The Secret to Your Ideal Everyday Skincare Routine

Skincare can be complicated, even for the obsessed or self-confessed beauty junkies.

There’s more choice available to us than ever before: so many brands, so many ingredients, and so many different product types – from several different cleanser varieties, to serums, creams, emulsions, oils and mists. How can we navigate this? We’re going to explore what makes an ideal everyday skincare ritual, so you can have confidence that you’re getting the best from your products and maximising your routine in order to achieve your best possible skin health.

WHAT MAKES A GOOD EVERYDAY SKINCARE ROUTINE?

First and foremost, it’s one that is meeting your needs. Your products should be suited to what skin requires to target towards addressing any skin concerns you might be experiencing. A product’s texture will be a key indicator as to whether it is suitable for your skin. For example, gel and/or foaming cleansers are normally more suited to oily skin, and creams, oils or balms more for normal to dry skin. Rich moisturisers may be too heavy and occlusive for oily skins, so should be reserved for drier skin, with oily skins opting for a lighter texture. The texture should be looked at in combination with a product’s ingredients, and whether they are tailored to your skin’s type and conditions.

If you have a specific condition that concerns you, such as dehydration or signs of ageing, you can opt to treat this with a targeted serum. Those with multiple concerns who also like to keep things simple will appreciate multi-tasking serums, with blends of ingredients that can treat multiple concerns at a time. Our Everyday Face Oil is a great example of this – instead of requiring one facial oil for hydrating, one for ageing, and one for pigmentation, it combines all three facial oils into one. It’s all about assessing your needs and taking the time to find products that can meet those needs.

CLEANSING BASICS

A good cleanse in the evening is the most important foundation of a good routine, ensuring you’re removing blockages, buildup, oil, sweat, make-up, dirt and pollution to start with a nice blank canvas, which will assist with penetration of the products you apply afterward. We recommend cleansing morning and night, for two minutes each.

HOW OFTEN DO I MASK AND EXFOLIATE?

Again assess your own individual needs, but as a general rule of thumb, you can exfoliate gently 2-3 times per week. Most modern skin professionals now recommend a fruit enzyme or chemical, AHA/BHA-based exfoliant that will gently dissolve surface dead cells, increase cellular turnover and encourage collagen production. Alternatively you can use the Facial Dry Brush to provide a gentle exfoliation to your skin.

When it comes to masks, these are an excellent method of delivering high concentrations of hydrating, nourishing ingredients into the skin. Our Hydration Mask incorporates purifying willow bark in order to clean deeply and extract blockages and impart its powerful blend of minerals, hydrators, and phytonutrients even more effectively.

DO I NEED A MIST?

No. At NAYA, we don't believe a Mist is an essential product that you need for your ideal Everyday skincare. A Mist is lovely to refresh your skin during a warm summer day - to give a freshening kick. But not something that you need in your EVERYDAY. But there is a place for mists. For example, create your own lavender milk for your evening ritual. Or use a mist to mix it with the Antioxidant Defence Booster. In addition, misting can also be used as a wonderful calming ritual to promote self-care and stress reduction. Stress has far-reaching negative impacts, not just on our minds but our physical bodies, our skin, brain, and other organs, so reducing this in any way we can is beneficial – whether it be meditation or a simple mist!

ACTIVES

In terms of when you should use your various actives, there are a few simple tips to remember. Hydrators, calming serums, and vitamin B can be used whenever is required, any time of day. Vitamin C is best reserved for morning, to make the most of its energising and brightening effects, its antioxidant ability to scavenge free radicals that occur through environmental aggressors, plus evidence has shown it can enhance the efficacy of your sunscreen. Any AHAs or BHAs should also be left for evenings.

WHICH ORDER DO I APPLY, AND HOW CAN I LAYER MY PRODUCTS? THINK ONION-LOOK!

Always start with your cleanse – and a nice facial massage. Exfoliation should follow after cleansing, but we recommend reserving this for nighttime, to give your skin time to settle and repair. If you use a gua sha the same advice applies here, carrying out immediately after cleansing and repeating 2-3 times per week. Afterwards, apply a drop of our Aura Essence. Apply your serums and elixirs next, layering one after the other. If you are using multiple serums, use the most active ones to give the best chance of penetrating deeply, followed by hydrating serums.

Next is your moisturiser, which acts to keep in all of your active serum ingredients and prevent hydration from evaporating as quickly through the skin’s surface. If you use a face oil, apply this very last as it is of the heaviest texture, and will lock in your moisturiser and serums even further. Think Onion-Look.

In the morning, ALWAYS complete your routine with sunscreen, especially if you are heading outdoors, even intermittently.

HOW MUCH DO I USE?

The quantity of each product you use will vary according to the type and viscosity of the product itself, but generally speaking your cleanser and exfoliant will be around a 10-cents, and a 2-Euro coin for your mask (or however much is required to cover your face as well as neck and décolletage if you choose). Your serums will often be two pumps or a large pea-sized amount. Your moisturiser should be around a 10-cent – again, depending on whether you take this down to your neck and décolletage. Facial oil will often travel quite far, with just 3-4 drops required. Around a full teaspoon of sunscreen is recommended.

We hope this helps to simplify and solidify your EVERYDAY routine and give you the tips and tricks you need to be confident with your skincare applications. If you are still unsure or have questions regarding your skin or your routine, we have some online tools to assist you. Simply fill out our online quiz in just 2 minutes to receive a customised NAYA skincare regime.