We are sure that many of our readers have a skincare routine they perform nightly or weekly, but how confident are you that it is the proper regimen for your skin type? We at Lea Advanced Skincare are huge believers in proper education and at home skincare. Often times we’ve noticed that women or men just throw a cream on their face that they were peer pressured to buy at Neiman’s or Sack’s. But unfortunately they have no idea what’s in it or if it is even the right solution for their skin concern. Skincare is made to maintain the integrity of the skin in between facial treatments. Skincare also improves the overall appearance and health of the skin, so it is extremely important to know if the skincare you are using at home is the right skincare for your skin type, and skin concerns.

Typically speaking, a night time skincare routine should look like the following; cleanse, exfoliate (one-two times a week), apply moisturizer. But depending on your skin type, it may not always be that simple. People often forget how important the ingredients in our products are. Something as simple as the alcohol content of the product can completely throw off the pH of the skin. For both dry skin and oily skin, your skincare should not have alcohol in it! For those with oily or acne prone skin, there are a lot of products out there that have a high alcohol content in them that imply results. But unfortunately, drying your skin out like that can actually manipulate your body to produce more oil. It may feel like its helping but it could actually be making things worse. Sometimes products with this drying effect can even cause the skin to over produce dead skin cells, which in turn causes the pores to clog! The best way to maintain your acne/ your oil production is to add a Retin-A to your night time skincare regimen.

A common mistake made for those with dry skin purchasing a skincare regimen is buying products with super heavy oils in them. Heavy oils such as almond oil or coconut oil can really clog the pores, and heavy oils often manipulate the face to under produce essential oils your skin needs for nutrients. Especially if you are not exfoliating properly. Exfoliation is key for everyone, no mater the skin type. But do not over exfoliate, because you can sensitize the skin! For those with dry skin, if you do not exfoliate you will have layers of dead skin cells sitting on your face. Typically the average person will develop roughly three to four layers of dead skin cells monthly if you do not exfoliate properly. For those with dry skin it is likely that you develop more dead skin then the average person. When you do not exfoliate nothing will penetrate to the dermis. Even if you are applying a heavy oil, it will just sit on the surface of the skin and clog the pores.

For those who are concerned with aging or pigmentation, your night time skincare routine may be a little longer. Again for every skin type exfoliation is key for product penetration. So after a proper cleanse and exfoliation a hydroquinone based product should be used nightly to help even out any unwanted pigmentation followed by a proper moisturizer for your skin type. It would be extremely beneficial to add a Retin-A to this regimen at least twice a week. For everyone a sunblock with zinc or titanium dioxide is important. But for someone using hydroquinone’s or Retin-A’s it is even more important because these products thin down the skin and make you more sensitive to the sun. With that being said, every morning your routine should end with a sunblock suitable for your skin type.

Finding the proper skincare routine for your skin type can be difficult. In the skincare world there are often people who are selling products simply because they have to, not because they believe in the product or because they truly want to help your skin. For them it is about the numbers and about making their goal at the end of the week. This is one of the many reasons why you should come visit us at Lea Advanced Skincare. Not only are we constantly looking out for the integrity of our patients skin, but everything from our services to the skincare we provide for our patients are 100% tailored to their skin type.