Do you wash and moisturize your face every morning and night?

In the morning!

Cleanse: This is essential to keeping skin looking radiant and healthy. Cleansing the skin in the morning helps to wake you up and freshen your skin. Cleansing helps maintain proper pore size. This is because you are removing the oil and the pores are not getting as clogged.

Exfoliate: This can be as simple as using a wash cloth when you cleanse. This will remove the very top skin cells. Leave the deeper exfoliating for your facial treatments.

Serum: I always recommend a vitamin C serum in the morning for all skin types to prevent sun damage and increase collagen and elastin production.

Hydrate: Use the right moisturizer for your skin type. If you are unsure of what that is, ask your esthetician.

Protect: Use a sunscreen every morning even if you live where it is cloudy all day.

At night!

Cleanse: Cleansing your skin in the p.m. helps remove dirt, oil, sunscreen and makeup.

Treatment Product: This can be a retinol based product or a peptide serum. The retinol feeds the skin cells vitamin A which helps with anti-aging. Some peptides help anti-aging while others help with hydration.

Moisturizer: Use the appropriate moisturizer for your skin type.

Why use Professional Products vs Over The Counter.

What is the difference between $40 moisturizers and $10 products?

The over the counter products are made in large batches.

This means they are made for the mass market and general consumption.

The products are intentionally made to have a lower risk of irritation and in doing that they have a much lower amount of actual effective ingredients in them.

In a nutshell, they have less active ingredients and more filler.

This reduces the cost but also reduces the effectiveness and quality.

For example, ULTA sells a hyaluronic acid serum where the hyaluronic acid is listed as the 11th ingredient. This means it doesn’t have a very high concentration. *Denatured alcohol is the 3rd ingredient.

One of the hyaluronic acid serums I carry has it is the 5th ingredient. And, it is way cleaner. With less preservatives and more hydrating ingredients. It has aloe and jojoba oil. And, it is also a plant based hyaluronic acid.

Having a licensed esthetician, who you see regularly, can help you choose the right products. A professional can also help you determine what product will help you address specific skin issues.

PS I am a skin ingredient nerd. If you have questions about ingredients and what they do, please email me.