It's time for a routine update! Instead of posting my full routine and possibly terrifying people who get the wrong idea that I use all these steps at once, I've been loving the concept of the "Skincare Wardrobe" and posting a "What's in my Skincare Wardrobe?" series instead. If you aren't familiar with this concept, it's the idea of having a 'closet' of options to select from rather than wearing everything all at once-- people often look at massive multi-step K-Beauty routines and mistakenly think you throw all of it at your face at once. You don't.
In fact, I post my actual routine to Instagram on a regular basis, if you're curious to see what a 'real' daily routine looks like. I can assure you, it does not look like this:
Yes, this is a photo of my Skincare Wardrobe, from which I might select anywhere from 3 to 15+ items from in a day. You don't wear the entire contents of your closet in a daily outfit! You can read more about this key concept is The Painful Path to K-Beauty Wisdom: 7 Mistakes Beginners Make:
I've already covered cleansers, so next up in the order of product application is Actives.
I've held off posting this version because since switching to a prescription Azelaic acid and Tretinoin Rx from Curology/Pocketderm, I've all but dropped actives from my routine. Why? Because I quickly learned, in the form of broken capillaries, that Tretinoin is a jealous mistress who doesn't tolerate sharing.
That being said, I still want to share the actives that I would happily pick back up and use if I stopped using my prescription, as these have been a mainstay of my routine for a long time.
In fact, I post my actual routine to Instagram on a regular basis, if you're curious to see what a 'real' daily routine looks like. I can assure you, it does not look like this:
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| My current Winter 2016 Skincare wardrobe |
I look at my products as a 'wardrobe' of options; I may have items in my closet ranging from bathing suits to winter coats, but that doesn't mean I'm going to wear every piece of clothing I own at once. However, having a range of skincare options is actually a good thing, in my opinion, because it populates your wardrobe with options that you can mix and match depending on the 'weather' that day.In the first of these posts, What's In My Skincare Wardrobe: Cleanser Edition, I showed the 8 cleansers I have in rotation + what they're for + when I use them. Mind you, if I wasn't testing things for review, I would likely need at most 3-4 cleansers, instead of 8. Most people may be happy with just the two needed for double cleansing, and that's perfectly fine!
I've already covered cleansers, so next up in the order of product application is Actives.
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| Top row: current actives which don't allow use of any others. Bottom row: what I'd be using if I wasn't using a hardcore prescription that prohibits me throwing any other exfoliants at my face. |
That being said, I still want to share the actives that I would happily pick back up and use if I stopped using my prescription, as these have been a mainstay of my routine for a long time.
I'd just like to remind people that the idea of a Skincare Wardrobe is not to have a lot of things open at once, but to allow yourself the flexibility to customize your daily routine. That's what the multi-step Asian skincare hype is all about, in my opinion. Customization for the win!
In this post:
- What are actives?
- pH adjusting toner
- Prescription with Azelaic acid and retinoid (tretinoin)
- Vitamin C serum
- BHA acid exfoliant
- AHA acid exfoliant
- Actives that don't exfoliate
