I recently caught up with a friend, who was (rightly so) confused about the order with which she should apply products.
She mentioned, “anti-ageing oil”, “Vitamin C serum”, ” BB cream”, “under eye concealer”, and sunscreen all in the same sentence.
I did my best to succinctly explain what I thought the order should be, but honestly, I should have drawn a step-by-step guide….
A note on retinol…
I don’t use retinols, retinoids, retinly palmitate or anything like that. The routines for retinol users is a COMPLETELY different discussion and if you are a retinol user, this blog does not apply to you at all.
Rule 1: skincare goes on first
1.1 Watery serums go on before anything oil based, including moisturizer
1.2 Sunscreen goes on before make up
1.3 Wait for products to dry
1.4 Do not mix sunscreen with other products
Its essential that you apply adequate amounts of sunscreen, for it to be effective and this can only happen if you use sunscreen as a standalone product.
You must get your skincare routine finished before you start your make-up routine.
Rule 2: make up goes on last…
Under-eye concealers, primers, CC and BB creams are NOT skincare at all. They are make-up.
I usually do a wander out of a bathroom between skincare and make-up. For those of you with time-constraints.
Night routine
In the night, anti-ageing oils, peptides and EGF serums are usually part of routines.
I hope that helps. Any questions, drop me a line or leave a comment.
A note on complex routines
Some products, such as the NIOD range are extremely complicated and the guidance on the NIOD website is not always very clearly. I’ll do a separate blog on that.