You wake up each morning with the same skin that you went to bed with so it’s easy to understand why you may feel that your morning skin care routine should be the same as the one in the evening. As convenient as that would be, there are reasons why the routines are different. I’ve discussed the four steps that are essential to great skin in a previous post and today, we’ll examine this in greater detail.
The difference between an AM and PM skin care routine comes down to what your skin is exposed to during each period. During the day, your skin is exposed to UV rays, pollution, dirt and makeup. You may spend a good chunk of time talking on your cell phone, exposing your face to bacteria. For this reason, a morning skin care routine should be protective, helping to defend your skin against damage. At night, once you get rid of the dirt and makeup on your face, the scariest thing you’ll have to contend with is your pillowcase so make sure to change it regularly. This is the time when your skin (and your body) goes to work in resting, repairing and prepping for the next day.
To support your skin during both periods, you’ll need to put together different regimens for morning and night.
Evening Skin Care Routine
At night, focus on cleansing and nourishing your skin. Choose products, that can help your skin to repair itself and even help slow down the aging process. Here’s what to do:
- Cleanse. Choose a gentle formulation that won’t strip away skin’s natural oils. Depending on your skin type, opt for one that is foaming – AHA-Mazing Clean Cleansing Gel – or creamier, like our Cloud Nine Foaming Cleansing Crème. If you enjoy using cleansing oils and balms, they are an effective way to help remove make-up and can be incorporated as part of a double cleanse method by following with a foaming cleanser after.
- Prevent. Ingredients including peptides, retinoids and antioxidants help to boost collagen and elastin production, tell your skin cells to behave normally and combat inflammation. We consider retinoids essential to healthy and youthful skin, but they are light sensitive so should be used at night. Apothekari A is for Anti-Aging contains retinaldehyde and niacinamide to boost collagen production, brighten skin tone and reduce the appearance of wrinkles and fine lines.
- Treat/Correct. Whether a serum, cream or lotion, this is a good time to apply treatments that can help to fix issues unique to your skin:
- For extra hydration, apply a moisturizer like our Daily Infusion Moisturizer, which hydrates and plumps skin.
- For hyperpigmentation, apply skin lightening agents including Vitamin C, niacinamide, retinoids, etc. Yes, you can use our Bespoke Vitamin C serum at night too!
- For eye care, seek out formulations to help combat puffiness, dark circles and crow’s feet. Consider Apothekari Firming Eye Gel, featuring Vitamin C.
- For wrinkles and fine lines, the retinoid or peptide formulation used in step 2, for prevention, has you covered.
- For sun damage, a combination of skin lighteners/brighteners and retinoids can help to reverse the damage.
- For oily skin, apply exfoliating toners or serums to help manage sebum production and reduce blemishes.
Morning Skin Care Routine
Your morning skin care routine differs from that of your evening one in a few different ways:
- Cleanse. (Optional) In the morning, we consider this step optional, especially if your skin is dry to normal. It’s one step that I skip and boils down to a matter of personal preference. To cleanse or not to cleanse – this one’s up to you.
- Protect. The sun’s UV rays are responsible for more than 85% of skin aging. For this reason, the most important skin care product you’ll ever need is sunscreen. Use it daily, year round and you’ll reap the rewards. Watch out for our Shade SPF 30 coming soon!
- Prevent. It’s always good to try and prevent bad things before they happen so this step focuses on just that. Antioxidants, including Vitamins A, C and E, ferulic acid, pomegranate seed oil, astaxanthin and green tea are backed by sound science to support their efficacy preventing skin damage associated with free radicals and UV rays. Antioxidants can also boost the effectiveness of your sunscreen. Apply antioxidants in the morning to battle the daily assault of pollution and ultraviolet rays and at night to help boost collagen production and fight against factors that age skin.Apothekari Bespoke Vitamin C 10% or 15% are our made to order high potency Vitamin C serums containing a range of antioxidants including L-ascorbic acid, ferulic acid, astaxanthin, pomegranate seed oil and green tea extract. It also features hyaluronic acid and propanediol to moisturize.
- Treat/Correct. As with your PM routine, your morning routine should incorporate treatments and ingredients that will help manage your particular skin issues. Revisit those and include them if you feel necessary.
Not too complicated, I hope! Does your morning skin care routine differ from the one at night?
