we are all about layering, to the point that you almost feel like your skin has been mummified.

Choose a good moisturiser specially formulated for your specific skin type:

Oily: Avoid heavy, oily bases; an oil-free or mattifying moisturiser is ideal for this skin type.
Combination: Balance is important, so avoid adding anything excessively oily which will only add to shiny areas; a light-weight gel is ideal such as Quench ultra-hydrating water gel.
Dry skin: A cream cleanser rich in omega oils and skin-identical ingredients like cholesterol and lipids. Our fortify barrier repair cream, which is ideal for treating dry, depleted skin.
Sensitive skin: You want to calm, soothe, and remove inflammation, so avoid irritating ingredients such as alcohol, fragrances, dyes, and preservatives.

Step 8: The Night Cream
We know by this point your face feels like a 7-tiered cream cake and your skin has major shine—or as we skincare specialists like to call it, a youthful, dewy, glow.

Adding a serum or cream at night certainly won’t make you immortelle, but it will certainly give your skin a healthy boost, as your skin needs to stay moisturised and hydrated as you recharge overnight.

The time you sleep is the time your skin revives, this is when the skin does the bulk of its repairing, regenerating, and restoring. Therefore your night cream should be focused on moisturising and recovery, and one that contains slow absorbing ingredients, that are designed to penetrate over the course of several hours.

Step 9: The Sunscreen

Slip, slap, slop – as silly as it sounds, these three simple steps could just save your life.

You need to let sunscreen be at the top of your daily skincare routine, to prevent sun-damaged skin; and remember, even on the cloudiest of days, ultraviolet light is extremely strong, so make sure an SPF is your year-round beauty bag essential.

CAUTION: If you’re suffering from skin sensitivity, keep your SPF factor low and reapply more often, because the higher the SPF, the higher the chemicals and the more sensitivity this can cause on your skin.

Conclusion

Wow, now it seems you have finally learned virtually everything there is to know about skincare routines.

But just to recap, no matter what your skin type, a skincare routine is important in order to keep your skin conditions at bay and ward off premature ageing.

A thorough routine will have at least 9 steps, but you can just start with the basics, a skincare routine doesn’t have to be super complicated. In fact, you could start with a few products, cleanser, toner, moisturiser and of course sunblock. Go easy on yourself, and be forgiving if you forget a day.

Remember to always layer your products in the right way, if you use the wrong moisturiser with, say, the wrong toner, you could either render them ineffective or, worse: upset the balance of your skin.