Ok, we’ve all let things slide over this lockdown period, so you need an achievable skincare challenge to kick-start the good habits and to make ourselves feel better. There are plenty of small things your can do to zhuzh your routine and bring back that skin that has taken a bit of a beating recently (was everyone doing 2pm quarantinis, or was that just me?!).

The first seven days is to break the habit – your skin needs to rest and repair, to convalesce, if you like. After that, we’re reforming new habits and soothing, rebuilding and restarting your skincare routine to get your glow back. 14 days and a bit of commitment (and some good product) is all you need!

If we’ve learnt anything from Miss Rona it’s that hygiene comes first. Same applies to your face – if you wear makeup and are reusing brushes you could be putting oil, dead skin and other stuff back onto your face, so let’s avoid that as kind of Step 0 for our new skincare routine.

It’s crusty, isn’t it? The pillow case has been on there a touch took long and you can see where you’ve been sleeping. While you sleep, you can sweat and leave dead skin and make-up (did you cleanse before bed?) on your pillowcase and sheets, which can often transfer back onto your skin giving you spots and heaven knows what else. Change your bedding once a week, and flip your pillow half way through. It’s also worth having a pillow protector as well as a pillowcase to catch these stains, as these can be laundered better than a pillow can. That one was easy.

You know this – if they’re not cleaned often, your brushes are home to dirt, bacteria, and dust, and need to be cleaned once a week, and we’d recommend rinsing and drying your makeup sponge after every use. 

Hygiene 101, if the past few weeks have been anything to go by. Clean bedding, clean brushes, so don’t spoil it all by touching your face with dirty hands, it only takes 20 seconds (if you’re doing it right)

If you want good skin, cleansing is where to start. You avoid blocked pores – and so avoid blackheads, spots, ingrown hairs. Finding the right type of cleanser – foam, milk, oil or gel – is key, as it sets your skin up to look fantastic. We’d recommend an initial cleanse with an oil as a basic step, and then a top up with the product best formulated for your skin. Exfoliation is also important here, but it needs to be done gently, and certainly not every day. Both chemical and physical exfoliants with slough of any dead skin or impurities, leaving your skin as a cleansed blank canvas. Similarly, clay masks are great for this: the clay draws out grease and impurities, and removing the accumulated debris is pretty satisfying.

This is a little like your primer – toning restores your skin after cleansing, tightens your pores and creates an ideal surface for everything else to sit on. Remember that toner also helps restore your skin’s natural pH, as many cleansers are alkaline, whereas your skin is actually slightly acidic. Many toners, like witch hazel, are astringent, making sure that your skin doesn’t absorb any impurities. In addition to liquid toners, physical toning with techniques such as Gua Sha stimulate blood flow and lymphatic drainage to the skin – this is a great technique that will give you results in two weeks. 

Now you’ve prepared your skin, get it hydrated, otherwise, there’s no point. I’ve put it as a stage 1.5 as it is an essential step between the rest and repair of stage 1 and the soothing and healing of stage 2. If you know what kind of moisturiser you should be using (if you don’t, have a look here ), then you need to be using it twice a day, whether you have oily skin or not. We’d recommend using a lighter gel moisturiser on oily and acne-prone, and a thicker cream style for drier skins.

Here it’s worth investing – this is a product that you’ll be using every day and is arguably the most important thing you can do for your skin – especially if you’ve had laser skin removal with us at MySkin, because it’s essential. We’d recommend SPF 30, with broad-spectrum coverage and a five-star UVA rating. 

This is the real pampering bit, and it works while you sleep (you washed your pillows, didn’t you?). For simple hydration and maximum healing power, you can’t beat a sleeping mask. In Korea, the holy grail of skin, they’re used every night, but we think that’s a touch overkill. A sleeping mask is like a night cream that helps skin regeneration when you’re sleeping, and it’s thought they also prevent moisture loss. Win-win. 

Ok, so you’ve cleaned, cleansed, toned, moisturised, SPF’d and sleep masked – but that’s just everyday care. Concentrate them all once a week to top up and add steaming and serums for an extra-intense step – self-care is key, after all.

Rinse and repeat. 

Committed skincare is a great way to make yourself feel and look better – and like any other habit, it takes a bit of time to get used to. If you want to really level up, take a look at our blog post on the top vitamins you need to give your skin the best chance it can – from the inside.

If you do our stages, 0 before you start, stage 1 as basic skincare, incorporating stage 1.5 every day and, lastly, stage 2 every day in the second week, the results will be fantastic. Your skin will be healed, hydrated and soothed, and the results will motivate you to keep up the rhythm once you see the effects on your skin. You’ll thank us for it later!

Look after your skin – it’s such a key part of self-care that you can’t afford to let it slide. Follow our steps and you’ll see such positive changes you’ll wonder how you did without it before.