4-Step Daily Skincare Routine for Beginners
Black esthetician shares 4 tips in this beginners guide to creating a daily skin care routine with specific guidance for skin of color.
With today’s beauty industry booming, the #1 question everyone’s asking is “how do I create a daily skin care routine for myself at home?”
Whether your skin care goal is to achieve a clear complexion, reduce acne breakouts and hyperpigmentation, reduce lines and wrinkles, or simply look younger—there are two fundamental steps to success:
- See your esthetician regularly for deep treatments and maintenance facials.
- Maintain a quality skin care regimen at home between appointments.
The internet places a lot of information at our fingertips about skincare tips and tricks, especially social media. In truth, there is no one-size-fits-all skincare solution. Also, not all sources provide accurate and high-quality information.
The purpose of this guide is to walk you through 4 steps of a daily facial care routine so that you can start getting better results: Cleansing, Exfoliation, Toning, and Moisturizing.
STEP 1: CLEANSE
The first step in your daily skin care routine is cleansing and it should be completed twice per day—once in the morning and again at night before bed.
Always begin your daily skin care routine with cleansing to remove makeup, excess oil, dirt, dead skin cells, cosmetic products, and impurities. In the evenings, your face has likely accumulated more debris than upon waking in the morning. Therefore, you may start with a precleanse to remove excess oil and makeup from your skin.
Use a cleansing oil to pre-cleanse your skin by removing any makeup, products, or debris. Emulsified cleansing oils and micellar waters are both effective for this step as they can quickly dissolve and remove excess oil and dirt from the pores in addition to any product buildup on the skin.
Next, begin a deeper (second) cleanse using a product that is formulated to work well with your skin type and skin care concerns at the moment. If it is morning and no pre-cleanse is necessary, this will be your first step instead.
There are 3 main types of facial cleansers:
- Gel Cleanser: Removes excess oils and impurities from the skin’s surface (foaming or non-foaming)
- Clay Cleanser: Absorbs excess oils and impurities
- Cream Cleanser: Enriched with lipids to nourish and prevent dryness and irritation
While cleansing towelettes are often marketed as convenient aids for makeup removal or daily facial cleansing, they are not as effective as facial cleansers and may cause more problems. You can easily remove makeup without wipes using a cleansing oil or micellar water as mentioned above.
For best results, it is best to either avoid or strictly limit their use to an occasional mini-cleanse on-the-go mini-cleanse (i.e. After a workout at the gym when you don’t have your usual cleansing products available).
Here are some points to consider the following before your reach for that next cleansing towelette:
- Wiping with towelettes may smear dirt, excess oil, sweat, and makeup rather than completely removing it. This can lead to clogged pores and breakouts if the face is not properly cleansed shortly thereafter.
- Towelettes are often made with ingredients of low quality and may promote dryness or skin irritation, especially if fragrance is either added.
- Towelettes can be far too abrasive against the skin due to their physical or chemical composition.
Cleansing is imperative before going to bed at night to remove any makeup, sunscreen, or other cosmetics on the skin. During night sleep, the body naturally facilitates its own detoxification cycle and your skin needs to be clean in order to get the most out of this process.
Avoid using bar soap (i.e. Dove or African black soap) on your face may cause extreme dryness, excessive oiliness, and leave behind a film that clogs your pores. Other items to avoid cleansing your face with are shower gels, detergents, liquid castile soaps, and alcohol.
Lastly, sleeping with makeup on can clog your pores and lead to breakouts on your skin. Remembers, there’s a reason why they call it beauty rest—maintain your beauty, then rest!
STEP 2: EXFOLIATE
Exfoliation is the act of removing excess oil, dead skin cells, and debris from the surface of your skin by either physical or chemical means.
While stimulating your skin for better circulation, exfoliation keeps skin nourished, prevents clogged pores, promotes healthy cell turnover, and can help your skin to absorb products more efficiently.
There are two types of exfoliation:
- Manual Exfoliation: Rubbing, brushing, or scrubbing the skin with granular products.
- Chemical Exfoliation: Chemical peels, hydroxy acids, enzymes, and retinoids.
Ask your esthetician about the safest and healthiest option for your skin before choosing an exfoliation product or technique.
STEP 3: TONE & NOURISH
Toners refresh and hydrate the skin while restoring its pH to a healthy level which may be temporarily disrupted during the cleansing process. You can spritz a toner on after cleansing, exfoliating, or anytime you feel that your skin could use a dose of hydration throughout the day.
Q: Should I Use Witch Hazel as a Toner?
A: Although witch hazel is popularly hailed as a toner, it can be very drying to the skin and most formulas contain alcohol. Witch hazel is a botanical astringent, which tightens the pores and can reduce local inflammation. However, it’s drying effect can encourage oily skin to produce more oil leading to clogged pores, blackheads, acne, and hyperpigmentation. Effective toners should refresh, hydrate, and balance the skin—that’s it!
To find a good toner, look for hydrating ingredients such as hyaluronic acid, aloe vera, cucumber, and glycerine avoiding formulas that contain alcohol as they are very drying.
After toning, you can nourish your skin with vitamins, botanical extracts, and more by applying a serum immediately after your toner.
Serums are concentrated liquid formulas with a healthy dose of botanical extracts, vitamins, minerals, proteins, exfoliants, brighteners, and/or hydrating ingredients that your skin will love!
You can simply apply them to your face after toning while the skin is still damp and allow 1-3 minutes for them to penetrate. If you face feels dry after this step, feel free to add 1-2 more spritzes of you toner in preparation for the final step of your routine.
Ask your esthetician to recommend a toner and serum based on your skin type, skin care concerns, and skincare goals.
STEP 4: MOISTURIZE
Cleansing and exfoliation remove a lot of the vital surface oils that form your skin’s protective barrier. Moisturizing is one way to quickly restore some of those lipids while simultaneously sealing in hydration that is already present on the surface of your skin from the your serum and/or toner you just applied.
There are three main types of moisturizers with each combining oils and water in differing ratios to achieve certain results:
- Gel-Cream: Very light in texture, contains mostly water with a small amount of lipids, for oily, acneic, and sensitive skin
- Lotion: Light but thicker than gel-cream, contain more water than lipids, for normal to combination skin
- Cream: Heavier, contain more lipids than water, for extremely dry skin (not good for oily or acneic skin)
Apply your moisturizer on damp skin after toning and nourishing with a serum for best results as the dampness will help your moisturizer to penetrate more effectively. If your serum has already dried, add 1-2 additional spritzes of your toner to re-hydrate before moisturizing.
Ask your esthetician to help you choose a moisturizer of high quality that is suitable for your skin type and skin concerns. In general, if you are oily, then you’ll likely opt for a water-based formula and oil-based if your primary concern is dryness. If your skin is sensitized in any way, you’ll want to choose a gentle formula with specific ingredients that won’t further irritate your skin (e.g. Silicone).
STEP 5: PROTECT
The final step in your daytime skincare routine is applying a sunscreen to protect your skin from the harmful, aging effects of the sun. You can read more about this step in our article on choosing the best sunscreen.
Sun light is the primary cause of aging including fine lines, wrinkles, age spots, and fluctuations in the skin’s pigmentation. It’s also carcinogenic due to its ability to alter DNA in all skin types. That’s why daily sun protection is essential for everyone, regardless of how the weather looks and the amount of melanin in your skin.
In the daytime, apply sunscreen immediately after your moisturizer unless your moisturizer is already formulated with sunscreen. Be sure to apply your sunscreen at least 20 minutes prior to sun exposure and reapply throughout the day as instructed on the label (usually every 2 hours or anytime you exit the water if swimming).
There are also tinted sunscreens that can double as your makeup foundation by matching your skin tone (this may be a great option if you are planning to wear makeup and want to reduce the number of products on your skin). However, a foundation that contains sunscreen is not sufficient protection by itself. Always apply your sunscreen (SPF30 or more) before makeup application for adequate protection.
There are various types of physical and chemical sunscreens on the market. The one you choose should be based on two factors:
- Your Fitzpatrick Type: How your skin responds to ultraviolet (UV) light exposure based on genetics.
- Your Skin Type: Dry, normal, combination, oily, or sensitive (i.e. Rosacea, eczema, psoriasis, dermatitis)
If you burn and or tan easily, opt for a sunscreen with a higher sun protection factor (SPF) rating (i.e. SPF 30 or SPF 50).
Bonus Step: Book a Facial with Your Esthetician
When it comes to skin of color, it is imperative to have the support of a licensed esthetician who is qualified in the care for and treatment of multicultural skin.
A well-structured and consistent home care routine is up to 85% responsible for maintaining the results you get from working with a licensed esthetician. Besides a beginners guide to daily skincare, the point of this article is to support you in getting the most out of your home care plan after seeing your esthetician for treatment.
Now that you have a basic idea of how to structure your own healthy skin routine, you are ready to book an appointment for a facial. If this is your first facial treatment, ask friends for recommendations or perform a Google search for terms such as “estheticians near me”.
Getting a facial allows you access to a customized treatment plan with results-driven products and practices that are safe, effective, and enjoyable for you. Unless your esthetician says otherwise, it is generally recommended to re-book for a maintenance facial every 3-4 weeks. Consider it a worthy investment in the long-term health of your skin.
Facials are extremely relaxing and entail all of the steps mentioned above including massage, extractions, and many other treatment modalities based on your esthetician’s style of practice (i.e. Therapeutic masks, hot towels, steam, aromatherapy, start-of-the-art facial devices and machines, ice therapy, etc.).
At the beginning of your facial treatment, your esthetician will conduct a comprehensive consultation to learn more about you and your background followed by a hands-on skin analysis. This helps your esthetician to understand the current state of your skin and identify key action steps to help you correct imbalances or maintain your radiant glow.
At the end of your appointment, your esthetician will recommend a home care plan that complements your skin and meets you where you are. That’s where this article can be most helpful so that you can carry out the daily skin care routine that he or she suggests.
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