Back to Basics: Skincare

Skincare can get complex. Don’t know how long to wait between layering on your serum and day cream? Or how often to exfoliate or why our skin really needs a weekly face mask? ELLE takes you back to basics with these expert tips...

With cleansing, the important message is to really massage the product into your skin.  ‘Use circular movements to work the product into the pores and make sure you work all the way out to your hairline, not forgetting your neck,’ says Jane Calderwood, Beauty Therapist at Champneys.

If your skin is quite congested, facialist Sarah Chapman recommends using more focused massage to help clear the skin, ‘Use your ring fingers to massage over problem blackhead areas such as the nose and chin, this will help drain toxins, enliven and brighten the skin and work your product deeper into pores to combat congestion.’ 

For a thorough cleanse - maybe you’ve been wearing a lot of make-up or your skin’s just looking a bit lacklustre - try double cleansing. ‘The first cleanse will remove make-up, while the second cleanse rids the skin of all the daily impurities’ explains Fiona Brackenbury, Head of Education for Decléor. ‘If you plan to exfoliate or use a mask then double cleansing before will ensure there are no impurities on your skin that will affect the performance of your targeted treatment product’. 

Specific eye make-up removers are often more gentle than the cleansers you would use on the rest of your face; your eye area is extremely delicate and it needs to be treated with the upmost care. Jane Calderwood, Beauty Therapist at Champneys recommends you ‘apply eye make-up remover to two cotton pads (one for each eye) and sweep down the lashes and out over the eyelids from the inner corner of the eyes towards the temples. Use gentle sweeping movements - try not to rub or pull the skin. Damage to the eye area can cause premature ageing’. You have been warned!

If you are cleansing thoroughly a toner isn’t essential; part of the reason you would include a toner into your regime is to ensure every last trace of make-up and dirt is removed. However, if you have sensitive skin a toner can be used to restore the pH balance of your complexion. ‘Soaps cleansers and tap water can sometime disturb your natural pH balance. This will result in your skin becoming more oily than usual as your skin tries to restore itself to its natural balance,’ explains Skin Expert Lorena Oberg.