How To Build A Skincare Routine For Beginners

What other products can be added to your skincare routine?

Once you’ve nailed the basics, you can think about targeted treatments to address your specific skin goals. “It’s important to set a skin goal,” explains Fiona. “Because otherwise, you could just go, ‘well, actually, I want to do it all’, and then the list is ridiculously long and it’s almost a bit unachievable.” The best way to avoid feeling overwhelmed is to start small – nail down the basics and then expand your routine from there.

This is where products that contain specific active ingredients come in. Once you’ve picked your goal, pick your active ingredients to match your goal – if it’s fine lines and wrinkles then retinal is your superhero. Want to brighten dull-looking skin? Vitamin C is your go-to. If sagging and a loss of plumpness are your main concern, then peptides are your shortcut to plumper skin.

Choose your active ingredients

Retinoids

Feel like your skin isn’t quite as vibrant as it used to be? Retinoids have the ability to jumpstart our skin’s cell turnover, reducing the appearance of wrinkles and fine lines in the process. Skin appears firmer and smoother and behaves more like its younger self.

Retinoids are often only mentioned in the context of fine lines and wrinkles, but they were originally used to treat acne. Not only do they speed up cell turnover so that pores don’t become congested, but they also help balance excess sebum so there’s less oil present in the skin.

There are lots of different derivatives that sit within the retinoid family, including retinal, retinol and retinyl esters. Retinal is a real superhero, delivering transformative results with a low chance of irritation (that means no more flaking like a croissant).

Niacinamide

How often do you wake up to find an unwelcome friend has set up camp on your complexion? If you feel like your skin is plotting against you, then you can rely on niacinamide to foil those nefarious plans. An ingredient that goes the extra mile, niacinamide (also known as vitamin B3) helps to reduce excess oil so blemishes become a rarer occurrence, and also improves your skin’s overall tone and texture.

Vitamin C

So much more than a glass of Tropicana, vitamin C is the first port of call for skin that’s feeling lacklustre. A potent antioxidant, vitamin C does a brilliant job of shielding skin from free radicals – molecules that come from things like sunlight, pollution and stress, and have the potential to damage our skin cells and speed up the ageing process. With consistent use, vitamin C also brightens, evens and restores radiance to dull-looking skin. The ultimate boost, think of it as a juice cleanse for your complexion.

Peptides

Peptides are pretty persuasive; “they’re like personal trainers for your skin,” explains Fiona. “If you exercise at a gym with a personal trainer, you’re much more likely to be motivated to do more compared to exercising at home alone.” Peptides set your skin to task, ordering it to make more collagen and elastin to support its structure – like crunches to strengthen your core. The more collagen and elastin there is, the firmer, bouncier and plumper your skin will feel.

Now that we’ve nailed the non-negotiables and targeted treatments, here’s how everything comes together in your AM and PM skincare routines…