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These days, it’s easier than ever to be swayed into adding more and more products to your skincare routine. Between beauty influencers all over social media raving about their new finds to Korean trends that encourage at least 10 steps to be carried out twice a day, it’s understandable why many believe that they need to cram numerous products into their skincare routines in order to achieve a healthy complexion.
The truth is, when it comes to what’s best for your skin, this approach usually isn’t advisable. Dermatologists are now seeing an increasing number of people experiencing various skin problems that can be attributed to an overloaded skincare routine. The solution is often as simple as paring things back and going easy on the skin.
The big question is…how are you meant to know if you’re overdoing it with your skincare routine, or if the skin concerns that you’re dealing with are due to something else completely? Keep reading as VouPre explains the most common signs to keep watch for, along with tips on scaling back your routine to make it better compatible with your skin.
Signs That Your Skincare Routine is Too Much for Your Skin
The good news is that if you end up going overboard with your skincare routine, you’ll likely be able to figure out pretty quickly that something isn’t right. Your skin will respond in a few different ways, with the most common as follows:
Your Skin Feels Irritated and Sensitive
One of the biggest problems with overdoing it with your skincare routine is that you’ll end up weakening your skin’s natural protective barrier. This barrier performs a few important roles, one of which is to block external irritants from entering the skin. Compromise this barrier by over-burdening it with too many ingredients and it won’t be able to function properly. This means that those irritants will find it much easier to enter your skin. This can lead to sensitivities, inflammation, rashes, and more.
You’ve Started to Break Out More Than Ever
If you want to make the most of your skincare products, you need your skin to absorb them properly. However, apply too many products to your skin and penetration will be hindered. After all, there’s only so much that your skin can absorb! With nowhere to go, any excess product will end up sitting on your skin’s surface. Here, it will mix with sebum, bacteria, and dead skin cells to form blockages in your pores. This can quickly lead to breakouts, especially if you’re also experiencing inflammation from a weakened skin barrier.
Your Skin Feels Tight and Uncomfortable
While tight-looking skin may be reminiscent of youth, your skin shouldn’t actually feel tight. If it does, this is a sign that your skin is dehydrated. This is another side effect of a damaged skin barrier. Moisture retention, which your skin barrier is usually responsible for, declines, leading to dehydration. While you may want to counter this by slathering several hydrating products onto your skin, this only runs the risk of further irritating your skin barrier. This will make the problem even harder to fix in the long run.
Your Skin Conditions are Flaring Up
If you suffer from any skin conditions, such as eczema or psoriasis, flare-ups are the last thing you want. However, overdo it with your skincare routine and this is exactly what you’ll experience. To keep your skin feeling calm, your skin barrier needs to be strong and healthy. An over-complicated skincare routine prevents this, leaving your skin vulnerable.
You’re Struggling to Be Consistent With Your Skincare
It’s not just your skin that suffers from an overly complex skincare routine – you can end up feeling stressed by this too! If you find that you’re struggling to be consistent with your skincare routine, this could be because it contains too many products/steps. A short and simple skincare routine is much easier and faster to carry out, even at the end of a long and tiring day. When it comes to the majority of the skincare ingredients out there, consistency is key if you want to see results.
Scaling Back Your Skincare Routine
Do you suspect that your skincare routine may be a little too much for your skin? Let’s take a closer look at how to successfully scale your skincare routine back while still catering to your skin’s various needs:
Start With the Basics
First things first, let’s talk about the basics. There are a few products that your skincare routine needs to have, no matter what.
The first is a cleanser. Make sure that you pick one that’s suitable for your skin type. Dry skin needs a gentle touch, such as that provided by the VouPre Radiance Facial Cleanser. Meanwhile, oily and combination skin will need a little more cleansing action. Foaming cleansers, like the VouPre ClearSuds Foaming Purifier, are usually a great choice.
An exfoliator is another important product to have. However, this is where people often overdo it. Avoid overly aggressive formulas – gentle exfoliation, which is what the VouPre Deep Renewal Facial Peel is known for, is the key to healthy-looking skin.
The last two must-have products are a moisturizer and a sunscreen. An SPF moisturizer, like VouPre’s Age Defense Cream SPF 30, will allow you to combine both of those steps in the morning. Since SPF isn’t needed at night, whereas a more intense moisture boost is, it’s worth investing in a dedicated night cream for evening use. The VouPre Revitalizing Night Cream will ensure a soft and supple complexion each morning.
Understand What Your Skin Needs
If you were to stick with just the basics, your daily skincare routine would consist of just two products, along with the occasional exfoliation session. While this may be enough to maintain already healthy skin, there’s a good chance that your skin needs more than this.
This is where skincare gets a little complicated. You don’t want too many extras in your skincare routine, but you need to ensure that your skin’s needs are taken care of. For this to happen, you need to first understand exactly what those needs are. Start by making a list of your most pressing skin concerns. Then, look for products that are designed to target them.
Say, for example, you live in a dry climate and dehydration is a common problem for you. Adding one or two hydrating products to your routine, like the VouPre Hydrating Toner followed by the String Lift Sculpting System, will quickly bump up your skin’s moisture levels.
If your eye area could do with some TLC, an eye cream could be a great addition to your routine. Again, look for a formula that will target the specific visible skin concerns that you have in your eye area, like how the VouPre Dark Circle Eye Cream has been designed to fade the appearance of dark circles and shadows under the eyes.
Opt For Multi-Tasking Products Rather Than Single-Ingredient Formulas
If you’ve made a list of your main skin concerns but that list looks a little lengthy, finding a product to target each one of those concerns could leave you with an overly long skincare routine once again. This is where multi-tasking products come in. Some skincare ingredients/products are capable of tackling multiple skin concerns at once. These are the products that you need if you want to keep your skincare routine short yet effective.
Vitamin C serums are known for being major multi-taskers. This all comes down to how vitamin C is able to help the skin in so many different ways. Research shows that it protects against the appearance of sun damage, prevents the look of fine lines and wrinkles, gives the skin a firmer and more elastic feel, lightens the visibility of hyperpigmentation, and so much more! With the VouPre Vita C Serum boasting two forms of vitamin C, along with a whole host of other antioxidants, this single product can bring so much to your skincare routine.
Don’t Use Too Much of Each Product
Once you’ve managed to strip back your skincare routine to a shorter and more manageable regimen, it’s time to turn your attention to your usage of each product. Even if your routine only consists of a handful of products, applying too much of each one could still leave your skin feeling overloaded.
Fortunately, most skincare products come with usage guidelines. Follow these as closely as possible. Don’t be fooled into thinking that applying a larger quantity of each product will have them working more effectively. This really isn’t the case. Instead, it will only leave your skin feeling congested and irritated, contributing to the various issues we discussed earlier.
Always Patch Test New Products
Everyone’s skin is different, meaning that everyone’s skin will have its own set of likes and dislikes. Even once you’ve simplified your skincare routine, adding in a product that your skin won’t happily tolerate can quickly leave it feeling stressed.
This is why it’s so important to always patch-test new skincare products. While you may be tempted to go all in and slather your new purchase all over your face, patch testing will give you a clue as to how your skin will respond to that new product so that you don’t end up causing major irritation.
How do you patch test? Apply your new product to a small patch of skin on your inner arm and then wait for 24-48 hours. If all seems good, do the same with a small patch of skin on your face. Assuming that your skin hasn’t reacted in a negative way, you can then confidently go ahead and use that product on the rest of your face.
Summary
While it can be tempting to keep adding new products to your skincare routine in the hopes that you’ll stumble upon a miraculously transformational combination, this approach will only do more harm than good to your skin. Instead, rather than overloading your skin with a complex routine, keep things short and sweet. Your skin will respond in a much better way and your complexion will look all the healthier for it in the long term.
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