4 key steps for your morning skincare routine
24 April 2024 – 3 min read
Your morning skincare routine should set you up for success every single day, working in order from the thinnest, lightest product to the thickest and heaviest - but always starting with a cleanser.
Step 1: cleanser
But what could you possibly have to clean off your face if you’ve been sleeping, you ask? For one thing, you’ll want to remove sweat, grime and last night's skincare. Plus, just like cleansing your nails before painting, cleansing your skin before beginning your skincare routine preps your complexion for the products ahead.
Dry skin types love cream, oil or balm cleansers like our Overachiever Balm Cleanser as they won’t strip your skin of its natural oils. A good oil or balm cleanser starts solid on dry skin, then turns milky and washes off with warm water - it shouldn’t leave behind any greasy residue.
A gently exfoliating water-based cleanser is ideal for those with normal, oily or combo skin. Whisk away impurities with Clean Canvas Gel Cleanser, powered by vitamin E, goji berry extract, passion flower and a hint of salicylic acid to leave skin feeling soft, supple and ready to take on your serums.
Either way, make sure the water is lukewarm, never hot, to avoid causing irritation or redness.
Step 2: serum/s
Now’s the time for a targeted treatment depending on your skin concerns.
Dealing with dehydration, dryness or redness? Seek out vitamin B (or niacinamide), a blooming brilliant ingredient that helps to strengthen cell walls and increase your skin’s ability to hold moisture; making it plumpier, less wrinkly and all-round healthier. Enter our Back In Balance Vitamin B Serum, a quick-absorbing formula to soothe and hydrate when skin needs a reset.
Concerned with dullness or pigmentation? Vitamin C (ascorbic acid or l-ascorbic acid) doesn’t just love your insides, this antioxidant stimulates your skin’s natural ability to produce collagen; a key structural protein that makes skin strong and elastic while boosting radiance. Consider Daybreak Vitamin C Serum brightness in a bottle.
Irritation, skin barrier issues or scaring got you down? One of the most powerful antioxidants, vitamin E delivers long-lasting moisture, nourishes and shields your skin from environmental stressors. But our humble green oil, The Caretaker Vitamin E Serum, offers so much more, with 15 high-performing active ingredients to calm, soothe and tackle sensitivity.
We recommend sticking with one to two serums in your AM and PM skincare routines, as too many products can result in sensitised skin and a damaged skin barrier. The order depends on the specific products you’re using but as a general rule, work from most active to least, thinnest to thickest.
Step 3: moisturiser
After serum, apply moisturiser to keep your skin balanced, hydrated and plump. Healthy skin needs both hydration (water) and moisture (oil) - take a deeper dive here. Luckily, our Skin Drench Moisturiser delivers both. Snow mushroom provides 500 times the hydrating power of hyaluronic acid and penetrates deeply to leave skin supple. Niacinamide and ceramides provide an immediate and long-lasting moisturising effect, plus peptides soften the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. What’s not to love?
Optional step: eye serum
The skin under our eyes is thinner and more delicate than the rest of our face, and as such, is more susceptible to sagging, ageing, moisture loss and pigmentation. To prevent free-radical damage, most eye creams or serums contain antioxidants and are specially formulated for this area so that the product particles can be absorbed effectively without irritation.
Step 4: sunscreen
Absolutely everybody should be using sunscreen daily. It's the best tool for preventing signs of ageing - namely hyperpigmentation, fine lines and wrinkles. This serves as a double reminder for those living under those big ole holes in the ozone layer (pray for us Antipodeans).
Even if you spend most of your time indoors, UVA can penetrate windows and UVB doesn’t discriminate on cloudy days. We recommend wearing physical SPF45 at the minimum (learn more about the differences between physical and chemical sunscreens here).
Want to learn more?
Here's everything you need to know about the best at-home anti-ageing skincare routine.
