One of my favorite mantras is the skin-care one: hydrating, hydrating, hydrating, both backstage and during my makeup classes. Beautiful makeup starts with skin-care. If your skin is not in really good shape, nothing you’ll put on it will ever look good. It’s logical actually. If the foundation isn’t right whatever you’ll build on it won’t be stable.
What’s happening is makeup pigments hanging on to dry skin cells and thereby making them become really visible. The lightest foundation will look dry and cakey. Not nice.
Skin-care, a Long-Term Project
Beautiful, supple and smooth skin is really a long-term project. A very important one, as you have only one skin. 😉
To get you motivated to embark on this project, I share with you hereunder what I do to keep my naturally rather dry and sensitive skin in good shape.
My Morning Skin-Care Routine
In the morning I only rinse my face in the shower, without using products, just water.
After toweling off I use a toner. They are very common in Asia but much less so over here. A pity because they’re a great source of hydration, restoring the moisture lost through the contact with hot water. I pour a few splashes into my hollow hands and then dab it all over my face, throat and cleavage, leaving my skin feeling soft and fresh.
Recently I discovered the brand Saeve and I really like their toner Lotion-Soin Perfectrice Hydratante, based on birch and mallow.
Next in my skin-care routine is serum. A few drops, pressed onto my slightly damp skin, will give it this extra hydration it needs, especially in winter. With serum I change a bit more often, I like the ones from Skinceuticals, for example the Hydrating B5. The Hyaluronic Acid serum by The Ordinary is great too, and very affordable.
The next (and in winter final) step is moisturizer. It’s supposed to keep my skin hydrated, soft and supple, protect it from environmental damage. And of course, prepare my skin for makeup.
Some Moisturizers aren’t Compatible with Makeup
Sounds simple, you slap on some moisturizer and on you go with makeup. But you need to know that some moisturizers, creams and lotions aren’t compatible with makeup. They might for example be too oily for makeup to stay put or create flakes once you apply foundation.
This is why I put together this small list of moisturizers which are all tested and approved by myself. I use them on my own face but also on models and clients: Kiehl’s Ultra Facial Cream, the luxurious La Solution 10 de Chanel or the inexpensive Cerave Hydrating Balm.
In summer, of course, moisturizing is followed by applying sun protection. Sun lotion always needs to come last as it creates a shield on the surface and won’t let anything penetrate.
Again, I choose my sun protection for its compatibility with my makeup products. The brand which always seems to work for me is La Roche-Posay. I lather on a generous layer of SPF50+, about a teaspoon of lotion. Most people actually use far too little product to actually get a proper protection.
An important fact to know about SPF and makeup: the SPF which comes with some makeup products, like foundations, even some powders, offers no protection by far! Firstly factors below 30 are completely inefficient and secondly you will never apply a sufficient amount of product as you want to keep your makeup light and natural. In my eyes it’s a contradiction really to include SPF’s into makeup products.
At Night, it’s all about Cleansing
In the evening, the emphasis is on cleansing. Removing makeup, dust, pollution and the day really. My favorite makeup remover is Bioderma’s Créaline, a micellar water which holds its kind of cult status among makeup artists for many years. Models refuse using anything else. It is superefficient and removes all makeup easily including eye makeup and mascara.
Except waterproof mascara of course, which I take off with Maybelline Waterproof Makeup Remover.
Then, for pore-deep cleansing I use a cream cleanser, like Dermalogica’s Skin Resurfacing Cleanser. I smoothen a hazelnut-size dollop all over my face, massaging typically dry areas like around my nose and between my eyebrows.
Once my skin is thoroughly cleansed, I repeat my morning routine of toner and serum. When it comes to moisturizer however I like a slightly richer formulation at night.
I recently discovered and liked Caudalie’s Tisane de Nuit and Vichy’s anti-aging cream Neovadiol which has plumping agents and is delicately rose-scented.
Another absolute favorite of mine for many years is Shiseido’s Bio-Performance. To me it makes a real difference, I can feel it and see it. Its gel-cream texture feels rich but lightweight at the same time. It makes my skin look smooth and glowy and I’m also completely addicted to its smell. 😉
What a lot of people don’t know is that most of the skin renewal process is happening during the night. To help this process it’s super important to give your skin all the hydration and nutrition it needs. So you can wake up with an all glowy and radiant skin.
Dry, cracked lips? Please find here my makeup artist’s tips on how to get smooth and supple lips.
By Louise Wittlich
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