La Dolce Vita : Facial Skincare

It's all about taking care of your facial skin today so you can put your best face forward everyday. As we all know today, skincare products can burn quite a big hole in our pockets. The price range of such products can be as low as $2 or sky rocket to infinity as in the case of La Mer products. Cheap doesn't mean the product is bad for your skin and expensive doesn't mean it will do wonders either. Similarly what works for one person might not work for another. So keep trying the different brands until you hit a jackpot and never let go! But no matter what brand of facial product, one must know what to look out for in the products to benefit the skin and what to avoid for one's skin type.

1-2-3

The very basic of facial skincare is the 3 step routine I believe most have already established. It is very important to stick to the routine every time you cleanse your face.

1 - Cleanse

Ok this is the first thing everyone does each morning and at night. The type of facial cleanser used should be suitable for your skin type. Those with dry or matured skin would benefit from using a more creamy and rich cleanser as the cleanser needs to be gentle and not strip away all of the skin's moisture. For those with oily skin, avoid such rich creamy cleansers at all cost and go for gel cleansers instead. Combination and normal skin can use the normal facial cleansers.
A tip when testing out cleanser, if your skin feels tight and stretched after you wash your face, the cleanser is too strong for you. Try find something that's more moisturising for example a cleanser with aloe vera as one of its' ingredients.
Another tip, when washing your face squeeze out the cleanser onto your palms and lather into a slight bubble in your palms instead of your face. This will prevent extra stripping of moisture from your face. 

  

2 - Tone

This is an essential step that a lot of people tend to skip. Toning not only removes whatever dirt or make up that's not removed from the first step but also works as an astringent and serves to shrink pores. So again get a toner that's suitable for your skin. For people with oily skin, try and get a toner with alcohol in it as it helps to control the oil and sebum production. This is what is prescribed but it really depends on how oily your skin is. A really good toner I've found for oily skin is this witch hazel toner from Guardian. It is effective and yet alcohol free which is always good! Whereas those with combi/normal and dry skin should avoid toners with alcohol content. The alcohol is far too drying for these skin types and will strip too much natural oils away which makes the pores go into overdrive. This is partly why you find that your skin gets oily after a few hours....overstripping of the skin's natural oils. 

3-  Moisturise

Moisturise moisturise moisturise! Even if you have oily skin, you still need to moisturise to restore the skin's balance. But do find a moisturiser that's suitable which means a gel based moisturiser is better for oily skin as it is lighter and not as rich. For dry skin, find a creamy moisturiser with shea butter or other enriching elements in it. Normal to combi skin would also do better with gel based moisturisers.
One tip is to try find a moisturiser with at least SPF 30 in it to protect our skin from premature sun aging. If not then get a separate sunscreen and apply BEFORE your moisturiser.

This should be the basics of skincare. The very basic before you add on any other steps such as a whitening / firming serum.  

My daily morning routine goes something like this - 

1 - cleanse with clarins foaming ceanser 

2 - tone with clarins alcohol free toner for combi skin

3 - slap on Clarins whitening/pore minimizing serum

4 - slap on biore/ZA sunscreen SPF 45 or is it 30?

5 - Moisturise with Clarins hydra care gel

What does yours look like? Do share any great products with us.

Til next time

Ciao!