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Learning how to layer your skincare products can be stressful, yet the efficacy of your entire skincare routine hinges on how you do so. Correctly layering your skincare products not only allows any active ingredients to work to their full potential, but it also boosts product penetration. This will make every single product in your skincare routine more effective.
So, how do you go about correctly layering on your skincare products? Read on as VouPre explains!
Start With a Cleanser
Before you get started with layering your skincare products, it’s important to make sure that your skin is clean. If there are traces of dirt, sebum, or any other impurities on your skin, the products that you apply won’t be able to penetrate through that layer properly. Instead, they’ll end up congesting the surface of your skin, resulting in dullness, breakouts, and more.
If your skin is particularly grimy or you’ve been wearing lots of makeup, you may want to consider double cleansing. This involves cleansing your face twice, first with an oil-based cleanser and then with a water-based cleanser.
Either way, whether you’re single cleansing or double cleansing, make sure that you’re using gentle cleansers. Once you start layering your other products on, your skin will have a large number of ingredients to deal with, so you need to make sure that it isn’t irritated in any way from the start.
The VouPre Radiance Facial Cleanser would be a great choice. This sulfate-free, water-based cleanser is extremely gentle, yet its cleansing agents do a fantastic job of clearing impurities away from the skin. Its infusion of plant proteins is highly beneficial too. They’ll leave your skin feeling smoother and stronger after each cleanse!
Rebalance With a Toner
Now that your face has been freshly cleansed, it’s time to start layering on your skincare products. The general rule to follow is to start with your lightest and thinnest product before working your way up to the thickest. This usually means that a toner, which has a very watery consistency, is the first product to be layered on after the skin has been cleansed.
While many choose to skip this step when they’re in a rush, a toner is well worth using if you’re layering a few different products onto your skin. Not only will a good toner treat your skin to an extra layer of hydration, but it will also rebalance the pH level on your skin’s surface. This will prep your skin for the rest of your routine, making it feel more receptive to any other products that you apply. As you can imagine, this can really help to ensure that the rest of your products work to their full potential.
With that said, toners aren’t created equally. Many of the toners out there have a drying effect on the skin, which won’t do you any favors in the long run. Ideally, look for an alcohol-free formula, such as the VouPre Hydrating Toner. This toner is brimming with multiple hydrating compounds, making it a great way to give your skin a glow before you’ve even started to apply your more potent products!
Apply Your Serums
Serums have the power to really transform your complexion. They’re filled with active ingredients, with each serum formula designed to tackle certain visible skin concerns.
Since serums are slightly thicker than toners yet lighter than creams, they form the middle step between these two products. If you’re applying more than one serum, which is a great way to target multiple skin concerns at the same time, then start with the thinnest one and finish with the thickest.
If you’ve not been seeing great results from the serums that you’re currently using, consider trying one of VouPre’s formulas. Our Vita C Serum, for example, is loaded with a plethora of antioxidants. Between vitamin A, vitamin E, two types of vitamin C, and grape stem cells, along with antioxidant-rich plant oils, this is a serum that’s capable of helping the complexion in so many different ways.
If you don’t have any major skin concerns that you need to address, a hydrating serum would be the way to go. After all, the more hydrated your skin cells are, the healthier your skin will look. Look for a serum that’s formulated with multiple humectants. These are ingredients that bind moisture to the skin, making them exceptionally hydrating. The VouPre Aqua Hydration Serum, which can be found in our Aqua Collection, would be perfect for this!
Layer On Your Eye Care Products
Once you’ve applied your face serums, it’s time to turn your attention to your eye area. Since the skin in this area differs in a few ways from the skin on the rest of the face, it does best when given products that are designed specifically for use around the eyes.
When choosing eye care products, your main options will be either an eye serum or an eye cream. You don’t have to pick one or the other – using both can be very beneficial! If you decide to do so, start with the serum since this will be the thinner of the two products, before following up with your eye cream.
If you don’t have any eye care products in your skincare arsenal, it’s time to add some in. The Advanced Gold Eye Serum from VouPre would be a great place to start. It’s packed with peptides, which not only hydrate but also strengthen and support the feel of the skin. It contains several other hydrating ingredients too, along with licorice root extract. This botanical is renowned for how it lightens the look of hyperpigmentation. This makes it ideal if you’re struggling with the appearance of dark circles under your eyes.
In terms of an eye cream, our top choice would be the VouPre Firming Eye Renewal Cream. It’s chock full of hydrating ingredients and antioxidants. Together, they’ll smooth and tighten the look of the skin around your eyes. This will eliminate the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles.
Seal With a Moisturizer
As mentioned earlier, the thickest products in your skincare routine are best applied at the end. This is down to their larger molecular size, which would have otherwise blocked your lighter products from penetrating through.
Layering a moisturizer over the top of everything else that you’ve applied will also lock those products in. They won’t be able to evaporate at quite the same rate. Instead, your moisturizer will encourage absorption, sealing those ingredients in and pushing them into your skin.
While there’s nothing wrong with using the same moisturizer morning and night, you’ll likely notice better results if you use a day cream in the morning and then a night cream in the evening. You’ll find both in our Day & Night Set. It features our Ultra Day Moisturizer and our Revitalizing Night Cream, as well as our Dark Circle Eye Cream.
Finish With SPF
In the evenings, a moisturizer is the final layer that you need to apply to your skin. However, during the day, you’ll also need sun protection. Many assume that this should be applied after a moisturizer. However, this actually depends on the SPF formula that you’re using.
Chemical-based sunscreens perform much better when they’re able to sit close to the skin. For this reason, they’re best applied underneath a moisturizer.
However, if you’re using a mineral sunscreen, this should be layered over the top of your moisturizer. These products need to be sitting on the outermost layer of your skin in order to be effective.
Sounds confusing? One way to get around this is by opting for an SPF moisturizer instead, such as the VouPre Age Defense Cream SPF 30. When you have a two-in-one product like this one, you won’t need to worry about how to layer your SPF. Instead, simply apply your moisturizer as normal and you’ll also be protecting your skin at the same time!
Where Does Exfoliation Fit in?
The steps that we’ve shared above depict how to layer your daily skincare products. However, where does exfoliation, which only needs to be done a couple of times a week, fit into this?
For best results, you should be exfoliating after you’ve cleansed your skin but before applying a toner. This way, your skin will be free of any surface impurities. This will allow your exfoliant to quickly get to work in your pores, which is exactly what they’ve been designed to do.
As always, since you want to avoid irritating your skin before layering other products onto it, pick a gentle exfoliator, like the VouPre Deep Renewal Facial Peel. Not only does this formula beautifully exfoliate the skin, but the addition of vitamin E and glycerin ensures that the skin feels hydrated and moisturized post-peel.
What About Face Masks?
Just like exfoliation, face masks aren’t used daily. Instead, they’re more of a weekly treat. With that said, face masks can be very powerful products, making it important to know how to layer them properly if you want to maximize your results.
So, when masking day comes around, start by cleansing your face first. You can then move on to applying your face mask. If you plan on exfoliating as well, then this should still be done after cleansing but before masking. This will leave your pores clear for the mask’s ingredients to penetrate through.
The exception is with leave-on masks, like the VouPre Aqua Melting Mask. In this case, your mask should be used after you’ve applied your serums but before you’ve moisturized. Give the mask some time to settle into your skin before layering a moisturizer over the top. This will help to lock the mask in, encouraging its ingredients to work to the best of their abilities.
Layering Skincare With VouPre
Understanding how to layer your skincare products properly is vital if you want them to work in the way that they should. Although remembering the order in which everything should be applied can seem a little confusing at first, once you’ve followed these steps for a while, it will soon become second nature and you’ll be layering your skincare like a pro!
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