Skin care 101 - Buckle up!

Y'all are going to have to seriously bear with me here. There is a lot of information in the following paragraphs, but I really believe every word of it will help you design a routine that meets the basic needs of your skin, and helps you feel more confident in it. I'm going to discuss three elements of skin care: cleansing, sun protection, and moisturizing. Bookmark this post for future reference, as it includes information about specific ingredients you may want to refer back to. 

Cleanse

Step one in caring for your skin is choosing a gentle cleanser. Most skin types should use a gentle cleanser twice a day, with the occasional exfoliating cleanser. The exception to this is very oily or acne prone skin. Skin has a natural barrier that helps maintain its health and proper moisture, and we don’t want to interfere with it or wash it away. This barrier is an acidic environment made of fatty acids, which is why alkaline soaps like bar soap have a tendency to cause over drying.

The most common ingredient in gentle cleansers is glycerin. It’s safe for almost everyone and is an effective emulsifier, and moisturizing agent. Other common cleanser ingredients include:

1. Stearic/mysristic acid: fatty acid found in coconut oil and shea butter
2. Benzoyl peroxide: kills bacteria (good for acne prone)
3. Salicylic acid: travels to deeper layers and kills bacteria (good for acne prone)
4. Glycolic acid: removes dead surface cells (gentle exfoliant)
5. Sodium laureth sulfate: surfactant (removes surface oils and impurities)
6. Glyceryl stearate: surfactant and emulsifier
7. Coco-glucoside: surfactant
8. Butylene glycol: humectant (moisturizer)
9. Poloxamer 188: surfactant

This list, while not exhaustive, gives you an idea of the long words you might see on all of your skin care ingredient lists. The advice that “you shouldn’t use a product if you can’t read the names of the ingredients” is frankly bunk. There are chemical names for “natural” ingredients, and natural-sounding names for chemicals.

Other options for cleansing include toner, face wipes, and micellar water. Toner is usually alcohol based and may be appropriate for very oily or acne prone skin, but may be overly drying. Face wipes should only be used in situations when you are unable to use traditional cleanser and water like the gym or an airplane. Micellar water is an oil emulsion that is effective at removing makeup including waterproof products, but should be used before a regular cleansing with water, as it will leave a film of oil on the skin. 

When you cleanse your face, use warm water, massage for 30-60 seconds, and pat dry with a clean dedicated towel. Immediately apply moisturizing agents, as the skin loses water quickly following a cleanse. 

Exfoliate

Exfoliation is an important part of the skin care regimen and can make the difference for rough texture, dry skin, and those who are prone to acne. You can exfoliate mechanically with a scrubbing agent, or chemically with an acid. I recommend chemical exfoliation because it is more consistent than mechanical, and prevents over- or under-exfoliation. 

There are two types of exfoliating acids. Alpha hydroxy acids dissolve the uppermost layer of dead skin cells to help unblock pores and give the skin a supple glow. These include lactic acid, glycolic acid, and malic acid, among others. Beta hydroxy acids like salicylic acid travel deeper beneath the skin’s surface and provide anti inflammatory and antibacterial effects. If you have not been exfoliating, I recommend starting with twice a week in the evenings and increasing to the maximum benefit for your skin. 

One alpha hydroxy acid that I believe should be part of almost everyone’s skin care regimen is retinol, or vitamin A. It travels to the deepest layers of skin to undo UV damage, increase cellular turnover rate, and provide anti inflammation. It is the gold standard treatment for acne, hyperpigmentation, wrinkles, and most importantly it is preventative for skin cancer. I've written an entire blog post on retinol if you want more info.

Look for a product with at least 0.1% retinol. On the list of ingredients, it may be called retinol, retinal, retinoic acid, or tretinoin (prescription strength). It may take a few tries to find a product that your skin can tolerate. Many people experience redness, dryness, itching or mild burning. For this reason, at Relevé I carry a unicorn combination product with vitamins A, C, E, aloe, and glycolic acid. It’s very well tolerated by almost all skin types and includes all the best ingredients for aging skin. 

The old wives' tale that you shouldn’t use retinol in the summer is not accurate. It can increase sensitivity to UV light, so it should always be combined with sunscreen in a skin care regimen—but we should all be wearing sunscreen year round anyway.

Sun protection

Here in New Hampshire, we’re all relatively good about wearing sunscreen in the summer, but it’s equally important in winter. UVB is the culprit for sunburns, while UVA is a major contributor to signs of aging and skin cancers. UVA is equally as intense in the winter as summer, inside as outside, and sunny or cloudy. It acts like an x-ray traveling through light clothing and cloud cover. For this reason, you should be wearing a minimum of SPF 30 year round. Make sure your product says “broad spectrum” referring to coverage of both UVA and UVB. 

‍Moisturize

Choosing the right moisturizer for your skin may feel overwhelming. The first step is to determine your skin type—oily, normal, dry, or mixed. If your skin appears shiny at the end of the day, it may be oily. If your skin feels tight or flaky, you may be dry (or you may be over exfoliating). If your skin feels neither of these, you may be normal (or already using a good skin care regimen). 

Moisturizer ingredients can be broken into three types: humectants (water-loving), occlusives (forming a water barrier), and emollients (reinforcing the skin’s own fatty acid barrier). 

Humectants alone can be effective for a short time, but may draw water to the surface from deeper layers of cells, and thus may be drying over time. They may however be just right for very oily skin types. The most common humectant ingredient is hyaluronic acid, which can draw up to one thousand times its weight in water. 

Occlusives like petrolatum, Vaseline, dimethicone, cocoa butter, shea butter, lanolin, propylene glycol, lecithin, squalene, paraffin, and beeswax are good for dry, irritated skin. They may contribute to pore-clogging for those prone to oily acne, however.

Emollients are often a great medium hydrating product that reinforces the skin’s natural fatty acid barrier. These include dimethicone, trisiloxane, ceramides, linoleic acid, caprylyl glycol. Of note, dimethicone can act as both an occlusive and an emollient. 

You may want to choose a moisturizer that also includes other helpful ingredients for your specific skin concerns. Vitamin C is helpful for skin brightening and pigment changes, and will often appear as “ascorbyl” or “ascorbic” on the list of ingredients. Vitamin E helps with wound healing and minimizing sunburn damage, and may be listed as “tocopherol” on the list of ingredients. Vitamin B3 is particularly good for acne prone skin as it helps maintain the skin’s natural barrier; it may be listed as “niacinamide” on the label. 

Marketing words to ignore

The number of available skin care products are at an all-time high, and prices range considerably. It can be difficult for the consumer to identify quality products versus effective marketing strategies. Here are a few marketing words you should ignore when you see them on a product: Hypoallergenic, Non-comedogenic (means “will not block pores”), Clinically proven, Dermatologist tested, Natural, Chemical free, Preservative free. Use of these words does not mean a product is “bad,” they just don’t convey any useful information because there is no agreed upon definition of them. 

If you have questions about your skin care products, feel free to DM me on Instagram or Facebook!