Why the Order of Your Skin Care Routine Matters

Have you ever wondered if the order that you perform your skin care routine actually makes a difference on the effectiveness of the products? Why do we always cleanse our skin before using a moisturizer, or does it change anything if a serum is applied after the moisturizer instead of before? 

MiamiMD has all of the answers to those questions and more, and we’d like to show you why the order of your skin care routine really does matter… and why.

What Does An Effective Skin Care Routine Consist Of?

Before we talk about the order of your skin care routine, and why you should perform it in that order, let’s talk a little about what an effective skin care routine really looks like. 

At its most bare bones, a skin care routine should consist of two different but equally important components:

• A cleanser
• A moisturizer

While that may seem simple, that’s where everyone should start putting together their own skin care routine. But why are those the most important components?

A cleanser is essential for being able to make sure that you’re working with a clean, blank slate when applying any other products you may be using. If you don’t cleanse your skin, you’re working through a barrier that may include makeup, dead skin cells, and other environmental build up. This essentially clogs the pores and stops any products from making their way through and being effective. That’s why, as we’ll discuss next, a cleanser should always be the first step in your skin care routine (with one, very important exception). 

A good quality moisturizer is the book end on the other side of an effective skin care routine. Once you’re done with your products and are ready to either head out for the day or get into bed, moisturizers help to keep the skin protected and hydrated. This is important because the vast majority of age-related concerns are multiplied by dry, dehydrated skin. When you’re able to keep in all that essential moisture, you help your skin help itself.

The Best Order For Your Skin Care Products and Why

Ok, so you know you should always use a cleanser and a moisturizer. But are there other products that you should be including, and what order should you put them on? 

Makeup Remover

While cleanser is the best first step in any skin care routine, if you wear makeup, you want to make sure that you take that off before you cleanse. Doubling cleansing has become popular, especially in the Korean beauty culture, for exactly this reason.

For cleansing to really be effective, it needs to be able to touch the skin and break down all of those oils and dead skin cells. If it’s working against a layer of makeup, you likely aren’t able to really thoroughly cleanse the skin. 

Micellar water, which you may not have heard of before, is a great first step to take before cleansing. Essentially, micellar water consists of micelles (which are tiny balls of oil molecules that were designed for cleansing) that are suspended in “soft” water. Those micelles are naturally attracted to oil and dirt, so they can draw them out of the skin and prepare it for cleansing, all without drying out the skin.

Cleanser

As we briefly touched on above, a cleanser that works with your specific skin type is an absolutely essential part of the skin care process. Without cleansing, everything else that you do in your skin care routine is futile.

Cleansers come in all different varieties.

People who have oily or combination skin should try to find a clay or gel cleanser, while those with dry or sensitive skin will likely do better with a milky, cream, or oil-based cleanser. It can sometimes require a little trial and error, but finding a cleanser that works with your specific skin type really can be a game changer.

After cleansing your skin, make sure that you pat it dry instead of rubbing. This is a common mistake that many people make, but rubbing the skin can not only irritate it and make it red, but also quicken the development of sagging, fine lines, and wrinkles.

Toner

While this isn’t necessarily for everyone, many people have been adding the additional step of using a toner after their cleanser but before moving on to the next part of the routine.

Toners aren’t at all the harsh drying formulas they used to be. Gone are the toners of the 1980s and 1990s that were all alcohol-based and burned as soon as they were applied. The newer breed of toners were designed to be specific to skin types, and many don’t contain any alcohol at all.

Essentially, toners work as a second “pass” at helping to remove any remaining dead skin cells from the pores before moving on to applying products. Many toners also work as chemical exfoliants, really helping to encourage the skin to start renewing itself quicker. It’s a great step to consider adding into your skin care routine. 

Serums

After the skin has been prepared for skin care products, the best place to start is with your serums. Specifically, you’ll want to first apply any targeted serums, like MiamiMD’s Intensive Eye Repair Serum or Dark Spot Corrector. This allows them to work directly on your areas of concern, and not have to fight through another serum to be effective.

After you’ve applied your serums and have given them time to absorb and dry (you don’t want it to feel sticky to the touch), it’s time to apply any all-over facial serums. That doesn’t mean that those serums will not be able to be effective on the areas you’ve already applied your targeted serums to, but that they are able to add to the specific benefits instead of blocking them. When you wait until your face is dry, it also means that you’re not accidentally removing your targeted serums from the areas that you want them to work on the most. 

Again, after applying your serums, make sure that you allow them time to dry thoroughly before moving on to the final step, although this isn’t as important as with targeted serums. 

Moisturizer

The final step in a good skin care routine is a moisturizer (with the exception of a potential additional step, which we’ll discuss next). 

A quality moisturizer helps seal in both moisture and the products that you’ve applied, as well as helps to keep external, environmental influences out. The factor that this relates to as much is something that is often referred to as the skin’s moisture barrier. Nearly everything that we do is trying to protect this essential, protective part of the skin. 

Consider a multi-tasking cream like MiamiMD’s Age-Defying Lift & Firm Cream. We designed this cream as part of our focus on functional beauty — it provides visible benefits within minutes of application as well as providing additional, compounded benefits with long-term use. Your skin can look firmer and have more elasticity every time you use it, further rolling back the clock with each application.

There is a growing movement of people that believe that patting your moisturizer into your skin instead of rubbing it in is better for the skin. This works for serums, as well. It works with the same belief that rubbing the skin hastens the development of fine lines and wrinkles, as well as helping to get your product even deeper into the skin.

Sunscreen

If you’re performing your skin care routine before heading out for the day, your last step should always be to apply sunscreen. The number one cause of age-related concerns, other than the skin’s natural aging process, is sun exposure. The sun breaks down collagen, slows down the body’s ability to replace it, and makes the skin lose its natural elasticity much quicker than it normally would.

A good sunscreen should include at least 30 SPF, be waterproof, and be able fight off both UV-A and UV-B rays (referred to as being “broad spectrum”). There are plenty of moisturizers and foundations that include sunscreen now, but make sure that you add one if the products that you use do not have one naturally built in. It’s one of the easiest ways to protect yourself and keep your skin looking as young and radiant as possible for as long as it can.

In Conclusion…

No matter which MiamiMD skin care products that you use, make sure to apply them in the right order: cleanser, serums, then moisturizer (with a few added steps, if they apply to you!). This can make your routine the most efficient it can possibly be. 

When you prepare your skin to absorb as much anti-aging product are possible, and help keep the skin as hydrated as it can be, you’ll be able to both fight off and even potentially “reverse” some of the main signs of aging, including fine lines and wrinkles, a loss of volume and elasticity, dark spots, and under eye circles. 

Sources:

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/micellar-water-skincare_n_55a66a22e4b0896514cfd3c9

https://www.allure.com/story/what-is-moisture-barrier-skin-care

https://www.aad.org/public/everyday-care/sun-protection/sunscreen-patients/sunscreen-faqs