With every new season comes a rethink of your skincare routine. Why? Your skin is dynamic; it changes like the weather, and if you’re feeling the temperature drop, your skin will be too. Autumn is the season to amp up hydration, to strengthen the skin’s barrier, which is its raincoat to help trap the moisture in and keep the irritation out. Invest in treatments to boost dullness, correct pigmentation, and always use an SPF daily. While I like to keep things simple, I constantly mix up my cosmetic brands, but I am religious with every step. There are steps in my morning routine.
Read on to learn more. By editor Trudi Brewer.
The cleanser
Regular double-cleansing boosts the effects of every other product you apply to your skin. The first cleanser takes off makeup, and then the second cleanser removes that dead skin build-up and helps everything you apply to your skin after cleansing, such as serums, balms, and moisturisers, absorb faster and deeper. I also prefer a creamy cleanser that leaves my skin feeling hydrated post-cleansing and not tight and dry.
Jeuneora
SoWhippy Prebiotic Cream Cleanser, $58.
I am all about a creamy cleanser that swiftly removes makeup you can use in and out of the shower. Plus, this formula is stacked with hydrating and calming ingredients too. Made from a prebiotic agave to balance the skin and kaolin clay to remove the day’s grime. While wattle seed extract nourishes, vitamin B3 or niacinamide helps refine open pores and brighten the skin.
The skin balancer
I don’t use toner. But I do spritz my skin after cleansing it with calming water. In fact, I spritz my skin at least three times a day, if my skin feels dry or I am reapplying with makeup, I give it a natural moisture boost.
Avène Thermal Spring Water, 50mls, $13 or 300mls, $28.
There is nothing but pure Mediterranean water in this can. On its journey to Avène, it trickles over 300 million-year-old dolomitic rocks 3000 meters underground. As it runs, it’s enriched with magnesium, calcium, microflora and silicates while balancing the skin’s pH (which is why it’s brilliant after cleansing). My skin loves it. Why? Its potent soothing properties give instant relief to dryness or sensitivities. I keep a can on my desk, one in the fridge, and in my bathroom - I am never without it.
The serum
Hydrating but not a moisturiser, watery but not an essence, serums are the unsung heroes of any skincare routine. Why? They are packed with tiny, potent ingredients that absorb quickly and deliver powerful antioxidants that protect and perfect the skin.
DR. LEWINN’S SERUM SERIES HYDRATE, $80.
Boosted with the moisture magnet hyaluronic acid and Waterin Plus, a green moisturiser derived from plants, together, these ingredients work in harmony to flood the skin with hydration. Suitable for any age or skin type, this serum gives my complexion that dewy, youthful glow within seconds. There are two other serums in the Dr LeWinn’s Serum Series.
The eye cream
The skin under the eyes has a tough life. Smiling, crying, and squinting are why it’s prone to age earlier than the rest of the skin on your face. So to ensure that skin is well hydrated, stays firmer, and looks smoother and brighter for longer an eye cream delivers tiny active ingredients in a lower concentration to treat the delicate skin under and around the eyelid.
Medik8 Advanced Day Eye Protect Anti-Ageing Eye Cream, $111.
For me, it’s puffiness and fine lines that see me reaching for an eye cream each day. The combination of caffeine to help reduce that puffiness and hesperidin to boost blood circulation brightens and soothes. Designed to use during the day only, the SPF in this eye cream is a brilliant welcome bonus. It’s pricy, but a little goes a long way.
The moisturiser
When your skin is dry, its barrier is often impaired, making it vulnerable to moisture loss, and sensitivities can occur. So, I reach for moisturisers that boost hydration and offer glow-giving results. So, look for ingredients such as peptides, fatty acids, ceramides and hyaluronic acid; you can’t go wrong.
TRINNY LONDON BOUNCE BACK INTENSE PEPTIDE MOISTURISER, $104.
This ultra-rich, buttery moisturiser will quench and calm the driest of skins. Stacked with collagen-boosting ingredients, fatty acids, oat lipids and protein peptides that all have a firming effect on your face. At the same time, that moisture magnet hyaluronic acid locks all those hydrating ingredients in the skin for hours. It’s magic. Oh, there’s also a Refill, $82 - love that.
The SPF
At the risk of sounding preachy, the biggest beauty blunder you can make is not wearing SPF 365 days a year. Our skin can be damaged by UV rays all year round, especially here in New Zealand, so this is the one product you never need to swap out between seasons.
ASAP SPF50+ HYDRATING DEFENCE, $75.
I am obsessed with this mineral-based SPF for its lightness, breathability, ocean-friendliness, and ease of use. Created as a three-in-one moisturiser, primer and SPF, with brilliant antioxidant ingredients: niacinamide (vitamin B3), turmeric and hyaluronic acid. Together these ingredients are whipped in a beige-tinted lightweight formula that is a light-reflecting mineral screen - it’s genius.
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