Help! Morning/Night Face Routine

[LetyMZ]

Hello Beauties! What's your morning and evening routine? I'm in my early 30's. What I struggle with the most is knowing what serums I should be using at night vs in the day. I want to start using lactic acid and retinol at night but what about some of the other serums? Like Vitamin C or glycolic acid.

Skin-type: Sensitive Combo but more on the dryer side. Blackheads and an occasional hormonal pimple. 

Concern: Starting to get more defined wrinkles around my frown and mouth. Dark spots from old sunburns under my eyes above my cheek and Post pimple scars.

Daily AM Routine: 

1. Cleanse Youth To The People Superfood Gentle Antioxidant Refillable Cleanser 8 oz / 237 ml

2. Tone fresh Rose & Hyaluronic Acid Deep Hydration Toner 8.4 oz/ 250 mL

3. Lip Balm Drunk Elephant Lippe Balm 0.13 oz/ 3.8 g

4. Eye serum DR. DENNIS GROSS SKINCARE - Ferulic + Retinol Triple Correction EyeSerum

5. Eye Moisturizer KIEHL'S SINCE 1851 - Creamy Eye Treatment with Avocado

6. Serum CAUDALIE - Vinoperfect Radiance Serum Set

7. Face Moisturizer BOSCIA - Cactus Water Moisturizer

8. SPF Murad City Skin Age Defense Face Sunscreen Broad Spectrum SPF 50 PA++++ 1.7 oz/ 50 mL

PM Routine:

1. Remove Make-up SK-II - Facial Treatment Cleansing Oil

2. Cleanse AMOREPACIFIC - Treatment Enzyme Peel Cleansing Powder

3. Lip Scrub FRESH - Brown Sugar Body Polish Exfoliator

4. Serum ESTéE LAUDER - Advanced Night Repair Synchronized Recovery Complex II

5. Face Moisturizer BOSCIA - Cactus Water Moisturizer

6. Lip Mask BITE BEAUTY - Agave Lip Map

Weekly:

1. Exfoliate SUMMER FRIDAYS - Overtime Mask

2. Face/eye Mask (various)

3. Night Mask GLOW RECIPE - Watermelon + AHA Glow Sleeping Mask

[tastelikewater]

I'm not including products because I mostly use my esthetician's private line (rosacea is a *****), but here's my routine:

AM: cleanser, rosacea serum, Vitamin C serum, (facial oil if I'm dry), moisturizing sunscreen, lightweight eye cream

PM: makeup-removing cleansing oil, cleanser, rosacea serum, rosehip oil, night cream, eye cream

2-3x/week: Bakuchiol in the PM (trying it out, jury's still out), sheet mask, BHA/enzyme peel, lip mask

As needed: redness-relieving face mask, Peace Out healing dots, salicylic acid gel

[SportyGirly125]

@LetyMZ 

Here are my go to products for dry skin that I use everyday:

Origins frothy face wash and I add the Origins Ginzeng scrub 3 times a week, Fresh Rose Hydration Toner, Caudalie Beauty Elixir, Tatcha/SKII Essence, Leanne Grace Beauty oil for day and The ordinary Rose Hip Oil at night, Kiehls daily concentrate for day and midnight recovery concentrate at night, Drunk Elephant Vitamin C serum for day, J.One Firming serum, Tatcha overnight concentrate at night, Tatcha eye cream , Tatcha renewal cream at night and Fresh Rose Deep Hydration cream for day (I like to mix Coola SPF drops into the moisturizer for extra sun protection).  To seal in everything and to add more hydration I like adding Youth To the People Glow Oil.  I have had a lot of trial and error with my skin and all these products have helped my skin.

[20dermagirlll22]

hello 🙂 your am routine should go like this: gel or foam cleanser, face mask, serum, eye cream, moisturizer, lip, sunscreen and your night should go like this: water cleanser/remover, gel or foam cleanser, exfoliator, toner, essence, serum, mask, eye cream, lip, moisturizer. You don't need to use many serums and oils together especially if you have oily skin cut it down. use water-based cleanser if oily and gel cleanser if its dry and foaming cleanser is good for oily/acne:) every single thing in your morning routine I absolutely love. you should also use a mask during day 1-2 times a week. hope this helped.

xoxo,

an esthetician

[WinglessOne]

@LetyMZ  Lactic acid and glycolic acid are AHAs, so they do the same thing. If you’re looking at them as separate serums, you probably only need one of them. 🙂 Whichever one you choose, you can use it day or night. Vitamin C can also be used day or night, though I suspect most folks use it in the morning. I’m testing a vitamin C serum this month as part of my morning routine. A friend of mine always applies his vitamin C serum at night.

Aside from a customized regimen from a dermatologist or aesthetician, it kinda comes down to preference and your skin’s tolerance: how many steps are you willing to follow in your AM vs. PM routine, and how many actives/ingredients your skin can tolerate in the same routine. Before I started a retinol serum, I did AHA exfoliation 3-4 nights a week. I cut that back to 1-2 nights/week during my first 3 weeks of retinol, just in case the combo would be too much for my skin. Now I’m increasing it again. 

There are a couple threads where folks have posted their skincare routines; you might be interested in those. Here’s one of them: https://community.sephora.com/t5/Skincare-Aware/Drop-your-skin-care-routine/m-p/4157532/thread-id/64...

My routine’s changed a lot since I last posted there. 😄 I should post an update. I keep my routine in a spreadsheet; I’ll drop a screenshot here. Oh, and that DDG eye serum is good stuff for sun damage darkness: it erased mine (from my undereyes) in 2.5 months, so now my only undereye darkness is caused by hollow tear troughs and lack of sleep or allergies/eye rubbing. I hope it works as well for you as it has for me! 

[20dermagirlll22]

this is spot on everything you said. where did you find the chart. id like to use it in my spa.

[WinglessOne]

Thanks @20dermagirlll22 ! I made the chart myself in Numbers, Apple’s spreadsheet software. You could recreate my chart in Microsoft Excel or any spreadsheet program. You could even make it in MS Word or Apple Pages. I prefer a spreadsheet format so I can freeze panes and add any data tracking/sorting I want. Feel free to recreate it if you want! 🙂 

I’ve updated my skincare routine again since June, and split everything into 3 columns on my spreadsheet. It’s too wide to post on BIC as a single screenshot, so here it is in 3 sections (I froze the Step colum in the spreadsheet): 

^Every morning^Retinol nights^Non-retinol nights

[20dermagirlll22]

just beautiful. ill do it in word and move the order around. thisll help people asking about a skin routine and what to do first.