skincare
This is how you find the right routine for your skin
© Jan Rickers
Which active ingredients help the complexion to stay healthy and beautiful? In what order does he want to be cared for? A small instruction manual.
A basic distinction is made between skin type and skin condition: The type is genetic, the condition depends on factors such as nutrition, stress, sleep quality or weather. This means that even oily skin can dry out in winter.
What does my skin need?
If you want to know what your skin needs, you have to look at its condition
That advises Dr. Emi Arpa, aesthetic dermatologist with a practice in Berlin, and explains her recommendation. The condition can be determined as follows: wash face with lukewarm water and cleanser, wait half an hour, then inspect the skin.
- Is it tense and does it look dull? Then it is dry and low in fat – and needs more lipids in the care.
- Is it tense and shiny? The skin is thirsty and needs more hydrating substances such as glycerin, hyaluronic acid or panthenol.
- No tension, but shine? Then you have oily skin that needs little lipids – but still moisture, because it produces more sebum to protect against water loss.
- If the T-zone is shiny but the skin is otherwise tight, it is important to combine it cleverly: lipids on the cheeks, moisture on the T-zone. “One rarely has oily skin all over the face, but rather in the areas where most of the oil glands are located. So nose, forehead or chin”, says Dr. Emi Arpa.
In what order is maintenance performed?
“Before we get started, we have to clean up first,” says Dr. Emi Arpa. In the morning, lukewarm water is enough, in the evening we need more to rid the skin of fine dust, sunscreen and make-up. If you want, you can use facial toner afterwards.
©PR
And then there are the two steps that bring a lot: a serum that binds moisture and/or delivers certain active ingredients, and then a cream that protects the complexion and supplies it with lipids – at least now, in the colder season, in summer you can leave out the cream. Finally, sun protection factor should be applied to the face – unless it is already in the day cream.
You can also use these care products
Apart from the serum, cream and sun protection, everything else – eye care (if so, then in the evening after the serum) or a nourishing oil – is optional. Our expert advises anyone who wants to use skin care oil not to use it pure: “Since oil likes to combine with oil, it would replace the valuable, skin’s own lipids.
Oils should always be applied in combination with a cream – after or mixed with it
If you prefer to work with more care steps and are not sure in which order the products should be applied, stick to this rule of thumb: always layer by viscosity – from the thinnest, wateriest texture to the thickest, richest. In this way, the products do not “bead” on each other. It doesn’t matter whether the active ingredients come in the second or third step – they find their way into the skin.
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This is how we adapt our care routine to the time of day
We love strong active ingredients! And this example routine shows how the skin can be well cared for with serums and/or creams – in the morning with the focus on protecting, in the evening on repairing. However, there are care ingredients that are effective but can irritate the complexion. For example, he should be carefully accustomed to retinol – sensitive people can also replace it with hyaluronic acid or panthenol.
products for the morning
In the morning, the main thing is to strengthen the upper layers of the skin and protect it from harmful environmental influences with free radical scavengers (antioxidants). Radical scavengers do not always have to be in high doses. For niacinamide, 5 percent is enough. It is also better to approach vitamin C and especially its acidic acid slowly! Sun protection factor 50 still makes sense, but if you like, you can now reduce it to 30 – because it’s easier to formulate, it’s already in many day creams.
products for the evening
Serums contain highly concentrated active ingredients and are well absorbed by the skin, but provide little lipids, so that a rich cream is the perfect complement. How much? Full concentration? We don’t need that with retinol: a fingertip night care with 0.1-0.3 percent is enough. To get started: first 1 x per week, then slowly increase. And the alternative? If you don’t like AHAs/BHAs or retinol: active ingredients such as sphingolipids, glycerin and ceramides (alone or combined with others) strengthen the skin barrier and are simply good for you.