There are A LOT of treatments to choose from out there, but doing absolutely EVERYTHING to your skin is not necessarily beneficial nor is it kind to your wallet. These days a lot of us are being careful about what we’re spending, but we still want to uphold a healthy skincare regimen, and it can sometimes be daunting to figure out what we should keep in our skincare routine and what we should ditch.
The good news is that the habits you should keep really don’t need to cost a lot—or anything, for that matter—and the habits you ditch are the ones that will save you money and your skin in the long run.
Here are our recommendations for the skin habits you should keep and those you should ditch.
Skin Habits You Should Absolutely Keep
Regular facials
If you love facials as much as we do, then you’ll be happy to hear that these are treatments you should absolutely keep. A) They won’t break the bank B) They are major stress reducers, because they’re so damn relaxing and C) They have so so many skin benefits.
Whether it’s a facial peel treatment like our Miracle 10 peel treatment or a traditional facial like the Essential Facial, regular facials will keep your skin clean, glowing, while also keeping that blood flowing, and will ultimately make your skin more receptive to the skincare products that you use.
Facials are also really effective at keeping acne at bay, reducing textural irregularities, and combatting skin concerns like rosacea and melasma.
This is ultimately a preventative treatment, keeping up your Botox treatments will have an impact on reducing your wrinkles in the future and will allow you to go longer and longer between treatments as your muscles get trained into making fewer wrinkle forming movements.
Taking off your makeup
This is a super simple rule, and costs absolutely nothing. It’s honestly one of the most important and easiest good skincare habits. Please don’t go to sleep with your make-up on, no matter how tired you are.
It’s honestly just as important as brushing your teeth before you go to bed. Makeup overnight will unnecessarily clog your pores and allow dirt to set in which leads to an entire range of skin issues you don’t want, namely breakouts, but also textural irregularities, which you’ll then end up spending a bunch of money on to counter. Totally not worth it!
Your skin rejuvenates itself at night, so you want to ensure that first off it’s very clean, and also that you’re giving your nighttime skincare products a chance to work, because this is when they work best.
So invest in a great cleanser and make sure that make-up is off before you go to bed and your skin has some time to breathe.
Using your humidifier
Our Canadian winters can be horribly dry, so a humidifier can go a long way in not further drying out your skin, and it’s also great for avoiding a lot of those respiratory viruses going around, so it’s a win win. Healthy skin and healthy body.
Showering in water that is not too hot
When it’s freezing outside, all you want to do is warm up under a super hot and steamy shower, we get it, but really hot water will unfortunately dry out your skin, so be mindful of what temperatures you shower in.
It doesn’t mean you need to take a cold shower, but a reasonably warm shower will make all the difference in keeping that moisture locked in. Again, a great skin habit that costs you absolutely nothing.
Have some questions?
We’ve got answers.
Skin Habits to Ditch ASAP
Following trends
Ok, we get that sometimes Tik Tok trends can look super appealing. Some products can be so convincing or a treatment can be perceived as looking so good… but TikTokers are typically not skincare experts, and trends are fleeting. What looks good on someone else, like eyelash extensions or mega pouty lips, might not look great on you because you have a different anatomy.
If you’re interested in a certain look, always get expert advice about whether that’s going to be the look that does the most for you.
It’s a similar situation with products. Be sure to research any new product you’re interested in and again get expert advice on whether it actually truly works. Our rule of thumb is to trust the experts, and stick to what already works for you. Why change if things are good?
Picking at your skin
Gah! This is a hard no! We know that sometimes controlling the urge to pick at your skin or pop a pimple can overcome us, especially if we’re stressed out, but there could literally be nothing worse for your skin. Think of it as picking at a scab: you’re bound to be left with a scar.
The skin on the face is no different. In fact, it’s way more sensitive than say the skin on your knee, so picking at it will absolutely leave you with blemishes and potential unwanted scarring.
Not to mention that when we touch our skin (especially where it might be broken or we may have a pimple) we introduce fresh bacteria that only makes the pimple or breakouts worse, not better.
If you’ve got a pimple, a spot treatment like Miracle 10 Spot Solution is the way to go.
Not using your SPF
You might think that just because it’s been a mostly dull grey winter, that SPF is not necessary, well those UV rays can be strong even in winter, and just general long term unprotected sun exposure causes so many very preventable skin issues.
Sun overexposure will dry out the skin, worsen the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles, create sun spots and worsen any pigmentation you may already have, not to mention give the skin an unhealthy leathery quality.
Using too many products
Simple is truly the best way to go. Overloading your skin with products it doesn’t need doesn’t benefit it in any way, and may actually just cancel out the products that work for you. As a general rule of thumb, you want to invest in a good cleanser, toner, moisturizer and SPF, and the rest just really depends on your skin needs.
If you’re trying to combat those fine lines and wrinkles then you can add an active product like an AHA or a booster like Retinol. If you’re looking for more exfoliation than a good exfoliator like Enzyme can also be thrown into the mix. But again, if you don’t need it, don’t complicate things. Use only what benefits your particular skin concerns, this will be kind to your skin and budget.
Not getting enough sleep
Beauty sleep is truly a thing! In order for your skin to properly recalibrate and for all those nighttime skincare products you pay good money for to work, you need to get the right amount of good quality sleep, we’re talking 8-9 hours, 5-6 hours is not going to cut it.
Your skin is your body’s largest organ, and like all other organs, it regenerates at night by turning over new skin cells. This is what will ultimately keep your skin looking happy and healthy.
