From cleansing, toning, exfoliating, serum, eye cream, moisturizing, retinol, acne treatments, and sunscreen, choosing the right skincare routine can be overwhelming.
Skincare products play a crucial role in cleansing, hydrating, treating, and protecting your facial skin. Therefore, you should apply them in the correct order. As a rule of thumb, you should apply your products from lightest to heaviest in consistency, as light products tend not to penetrate heavier ones.
After cleansing, you should focus on treating your skin with serums. After that, you can apply thicker products that will sit on your skin, seal in moisture, and protect your skin, such as moisturizers and sunscreen.
The table below highlights steps that will help you maximize the effectiveness of your day and nighttime skincare products:
| Daytime Routine | Nighttime Routine |
| Cleanse | Cleanse |
| Tone | Tone |
| Antioxidant Serum | Vitamin A Serum |
| Apply Eye Cream | Apply Eye Cream |
| Moisturize | Moisturize |
| Apply Sunscreen | Targeted skincare applications: exfoliants, anti-aging serums, acne/spot treatments |
Day Time and Night Time Steps for Your Skincare Routine
Daytime skincare should focus on protecting your skin from the sun and pollution. It should comprise of:
Step 1 — Cleanse Using the Right Cleanser for Your Skin Type
Start by washing your face with lukewarm water, and then use the right cleanser for your skin type. A morning cleansing routine is designed to keep your skin looking nice and fresh by dissolving:
- Dirt and sweat
- Dead skin cells
- Bacteria
- Topical ointments
- Excess oil
In the absence of thorough cleansing, blackheads, acne, sensitivity, and irritated skin can result from the buildup of dirt and bacteria.
Facial cleansing ensures that you begin your skincare routine on a clean base, which will allow the rest of your skincare products to absorb more effectively.
Expert Tip: Use a gentle face cleanser for oily or acne-prone skin. Alternatively, you can use a cleanser that works with all skin types.
Step 2 — Tone to Hydrate Your Skin
After cleansing, you should soak a reusable cotton pad with your preferred toner and gently swipe it over your entire face. Facial toner prepares your face for serum and moisturizer.
A face toner also removes any leftover impurities and residues like oil, dirt, and traces of makeup. It also acts as an additional layer of protection from impurities and environmental pollutants
Other benefits of toning your face after cleansing include:
- Hydrating: Hydrating ingredients in the toner such as hyaluronic acid help keep your skin hydrated so it can absorb the serum, moisturizer, and sunscreen even better
- Balancing your skin’s pH level: Restores your skin's pH, especially after using an alkaline cleanser that disrupts your skin's pH by making it too acidic
- Preventing Breakouts: AHA/BHA toners control acne and other skin breakouts by removing buildup, residue, as well as dead skin cells
- Brightening: Vitamin C toners can brighten the complexion and provide added protection from the sun (with SPF)
Expert Tip: You should apply your toner to damp skin immediately after cleansing.
Step 3 — Treat With an Antioxidant Serum
Face serum is a lighter skincare formulation and provides active ingredients to your skin more quickly. Therefore, it's advisable to apply it after your toner and before the moisturizer.
An antioxidant serum containing vitamin C is more suitable for your morning routine as it brightens your skin while protecting you against free radicals throughout the day. You can then seal your serum with a moisturizer to maximize its benefits.
Besides vitamin C, water-based and oil-based serums often feature other active ingredients such as vitamins E, B3 (niacinamide), B5 (panthenol), hyaluronic acid, ferulic acid, retinol, and resveratrol.
These ingredients target specific skin problems like:
- Uneven skin tone
- Fine lines and wrinkles
- Redness and irritation
- Premature skin aging
- Enlarged pores caused by inflammation
- Acne breakouts
Expert Tip: For your morning routine, you should consider using a soothing, hydrating, or brightening serum. Allow the serum to absorb before applying another skincare product.
Step 4 — Apply Eye Cream
After you've applied your serum, massage a pea-sized dollop of fast-absorbing eye cream around your orbital bone.
"I recommend applying eye cream with your ring finger, which provides the least amount of pressure on the skin, and gently patting the cream into the skin.”
If you're using a lifting eye cream, make sure to apply it above your eyelids as well—the skin above your eyes is just as delicate.
The benefits of eye cream are:
- Lessening the appearance of dark circles
- Combating puffy eyes
- Creating and maintaining an even skin tone
- Firming your eyelid skin
- Softening fine lines around your eye area
- Protecting your delicate eye area from other skincare formulations
Step 5 — Apply the Right Moisturizer or Oil
Apply some moisturizing oil and massage it into your skin using upward strokes—start at the top of your face and work downwards. Keeping your skin hydrated is important even if you have oily skin.
Depending on your skin type, you can incorporate one of the following moisturizers or oils into your routine:
- Moisturizer for oily skin—hydrates and controls shine
- Moisturizer for dry skin—gets rid of flakiness fast
- Moisturizer for combination skin—balances oil and dryness
Step 6 — Apply Broad Spectrum Sunscreen for Optimal Sun Protection
Sunscreen (SPF) should be the last step in your daytime skincare routine. This is especially true if you use a physical or mineral sunscreen, which protects against UV rays.
A chemical sunscreen, on the other hand, should be applied before your moisturizer because it needs to get absorbed into the skin.
Besides combating sun damage, applying sunscreen can slow down skin aging and prevent skin cancer. Regularly applying sunscreen can also protect your skin from discolorations, blotchiness, and red veins.
The American Academy of Dermatology recommends looking for a sunscreen that offers:
- Broad-spectrum protection: Sunscreen should protect you from UVA and UVB rays.
- SPF 30 or higher: Protects against premature skin aging arising from sun exposure and harmful irritants. Sunscreen protects against up to 97% of UVB rays.
- Water resistance: A water resistant sunscreen lasts up to 80 minutes on wet skin and 40 minutes in the water.
Ideally, you should apply sunscreen 15 to 30 minutes before going outside. It’s also important to reapply your sunscreen after every 2 hours, especially if you’re sweating, and after swimming.
Night Time Steps for Your Skincare Routine
A nighttime skincare routine should focus on giving your skin what it needs to renew itself that evening, as skin naturally repairs itself during the night.
Step 1 — Double Cleanse
At the end of the day, it’s important to do a double cleanse, which involves cleansing and toning. Double cleansing gets rid of the day’s grime, dirt, oil, and makeup.
You should begin this routine by taking off your makeup with micellar water or your favorite makeup remover.
After that, use a face wash to remove all the excess oil, dirt, and leftover makeup. This process leaves your facial skin feeling fresh and well prepared to absorb your nighttime skincare products.
Also, it’s impossible to remove sunscreen and makeup with plain water because they contain water-repelling ingredients. Therefore, cleansing removes the sunscreen and makeup, which prevents them from blocking your pores.
Step 2 — Treat Your Skin With a Retinol Serum
Apply a thin coating of your retinol serum or follow the instructions on the label.
Retinol or vitamin A does more than make your skin glowy and smoother. It also offers the following benefits:
- Enhancing skin tone
- Reducing signs of aging
- Regulating the growth of new cells
- Reducing inflammation
- Unclogging pores
- Treating acne
- Preventing dullness
Expert Tip: Retinol serums are best used at night because they can make your skin sensitive to sunlight.
Step 3 — Apply Eye Cream
Dab a pea-sized amount of eye cream all over your under-eye area. For your nighttime routine, you can use The Eye Enhancer by Maelove. It will make your under-eye area look fresh by improving texture, tone, and radiance. It also prevents dryness and premature aging.
Here’s a customer review for Eye Enhancer:
"The eye enhancer brightens, tightens, and firms the skin (crow’s feet) around my eyes. I get a more youthful look and I love it."
Expert Tip: Let the eye cream sink in for a minute or two before proceeding to the next step.
Step 4 — Moisturizer
It’s important to use a thicker nighttime cream that will sit on your skin for several hours. A thicker nighttime moisturizer creates a protective barrier on your skin, thereby preventing water from evaporating while you sleep.
By using a moisturizer like The Night Renewer by Maelove, you can improve your skin’s texture, reduce fine lines, wrinkles, dark spots, and add hydration - The Night Renewer has Glycolic Acid, Hyaluronic Acid, and Vitamin E.
Get Skincare Products You Can Rely on Over and Over
At Maelove, we have skincare bundles that not only hydrate, tone, exfoliate, texturize, brighten, and make your skin look more youthful, but also help you save money. Our skincare products feature ingredients that stand the test of time, including:
- Vitamin C
- Hyaluronic acid
- Ferulic acid
- Glycolic acid
- AHA
- Retinaldehyde
You can consider incorporating a few more steps into your already established regimen whenever necessary, including:
- Peelings
- Exfoliants
- Anti-Aging Serum
- Acne or spot treatment
Combats wrinkles, hyperpigmentation, and dull skin |
Evens skin tone and fades dark spots/scars |
Calms, exfoliates and renews your skin round the clock |
Frequently Asked Questions About Skincare Regimen
How much sunscreen should I apply on my face?
According to AAD, you should use 2mg per square centimeter, which is about ¼ teaspoon.
What will happen if I don’t follow the right sequence to apply my skincare products?
Your products may not penetrate your skin as well as they should, meaning some steps might be less effective.
Where can I get Maelove skincare products?
Maelove products are only available on the company website.
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