A short guide to skincare, pt.1: Morning routine

Hi everyone! My name is Eva Panico, I'm Italian and I joined Expo International's Sales Department last month. It's the first time that I post something on the company's blog, so forgive me for my amateur writing style (and broken English). I've been living in Japan for almost 3 years now, and among eating Japanese delicous dishes, sightseeing here and there when it's possible and enjoying watching movies on Netflix, there is another thing which I love spending energies (and money) on: skincare.

On today's post, let me explain a little bit more in detail my experience with skincare, why I am so fond of it and my routine. First of all, what is skincare? Well, I would define it as a daily "ritual" to keep your face (but also the body's) skin nice and clean, it's self-care, it's about hygiene but also about getting to know our skin better and, above all, about having fun with it. It doesn't have to be a boring duty that overwelms us, but a choice, a way to spend some quality time with ourselves! So, here's my story.

As I spent my teenage years with a face skin smooth as a peach, I didn't think too much about taking proper care of it, except applying eye cream and a moisturizer once a day to keep it moisturized. However, almost as soon as I hit my 20s during university I had a really unpleasant surprise on my face: adult acne. Adult acne is quite different from teenage acne, it's more stubborn and difficult to treat. So I decided to seek the dermatologist's help, who prescribed me an oral antibiotics treatment and it worked. The only problem was that before my acne cleared out (which was not before 2 years since I started the treatment) the antibiotics caused huge break outs on my face, because they had to purge all the sebum that was still under my skin in order to "dry out" my sebacious glands and prevent the acne from appearing again in the future. Of course this upset me a lot and I started to feel really insecure about how my face looked, because it only seemed that the situation was getting worse and I got more frustrated day by day, so I started searching other ways to take care of my skin while still carrying on with the antibiotics treatment, and I discovered a whole new world. Hence, since then I never stopped collecting information and trying new products, which was a great help, especially after I came to Japan and had to interrupt the antibiotics (I couldn't bring a large quantity with me due to custom restrictions), and consequently acne decided to pay my face a visit one more time...

So, what did I learn during years of struggle with my skin? In what order should you layer the products so that they can be more effective? What am I doing to try to keep my skin clear and plump and which products I like to use? In the first part of this post, let me introduce you to my morning routine, which I keep updating as soon as I discover new brands and new things about skincare, because you never stop learning. Let's get started!

Morning routine

1) Face cleansing

Especially when you have acne-prone skin it's important to keep it clean by removing any sort of impurity, so cleansing is an essential step in my routine. I like foam type cleansers in particular, as they feel lighter and less aggressive toward my skin. Let's keep in mind that by washing your face too ofter or using products which are too strong the acne may get worse, as you remove your skin's natural oils causing it to dry, which leads to an excessive sebum secretion inevitably followed by acne break outs. That's why, in order to prevent that, I prefer washing my face just once a day using Curel's "Sebum trouble care foam cleanser", which is devised to take gentle care of sensitive skin. Also, a quick tip: try not to wash your face for more than 20 seconds, so that you don't take too much hydration away from your skin!

2) Toner

Toner is meant to "prepare" your skin for all the following steps, like a primer. There are many types of toners for any sort of skin concern. I'm using Shina's "Super White Egg Lotion", which contains different nutrients, vitamins and other ingredients such as collagen and hyaluronic acid that really benefit our skin and help to fight fine lines due to dryness. This toner comes in a really large size at an incredibly affordable price, so it's a convenient choice if you don't have much money to spend (I bought mine this spring and I still have 1/4 of bottle left, even if I'm still using it twice a day everyday). What's more, it's odorless so if some of you are bothered by cosmetic's fragrances/perfumes this might actually be a good choice to start with.

3) Essence

After the toner you usually apply essence, a water-based product that helps maintaining the skin cell's hydration and makes your skin look healthier. As I am going to enter my 30s in a few years I already started stressing out about the thought that my skin is inevitably going to gradually lose its firmness and plumpiness, so I'm trying to delay this process as much as possible by using some anti-aging active ingredients such as snail mucin, which you can find in Mizon's "Snail Repair Intensive Essence". I like the "slimy" consistence of this product and I'm feeling that it has a crucial role in protecting my skin from winter's cold air and consequent dryness.

4) Serum

Here comes my favourite part: the serum, or the "treatment stage", which always follows the essence. We could say that in this stage you choose a product specifically meant for your biggest skin concern (blemishes, anti-age, dull skin etc.), as serums contain high concentration of active ingredients and absorb quickly into the skin. When you struggle with acne for a long time is very common that it leaves marks such as scars and/or dark spots. That's the reason I use a vitamin C serum every morning, as vitamin C not only has anti-oxidant properties which fight free radicals, but it helps to clear dark spots and hyperpigmentation, limits the damages due to UV and brightens our skin. The other day I bought my third bottle of dearKlairs's "Freshly Juiced Vitamin Drop", as my skin tone has really improved during the past 3 months that I applied this serum every morning and I want it to get even better. Furthermore, I really enjoy the warm and "stinging" sensation I feel when I apply it on my face (that's why you should start with small quantities if you have sensitive skin, as vitamin C can cause irritation and redness when you are new to it). Lastly, for whoever has animal's rights close to his heart, this product is also vegan and cruelty free!

5) Eye cream

Some beauty influencers state that eye creams are just "overpriced moisturizers" thought by cosmetic companies just to make you cough up more money, as there's actually no need to buy them because you could simply use regular moisturizers around the eyes as well. Maybe they're right or maybe not, who knows. Just in case, I like to use eye creams anyway, by gently tapping a small quantity with my ring finger on the area around the eyes and also around the mouth, where wrinkles form more often. At the moment I'm using Sana's "Nameraka honpo Sheer&Moisture eye cream", a very basic and affordable product made from soy mik (so Japanese!) meant to alleviate dark circles and maintain the skin moisturized, but despite the low price still does its job.

6) Moisturizer

You may want to "seal" all the nutrients and hydrating ingredients you just meticulously applied over your face with a moisturizer. Two months ago I discovered this Korean brand called SKINFOOD which has made my skincare a real "sensorial experience" thanks to the lovely fragrances and natural ingredients used in the products, I'm just in love with this brand and I can't stop buying more...

As winter and cold wind tend to dry out and irritate our skin, I try to prevent it by using SKINFOOD's "Steam Milk Topping Mask", which besides having a delicious smell it spreads very easily over my face thanks to its milky consistence and brings the skin further nutrition, limiting the cold's damage.

7) SUNSCREEN

You thought it was over? Well, I'm sorry to disappoint you, but if after all the effort you put into choosing your products and meticulously layering them you don't apply sunscreen as the final step even in winter then it all goes to waste. In fact, daily esposition to UV is the first cause of skin's premature aging and in order to prevent it we must apply sunscreen everyday and more than once (especially in summer). Recently I bought Kose's "Sun Cut Tone Up UV Essence" and I find it very pleasant to use, also because of its nice fruity smell which reminds me of raspberry yogurt. I honestly think that any sun screen is fine, as long as you use SPF 50+PA++++, for a total protection agains UV's damage.

(this is the only picture I took myself, the other photos are not my property!)

Well, I think that's pretty much it for today, this is how I enjoy taking care of my skin! In my opinion, the most rewarding part of all the process is starting to see results after all the time spent, morning and night, applying so many products and hoping for an improvement. If you found this article interesting please leave a reaction or a comment, and in the future I could tell you about my night routine, because yes, there are some products whose use is recommended at night, but I will explain it better next time, thank you very much for reading my post!

Eva