The revenue of the skin care industry is set to break $21 Billion with a B in 2023. With advancements in ingredient technology, advanced professional modalities, and even more celebrity-endorsed skincare lines, your options can seem endless. But the most common question put to skincare professionals is still basically the same. Paramount among them, is how to get clear glowing skin.
In this post, you’ll learn why the key to clear glowing skin is in the skin routine you develop and stick to at home.
This post is all about how to achieve clear glowing skin.
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Navigating Skincare can be tricky
Often in the sea of options that the skincare industry provides, you can get lost in the confusion of options, marketing, and pressure from society’s obsession with unrealistic idealized youth. It can be hard to distill what advice is truly best for you and your skin, your values, and your concerns.
Most of us just want to look our best. You’re not chasing the insane possibility that a grown adult should look like a post-pubescent quasi-adult of 22. But protecting your skin and supporting it in looking the best it can at any age does take more work than you were probably doing or not doing in your 20s.
While it is true that as you age, you need to think about ingredient technology that helps to replenish or encourage new production of factors your body is slowing down in or no longer producing.
Think of Collagen loss after 30 or your need to stimulate your fibroblast cells in order to encourage more collagen production.
These targeted skin concerns are rooted in what we have come to know about our biology and how our bodies age.
But no matter the skincare products or treatments you invest in, your results are really hinged on your daily skin routine.
The 80/20 Rule
Much of skincare and skincare results come down to what pros refer to as the 80/20 rule.
20 percent of your skincare results are achieved through working with a professional, getting regular treatments, and progressing to advanced treatments when the time is right for it (think chemical peels, laser resurfacing, or microneedling}.
80 percent of your skincare results, however, are dependent on the commitment and consistency of which you stick to your home skin routine. This is where the path to clear glowing skin is paved.
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In treatment, you and your professional work on taking your skincare goals further. Think of it like how you work with a physical trainer or coach. When you meet up for sessions your coach’s job is to push you a little further along. Either by adding a new technique or by increasing your challenge threshold so that you can build new muscles and make greater gains.
In treatment sessions, your skin care professional will use professional-grade products that are built to do more at the time of use, under the direction and supervision of a licensed professional.
Consistency is the Key
So you’ve done the professional consultation, committed to routine treatments, and invested in quality skincare products. So how does your home care routine actually get you to clear glowing skin?
The key is in your consistency. Much like our previous example of working out with your trainer, you don’t just work out when you are together. Your habit of working out in between sessions is where your real results are gained.
In your home routine both AM and PM you should have products that target your long-term skin concerns while caring for the health of your skin and skin type.
If you have a drier skin type you will want to have a routine that helps safeguard your ability to retain hydration and moisture. If you have more of an oily combination skin type you will want to build a home care routine that helps to balance your oil production, while keeping bacteria buildup at bay.
But beyond your skincare products, your path to clear glowing skin comes from your skin routine day in and day out.
Make sure you:
Wash your face AM + PM. Double cleanse if you can, but at the very least make sure you’re getting previously applied products, environmental dirt, and debris safely off of your skin.
Get a toner. Not something strictly alcohol or astringent-based but something hydrating and if possible boosted with antioxidants and water-binding ingredients.
Apply both water-based and oil-based serums. Your skin needs both water and oil to be properly hydrated. Water-based serums penetrate further, and your oil-based serums follow after to help lock in and moisturize the uppermost layers of your skin.
Exfoliate when necessary, but don’t overdo it. Exfoliation is meant to remove dead, dry skin build-up on the skin surface so that you can get the products you invested in to penetrate further and do their job as intended.
Your natural exfoliation cycle is about every 30 days and begins to slow down as you age. The advanced exfoliation that you undergo in professional treatment is a way to catch this natural cycle. When you exfoliate at home, you’re not going as deep, but you are removing any weekly build-up so that your products can do their thing.
What you want to keep in mind is that you only have so many healthy living skin cells once you remove those flattened dead ones. If you go beyond these younger healthy cells, you being to do more harm than good.
Key indicators are thinning skin that has a glassy reflective quality to it, prolonged redness, and excessive tightness of the face even after applying your skincare.
When this occurs, it means that your natural skin barrier has become impaired, and it’s no longer functioning properly which means it’s not filtering or defending your skin from damaging elements naturally. What results is anything can get into your skin and leaves it even more irritated and angry.
Remember to stick to your habits
The main takeaway is to remember that the longer you remain consistent with your skin routine at home the sooner you will get to and the longer you will maintain clear glowing skin.
Addressing specific conditions like a breakout or post-acne inflammation or even hyperpigmentation, are conditions you treat in hopefully, concentrated periods of time.
But to have a baseline of healthy glowing skin at the foundation takes daily practice and consistency.
Learn to observe changes in your skin week to week to track your progress and get better at identifying if a certain product is working for your specific skin. Remember, skincare is not one size fits all and so neither is your particular home care routine.
Investigate, ask questions, and learn. Consult your professional, and listen to their guidance, giving them constructive feedback with data, like keeping a photo journal of your progress. Be honest about missing routines, or having a couple of heavier foods than usual during the holidays, lifestyle and stress can show up in your skin so these factors are important.
Practice movement, drink your water, and get lots of rest. And remember, SPF is for every day. Wear it.
Thanks for this very helpful post about how to get clear glowing skin. I didn’t know about the 80/20 rule but it makes sense. Consistency is truly the key.
Hi Toni, I Wish I could go back and tell this importance of the daily skin routine to my younger self! I have never really had consistency, like you suggest, in my skin care routines. Only now, as I age, do I understand the importance. I also like your tips on exfoliation. Thank you.