The Holy Trinity of Facial Care Regimes

Better skin is reliant on more than just cleansing, toning and moisturizing. It’s a wholistic lifestyle choice that should influence the things you eat and drink and how you rest and take care of your mental and physical health.

4 minute read

In my previous post, I talked about cleansing as one of the most important steps within the three-step process of tips to get better skin. Now, while that still holds true. I wanted to go in-depth into the three-step process in detail in this post. To reiterate, better skin is reliant on more than just cleansing, toning and moisturizing. It’s a wholistic lifestyle choice that should influence the things you eat and drink and how you rest and take care of your mental and physical health. If you haven’t got a chance to read that article yet, you can do so here! Now let’s begin.

Step 1: Cleansing

Cleansing is the process by which you remove all the dirt, oil and dead skin cells from the surface of your skin to reveal clean, bright and healthy skin. This process can include exfoliating with scrubs, which, I am a huge fan of these days. Different skin types require different products. For instance, oily skin types might need a glycolic acid wash – something that would do a deep clean but not leave the skin too dry. On the other hand, dry skin types might need a cleanser that has glycerine, a humectant that helps to draw moisture to the skin. In between the dry and oily spectrum is the combination skin. Here, the T-zone (eyebrows, forehead, nose and sometimes chin) is oily and the cheeks are dry – in the case of my skin. As a rule of thumb for combination skin, it’s best to start with something light because you don’t want to irritate or over-dry the cheeks and other dry areas. Similarly, combination skin types should focus on products that have a balanced PH (between 4.5 to 5.5) and that contains natural ingredients like extracts (not oils), green teas and super-fruits.

Step 2: Toning

Now that we’re all cleansed and prepped, let’s not forget this equally important step. Guys always think that toning is reserved for people that wear makeup to remove it from the skin. While that much is true, its not the full power of toning. Toning is one of the vital and unfortunately overlooked steps in the facial care regime. Toner is used to return the skin’s PH balance back to equilibrium should the cleansing process have removed or stripped away the natural oils and missed and last traces of dirt and grime. Additionally, its one of the easiest and cheapest steps in the facial care regime. Toning should ideally take place right after cleansing, twice a day, but once a day is better than none at all. Toning also acts as bridge between cleansing and moisturizing as a prep for getting the skin ready for the final step which is moisturizing. Similar to the cleanser product selection, a toner should suit the type of skin you have. The acidic based toners will usually help with oily skin and the more natural and botanical hydrosols (chamomile, rose and orange blossom) will help with drier skin types.

Step 3: Moisturizing

Once you’ve done steps one and two correctly, as in using the most appropriate cleanser and toner that suits your skin type – the final step acts as a sealant to lock in the moisture and preserve the work done by the previous steps. Now I did say that if you must choose, choose cleansing (although not ideal). A really good cleanser can clean your skin and preserve the moisture balance, albeit temporarily. If you simply moisturize or tone alone, respectively, these two processes have major deficiencies and can do more harm than good if you neglect to cleanse. For instance, toner isn’t powerful enough to clean and moisturizers can essentially lock in dirt, oil and other impurities into the skin. Of course, I am not a dermatologist and I am simply expressing my experience and conclusion based on my own facial care regime throughout the years. More importantly, moisturizing has many benefits to the skin. Immediate ones include moisturize and healthy-looking skin and long-term moisturizing habits could help fight wrinkles and signs of aging, saving you time and money upfront so that you don’t have to take a visit to the plastic surgeon’s office, later in life. On a final note, not all facial skin is the same. The skin around the eyes are thin, delicate and require special eye creams. Also, the lips are perhaps the thinnest layer of skin on the body and also require their own wax or balm-based products.