If you are absolute beginner and don’t know anything about skincare, you have come to the right place. Starting skincare for beginners can be a little daunting at first, but just by understanding a few basic principles and incorporating them into your daily routine you can achieve healthy, radiant skin.
For getting results, understanding basic fundamentals is important and in this article I will focus precisely on that. I will start with what you must do, then introduce basic concepts of skin type and AM PM routine and finally conclude with five points for a simple skincare routine for beginners along with skin care products for beginners.
Table of Contents
Essential Steps in Skincare
Having a ten step skincare routine is not important. Your focus should be on being consistent. We all have days when we don’t want to do anything other than bare minimum. Following are things that you should on those days. You can also start your skincare journey by doing just this. Remember, consistency is the key.
- Moisturise
Moisturiser is absolutely essential for healthy skin. Not using moisturiser is often reason behind dry and dull skin. - Use sunscreen
As they say, prevention is better than cure. So start your day by applying sunscreen and protecting from further damage. You should be doing this even on the days you don’t plan on going out as skin gets damaged by sunlight coming from windows. - Use face wash in evening
It is now time to wash off sunscreen, dirt, oil and impurities from your face.
Skin Type
It is important to know your skin type to use right products at right time for your skin. There are four main types: normal, oily, dry, and combination.
The easiest way to know your skin type is to check how it feels in the morning right after you get up. If it feels flaky and you feel like you need to moisturise it, it is dry. If it is looks shiny and feels greasy, you have oily skin and if it neither and feels just fine, you are one of the blessed souls and have normal skin type. It is also possible to have combination of two skin types called combination skin. Most of the people who have combination skin type have difference in their t zone (forehead and nose) and rest of the face. One may be oily while the other is dry.
I will tell you about different products you should use later in ‘Five points for simple skincare routine’ section.
AM PM Skincare Routine
Any skincare routine is divided into two, your morning or AM routine and evening or PM routine. In the morning primary focus is on preventing further damage to the skin and in the evening it is on repairing damaged skin. If you would like to know in detail about difference in AM and PM, consider reading this article.
AM Routine: The focus in the morning is to prepare the skin for the day ahead. The steps typically include moisturising to hydrate and using sunscreen to protect the skin from environmental stressors. You should ideally to this routine when you shower, before steeping out.
PM Routine: The evening routine is more focused on repair and rejuvenation. The steps typically include removing makeup, cleansing, exfoliating and moisturising to allow the skin to regenerate and repair itself overnight. The best time to do your PM routine is at least two hours before your bed time, giving your skin enough time to absorb serums and lotions.
Five Points for Skincare for Beginners
- Cleanse
If you have normal or dry skin, you can skip this step in your AM routine and if you wear make up, cleansing your twice (if you don’t use makeup remover) is also a good idea. Use normal instead of warm water to cleanse to avoid drying out skin.
Cetaphil face wash linked here is my go to face wash. It’s simple ingredient list is all you need for cleansing your skin. - Moisturise
Apply moisturiser as part of both your AM PM routine to hydrate your skin. A lot of people with oily skin believe that they should not be using moisturiser which is wrong. Every skin type needs moisturiser in their routine.
I always find myself gravitating towards moisturiser by Dr. Reddy linked here for everyday use. - Sunscreen (AM)
I can’t emphasise importance of sunscreen enough. As I mentioned earlier, using sunscreen in the morning is extremely important in order to protect from harmful UV rays.
Linking my favourite sunscreen by Mamaearth here.
Another favourite is Dr. Sheth’s sunscreen. - Exfoliate (PM)
Exfoliation is important to remove dead cells from the skin. This should strictly be used only at night. Always do a patch test and check for irritation before using it regularly. Start by using it once a week and gradually increase frequency to two to three times a week.
Paula’s Choice exfoliator is a little on expensive side but worth every penny if you are serious about skincare. - Hydrate
Try to drink plenty of water. Water requirement is not something where one size fits all but as a general rule of thumb, you should drink at least two litres of water everyday.
Conclusion
The most important thing in skincare for beginners is consistency. With patience and perseverance you will get healthy and radiant skin. Don’t forget to wear sunscreen during the day to protect your skin from harmful UV rays.
