How to Create the Skincare Routine for You

Discover our ideal products and skincare steps to build your skincare routine based on your skin type, whether you have dry skin or oily skin.

With all the skincare products out there, even a simple skincare routine can seem mystifying. Do you really need toner? At what point in your routine should your serum come in — and, also, what’s a serum? But it doesn’t have to be so confusing. From understanding the right skincare routine order to knowing what, exactly, those skincare steps should be, our guide will walk you through what you need to know.

Your Daytime Skincare Routine

The purpose of a good skincare routine in the morning is twofold: to refresh your skin after waking, and to prepare your skin to handle whatever the day may bring, be it pollution or UV rays. Here, we provide an overview of a simple skincare routine for morning, including what order to use your products:

• Step 1: Cleanse skin
• Step 2: Tone skin
• Step 3: Apply a serum
• Step 4: Dab on eye cream
• Step 5: Moisturize with a day cream
• Step 6: Apply sunscreen

Cleanse

Even if you properly cleansed your skin the night before, cleansing again in the morning is a good idea. Sweat and oil production doesn’t stop with the clock, so doing a repeat helps you start with a clean slate. You can choose a formula according to your skin type: If your skin tends to be dry, reach for a nourishing formula like Miel-en-Mousse Foaming Cleansing Makeup Remover, which contains acacia honey encapsulated in water. You could also try Eau Fraiche Douceur Micellar Cleansing Water, which gently lifts away impurities from skin’s surface. If you’re on the oily side, however, consider washing with a purifying cleanser like Crème Radiance Cream-to-Foam Cleanser meant for normal to combination skin before moving onto the rest of your routine.

Tone

Next, prep your skin for the rest of your skincare routine with a moisturizing toner. Unlike the harsh toners of years past, there is a new generation of toners formulated to help hydrate skin while toning. And that’s important, because toners are designed to prime skin to prepare it for the rest of your skincare products in your routine. (Think of skin as a sponge; for it to work best, you need to moisten it first.) Our cult favorite Tonique Confort with Acacia Honey leaves skin feeling clean and re-hydrated.

Serum

Now that your skin is both clean and prepped, it’s time to deliver some active ingredients. You’ll find these in your face serums, which are targeted treatments that help to address the appearance of fine lines, wrinkles, and dark spots; serums are a good way to incorporate active ingredients into your skincare routine.. Advanced Génifique Youth Activating Serum is formulated with Bifidus Prebiotic and other ingredients. The formula targets the key signs of youthful skin — in just seven days skin looks younger and youthfully radiant - after only 1 bottle skin appears radiant, toned, smooth and firm. Learn everything you need to know about face serums here.

Eye Cream

The skin around the eyes is notoriously thin and delicate, which is why it’s one of the first areas to show signs of aging. (Case in point: crows feet.) Therefore, a dedicated eye cream is important, especially if you’ve noticed dark circles and puffiness on a regular basis. Use your ring finger to pat the eye cream gently around your eye area. And don’t be stingy: You can apply it to your entire eye contour. Want a demo? Check out this video.

Day Cream

It’s time for one of the key steps in your routine, since hydration is important to achieve healthy looking skin. If you’re using a day cream that already contains at least SPF 15, which is the minimum recommended by the FDA then you’re set. If not, there’s just one important skincare step left.

Sunscreen

Rain? Shine? Doesn’t matter — sunscreen still needs to be a part of a good skincare routine, as research shows that sun exposure is responsible for 80% of signs of aging, including wrinkles, sagging, and dark spots.¹ The same goes if you’re indoors, since windows typically don’t offer sufficient protection against the sun’s harmful UV rays. If your day cream doesn’t contain SPF, follow up with a sunscreen that has broad-spectrum protection. That means it defends against both UVA rays, largely responsible for signs of aging, and UVB rays, which can contribute to sunburns and skin cancer. UV Expert Aquagel Sunscreen SPF 50 offers broad-spectrum coverage with an aquagel technology that is oil free + cooling + invisible. Want to learn more about sunscreen? Get the details here.

Your Nighttime Skincare Routine

A good nighttime skincare routine is beneficial for maintaining healthy looking skin — for a few reasons. First, nighttime is when skin’s moisture barrier is more permeable² , meaning that formulas can get to work on the skin’s surface!

• Step 1: Use a makeup remover
• Step 2: Cleanse skin
• Step 3: Apply a mask or exfoliate
• Step 4: Tone skin
• Step 5: Apply serum
• Step 6: Dab on eye cream
• Step 6: Apply night cream

Remove makeup

Unless you want to wake up with raccoon eyes, first remove any stubborn eye makeup with Bi-Facil Eye Makeup Remover. Not only do makeup removers like this effectively remove even waterproof formulas, but they also do so gently enough that they’re safe for those who have sensitive eyes or wear contact lenses. And that’s important, as continued tugging and rubbing the eye area to cleanse it can result in damage to the delicate skin there over time.

Cleanse

As your mom may have told you time and time again, it’s of utmost importance to cleanse your skin before bed. Otherwise, the combination of makeup, oil, and grime that’s collected throughout the day could potentially clog pores, which in turn may lead to breakouts. Use a gentle cleanser like Crème Mousse Confort that leaves skin soft and soothed as it cleanses. To remove stubborn eye makeup, use Bi-Facil Eye Makeup Remover.

Exfoliate

After cleansing, exfoliate your skin. Exfoliation is the process of removing dead skin cells from the surface of skin to reveal new, healthy skin. One common method is with a scrub, which uses mechanical exfoliation. Our Exfoliating Rose Sugar Scrub gently sloughs away dead skin cells and impurities with real sugar grains. Other methods of exfoliation include face peels, such as Rénergie Lift Multi-Action Ultra Milk Peel. A face peel exfoliates skin with a combination of acids. (Depending on what method of exfoliation you use, certain common exfoliation ingredients, such as glycolic acid, cause sensitivity to sunlight — which is why we recommend saving this step for nighttime only.)³ The best frequency depends on your skin type — dry or sensitive skin types should exfoliate once or twice a week, while those with oily skin may want to exfoliate every night.⁴

Mask

Two or three times a week, target your skincare concerns with a face mask. If it’s one you leave on for a few minutes then remove, such as Advanced Génifique Hydrogel Melting Sheet Mask, follow it with the rest of your nighttime skincare routine, including toner. However, if it’s a mask formula that you should wear overnight, like the Moisturizing Rose Jelly Overnight Mask, then consider this your final step before getting some shut eye. (You can also choose to tone your skin before you mask in this case — it’s largely a matter of preference.)

Tone

Just as you do in the morning, apply a toner like Tonique Confort again after cleansing to rehydrate dry and uncomfortable skin — round two. The skincare routine order still matters, even at night.

Serum

Serum gets the spotlight again, since serums are designed to deliver efficacious formulas to the skin’s surface. For that reason, it should be a mainstay in your nighttime skincare routine. Apply Advanced Génifique Youth Activating Serum to your skin and neck to reap its anti-aging benefits.

Eye

Treat your eyes while you snooze, too; again, it’s part of a good skincare routine. Gently dabbing on an eye cream or an eye serum help refresh and brighten the look of the eye area come morning.

Night Cream

A night cream is your final skincare step. These tend to be even richer than your day cream, and they’re great for keeping skin well-moisturized overnight. And that’s essential, seeing as research⁵ shows that the skin barrier is more permeable overnight. That means that its more absorptive — which is a good thing — but also that it’s prone to moisture loss. Our Night creams tend to be formulated with emollients, such as shea butter; emollients help to seal moisture on skin’s surface and help fortify the barrier.

1 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3790843/

2 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9424081

3 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2791365/

4 https://www.aad.org/public/everyday-care/skin-care-secrets/routine/safely-exfoliate-at-home

5 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022202X15373590