Determining and meeting
your skin's essential needs with a comprehensive skin
care regimen is critical to maintaining skin's healthy
function and beautiful appearance. While there are
several ways to determine your skin's essential needs,
the key to optimal skin health and beauty is to meet
your skin's basic needs with a comprehensive skin care
system. You can maintain beautiful skin and slow the
rate at which it ages with a regimen that both
supplements and protects the structure and function of
the skin.
Basic and Advanced Skin Care Needs
Your skin has up to 10 essential needs for optimal health and beauty.
These needs can be divided into two categories: basic and advanced
needs. Your skin's basic needs are the minimum, daily needs or regimen
steps all skin types require. Advanced needs are those that address
specific concerns of your skin and that can be met by incorporating
additional regimen steps as needed. Starting in our late 20s, our
advanced needs steadily increase. Together, basic and advanced needs
form the essential needs of the skin.
Basic Needs
Although the skin has 10 essential needs to maintain optimal form,
meeting the basic, daily needs with four regimen steps creates the
foundation of daily skin care. The four essential steps are cleanse,
tone, protect, and hydrate. A look at each step individually will help
to clarify how it specifically addresses the essential needs of your
skin.
1. Cleanse: This step meets the
skin's basic need to be free of excess oil, dirt, and pollutants. If
these impurities are not removed, you may experience dull, sallow
skin; clogged, inflamed pores that can discolor and scar; or free
radical oxidation that can damage cells, affect healthy cell
renewal, irritate the skin, and initiate hyperpigmentation. To avoid
these negative effects, cleansing should be performed twice daily.
2.
Tone: Toning
fulfills a basic daily need by preparing the skin to receive the
benefits from other products and should be performed twice daily, after
cleansing. Toning works in several ways. It calms and soothes the skin;
toning also minimizes the appearance of pores and balances the skin's pH
3. Protect: The protect step
meets the skin's basic need for a morning moisturizer with SPF to
guard against harmful UV rays and environmental stressors. Sun
damage degrades the moisture barrier and structural proteins and
promotes discoloration—all signs of premature skin aging.
4.
Hydrate: The hydrate step
provides vital lipids, replenishing moisture, and key repair
components for optimal nighttime recovery. Nighttime hydration
should be applied once daily in the evening.
Advanced Needs
In addition to the basic daily needs, your skin also has advanced needs.
When specific skin concerns such as discoloration, acne, free radical
damage, and aging exist, addressing these concerns is critical for skin
health and beauty. Incorporating regimen steps to target the skin's
advanced needs gives your skin the needed advantage of advanced skin
care. Consider some of the following advanced needs:
Nourish: For protecting skin
health and maintaining youthfulness, the nourish step is essential.
You can nourish the skin with powerful antioxidants to neutralize
free radicals that damage and prematurely age the skin.
Treat: The treat step meets
an essential advanced need of the skin when key components,
functions, or structures within the skin are compromised, leading to
signs of premature aging. Treatment products are specially
formulated to target those key skin components.
Refinish: The refinish step
focuses on skin that has become dull and rough. Refinishing helps to
resurface and polish the skin for a fresh, glowing complexion.
Exfoliate: When environmental
stressors and intrinsic aging begin to interfere with healthy cell
renewal, the exfoliate step becomes important. Exfoliation helps
remove dead cell buildup for smoother, more youthful looking skin
and can stimulate the cell renewal process.
Mask: The mask step meets an
essential advanced need of the skin when the skin requires a
concentrated application of key ingredients for an extended period
of time. Masks are an excellent way to meet the skin's various
needs. Some masks deliver key ingredients to the skin, while others
draw out impurities.
Revitalize: Tired, stressed
skin requires the essential step revitalize to restore vibrancy and
promote cellular energy. This need should be met once per week after
cleansing.
Regimen Rules
By understanding both the essential, daily needs and the advanced needs
of your skin, you can easily create a regimen that meets those needs.
You can do this by incorporating specific regimen steps and specially
formulated products into your daily routine. It's important to remember
that the best skin care products are designed to work synergistically to
meet the essential needs of the skin. As they do this, they maintain and
enhance the health and natural beauty of the skin.
When following a skin care regimen, it is vital that you use
each product correctly. In addition to following correct usage,
regimen order, and instructions for each product, keep the
following tips in mind:
The advanced steps refinish, exfoliate, mask,
and revitalize can be performed either morning or evening, but not
twice in one day. Also, these steps don't need to be performed in
more than three to four total steps per week.
With some treatment systems, the refinish,
exfoliate, and mask steps are not recommended for simultaneous use
(refer to individual treatment systems for more information).
When applying more than one treatment product,
apply those products that do not form an occlusive film first (i.e.,
apply serums, then gels).
Allow serums and gels to dry completely to let
the active ingredients soak into the skin. After the serum or gel
has dried, apply any lotion or cream treatment products. Allow them
to set.
Day
moisturizers with SPF should be applied after the treatment lotions or
creams have dried to prevent wiping away the active ingredients. You
should wait for day moisturizers to dry completely before applying
cosmetics