My days of working in the skincare and beauty industry might be behind me, for now, but that doesn’t mean that I am not practicing everything I’ve learned each and every day. I have applied makeup to countless faces and recited over and over to hundreds of women just how important it is to take care of your skin. If you do not take care of your skin, your makeup application will suffer tremendously!
One thing I realized after working for Estee Lauder was that more women than not, do not have a basic skin care regimen! And I am not talking about the 20-somethings, I am talking about women in their 40’s and 50’s. So, I am making it my personal duty to share with you everything I have learned, and will continue to learn, about skincare. Let’s get started with Skincare 101!
Step 1: Remove any and all makeup. This goes for mascara too! Seriously, get that stuff off of your lashes before you go to bed. The eye makeup remover that I swear by is the Clinique ‘Take the Day Off’ (Left). Plus, it works great at removing long-wearing lipstick too! After removing the mascara, eyeliner, and lipstick, I remove my foundation. Again, entrusting in Clinique with their ‘Rinse-off foaming cleanser’. While this says it is a cleanser, its main purpose is to remove the long-wearing or heavier foundations. It will cleanse some but you still want to follow with a cleanser!
Step 2: Next step is to cleanse your skin! Since working in the skincare and beauty industry for a while, I fell victim to some of the more expensive, but-still-very-effective skin care trends. One of those was the Clarisonic (though I feel this is a trend that will stay around for awhile). I was quickly sold on it after reading several reviews, and getting a personal testament to just how amazing they were. I bought the Mia 2 though, now, they have a Mia 3! (Feeling obsolete over here! Haha!) But seriously, it works perfectly and gets the cleaning job done just fine. Because the Clarisonic is gentle on the skin, it is safe to use daily. I use the Estee Lauder Nutritious 2-in-1 Foaming Cleanser with my Clarisonic. I love this cleanser because it lathers so easily and you do not need to use but a dime-sized amount. One bottle normally lasts me 3-4 months (when my fiance is using it too! Longer if he stays away from it, but that will never happen!).
Step 3: When I worked for Estee Lauder this was the part that many women didn’t really understand, and I get it because I, too, did not know its purpose long ago. So after you cleanse your face, your skin needs a range of important ingredients such as antioxidants to help with the skin-repairing process. Choosing a right toner will help to restore those needed ingredients to your skin and prep the skin for the moisturizer. There are two toners pictured here. The ReNutriv Softening Lotion is a toner that I use mostly in the winter time when my skin feels more dry. This toner helps to gently lift the dry, dead, skin cells off of the skin leaving it smoother than a baby’s bottom! Haha! The Clinique Clarifying lotion is great for the summer time when my skin is more oily. The number indicates your skin type so it is best to visit a Clinique counter so they can suggest the best one for your skin type.
Step 4: Moisturize, moisturize, moisturize! I cannot stress this step enough. Just like any other part of your body, when the skin becomes dry it cracks and becomes flaky and itchy; and the worst part…it leads to premature aging. One misconception I’ve heard time and time again…”My skin is oily so I don’t need to moisturize!” Okay, let me explain this one a little bit more. When your skin becomes dry or dehydrated it produces oil. If your skin becomes too dehydrated it begins to over-produce oil therefore leading to oily skin. Now I don’t want to attribute dehydrated skin to the only reason your skin can be oily; hormones and other environmental factors can play a role. Keeping your skin hydrated will keep the oils to a minimum. Another key benefit of the moisturizer for the daytime, that is, is for sun protection. Again, another misconception that many women believe is that they aren’t going to be outside enough, or they have a darker complexion therefore the sun won’t damage their skin. Wrong and wrong! First off, you can get sun damage from driving your car, walking to and from your office every day, and yes, women of color are just as vulnerable to sun damage. It is so important to protect your skin during the day with a moisturizer with an SPF 15 or higher. If you plan to be outside for a long period, opt for good ole’ regular sunscreen! The moisturizer I am currently using is called DayWear from Estee Lauder. This is the perfect moisturizer for a woman in her mid-twenties, early thirties.
Step 5: Last but certainly not least is the eye cream! In my eyes (you get that? Haha) this is one of the most important steps. Some may argue that I am too young for eye cream but I beg to differ. The eyes are the first part of our face to show aging so it is important to take extra care when it comes to your peepers! The skin around the eye area is ten times thinner than our facial skin, (go ahead feel for yourself) and therefore the first place to lose collagen and elastin a.k.a the firmness. If you keep a good eye cream around your eyes during the day they will stay protected and hydrated. Trust me they will thank you later! The eye cream I am currently using is called ‘Revitalizing Supreme Eye Balm’ and it is from, you guessed it, Estee Lauder. It is a ‘smart’ eye cream and it intuitively knows what the concerns are for your eyes at your specific age. It is pretty amazing stuff!
To sum all of this up, taking care of your skin is so important! You only get the skin you are in so take care of it, moisturize, and drink lots of water, your skin will thank you. Since working for Lauder I had a stock pile of stuff I am still working through but trust me I will be trying some new stuff soon and I’ll make sure to keep you in the loop on the new and amazing products I find!
