22 JANUARY 2021

How To Layer You Skin Care

We are all into actives right now we are all making the same mistakes of layering skincare products incorrectly. Knowing whats in the skincare products sometimes doesn’t help much in knowing what goes on top of what and why. You will find that some products don’t work well together.

In this post, I will break down the layering in skincare.

When it comes to layering it is very important to know the base of the product first. These are the five base.

  • Water
  • Anhydrous
  • Suspensions
  • Oils
  • Emulsions

It is important to know this because they layer differently. The best way to layering its to start with 

  1. Water Base | Water is primarily used as a solvent in cosmetics and personal care products in which it dissolves many of the ingredients that impart skin benefits, such as conditioning agents and cleansing agents. Water also forms emulsions in which the oil and water components of the product are combined to form creams and lotions”
  2. Anhydrous |‘ When it comes to beauty, anhydrous products are those that are water-free. You might be surprised to learn that most beauty products contain anywhere from 70-80% water, with shampoos, gels, and toners ringing in closer to 95%.”
  3. Olis | Oils may be applied as serums on cleansed skin, alone or under a moisturizing cream. They supply the skin with nutrients and vitamins, which can penetrate deep into the skin´s top layer. Oils may also be part of creams and lotions, mixed with other, very often water-soluble, ingredients.”
  4. Emulsions | Emulsions are lighter versions of moisturizing creams,” says Dr Morgan Rabach, a dermatologist at LM Medical. “Unlike most heavy facial creamsemulsions are typically water-based, which means they go on lighter and thinner than creams. In some cases, emulsions come in gel or almost liquid forms.”
  5. Suspensions | ”Suspensions are another product form for delivering incompatible ingredients. Unlike creams, they are typically clear products with visible particles like gelatin beads or inorganic minerals (e.g titanium dioxide) suspended throughout. They are used for sunscreens, hand washes or shampoos.”

 

There are skincare principles that you could use to detect the different skincare bases. You could simply apply your skincare routine from the thinnest to the thickest. The thinner, products add a lot of hydration. While much thicker products lock in moisture or sever as protection.

The best time to apply skincare products its on damp skin. Adding a skincare product on damp skin increases the rate of penetration. Serums with peptides or with Niacinamide will help with hydration and are less likely to irritate the skin.

When you do start layering your skincare products, there are skincare actives that will start diluting other actives in your routine. Its is advisable to keep your skincare routine fairly simple.
If it so happens that your skincare routine is complicated the you
could let your toner or serum sit on your face for a while before you could go in with your next product.
There is an exception to this rule when you are using a serum with Hyaluronic acid. You can apply it to damp skin what would happen is the water on the skin and the serum would bind together on the surface of the skin then your moisturizer will look in that hydration.
There are skincare brands that suggest you can mix different skin care products. It’s a big trend, that could complicate a lot of things especially if there are activities involved. It’s best to layer skin and not mix it.

I will go into much depth in how mixing skincare ingredients would worsen your skin in my next post. To conclude this post it is very important to know what you are putting on your face. It could be the difference between getting good skin and going ten steps back.

DO YOU LAYER YOUR SKINCARE PRODUCTS ?