What steps does the skin care process include

The core of a complete skin care process only includes the three must-do steps of cleansing, moisturizing, and sun protection. The rest, such as essence, facial mask, exfoliation, eye cream, etc., are additional functional items selected on demand. There is no unified standard that "you must do them all to be called a complete care."

When many people are new to skin care, they are easily fooled by the "ten steps to perfect skin care" on the Internet, thinking that even one step less will not achieve the effect. In fact, it is completely a misunderstanding. A while ago, I helped my cousin who had just entered college organize her skin care bag. She saved half a month's living expenses and bought seven or eight bottles of skin care products with different functions. She followed the online tutorials to apply water, essence, eye cream, lotion, face cream, and isolation layer by layer on her face. Within half a month, her face became dull and shut up. Later, I asked her to cut down the process to amino acid cleansing + repairing milk + sunscreen. Within two weeks, most of it was gone. To put it bluntly, the skin itself has a complete self-repair mechanism, just like a small factory with its own operating system. You only need to help it clean the dust and dirt on the surface, replenish the required moisture and oil, and block the damage of ultraviolet rays, and it will be able to run smoothly on its own. Adding too many additional processes will put a burden on it.

There have been a lot of controversies in the skin care circle in the past few years. For example, the "secondary cleanse" was very popular in the past two years. Many bloggers said that after washing your face, you should wipe it with a cotton pad dipped in toner. It can not only wipe out the remaining dirt, but also open the pores to help subsequent absorption. I have friends with normal skin who followed it for half a year, and I was surprised to have good skin. For sensitive skin that turns red every time, most dermatologists or professional skin care practitioners do not recommend secondary cleansing for normal skin types, let alone dry or sensitive skin. Many of the light yellow "dirt" wiped off are the healthy stratum corneum of the skin itself, which is equivalent to taking the initiative to tear down the protective wall on your face, but the gain outweighs the gain.

There is also a lot of discussion about the frequency of exfoliation and facial mask application, which varies from person to person and there is no standard answer. Some people say that you must exfoliate your skin 1-2 times a week to avoid acne. However, my friends with dry skin only do deep cleansing once every six months, and their skin condition is still very stable. On the contrary, oily skin produces a lot of oil in summer. Once in a while, using a mud mask to unclog pores will make you feel much refreshed. This is especially true when it comes to applying facial masks. Some people on the Internet use facial masks every day to develop hydrated skin, while others follow the instructions and develop acne on their faces due to hydration dermatitis. The essence is the difference in skin tolerance. Applying it once or twice a week is enough for ordinary skin types. There is no need to copy other people's work.

My current care routine is very casual. When I am in a hurry in the morning, I splash water on my face, apply a light moisturizing lotion and apply sunscreen before going out. When I get home at night, I only apply sunscreen, wash my face with amino acid cleansers, apply an anti-aging essence and cream, and that’s it. Occasionally, when I stay up late and my face becomes dull and yellow, I just temporarily add a whitening essence mask, and my condition is much more stable than when I piled on a bunch of skin care products in the past few years.