7 Ways to Refresh Your Skin Care for Spring

It’s official – this week marks the beginning of spring! Maybe this week you’ve been opening the windows to sunshine and birds whistling like a whimsical Disney movie or maybe it’s looking like spring is running late in your neighborhood. Either way, this season is the perfect time to give your skin care some spring cleaning and refreshment. Check out these tips to revitalize your skin care routine in this season of renewal.

1. Check for Expired Products

It’s so easy to have a skin care product that you just use here and there, sitting in your drawer for years on end, never thinking about whether it’s past its prime or realizing that it’s time to ditch products you bought during the pandemic. So how do you know if your skin care products are expired?

Skin care products don’t typically have a specific expiration date the way that foods do because their freshness is very dependent on when they’re opened. What they usually have instead is a period after opening or PAO – a time limit for how long they’re usable after you open them.

Check your products for a marking that says PAO or a symbol that looks like an open container and has a marking with it like 12M or 18M. Those markings tell you how long the product is usable after you open it, like 12 months or 18 months. Products that are past this time period may be ineffective or, more importantly, they can harbor bacteria that you don’t want to be slathering on your skin.

2. Give Your Tools a Deep Clean

Take your spring cleaning energy to your skin care drawer. If you use skin care tools like massage rollers, gua sha stones, or applicators, take some time to give them a good cleaning. How you wash a tool will depend on the tool itself, but usually a simple Google search will bring up the manufacturer’s suggestions. It could be as simple as using warm water with dish soap and giving them a good scrubbing or wiping them down with isopropyl alcohol.

3. Use the One Year Rule

This is a common rule in decluttering, and it holds true for your skin care drawer too: if you haven’t used it in the past year, you probably won’t miss it if it’s gone. Any open products that you haven’t used in the past year may well be expired anyway. Unopened products are great to donate or to give to friends. Once you’ve gotten rid of the clutter of products you’ll probably never use, it’ll be easier to see and enjoy the products in that drawer that you love.

4. Organize Your Stash

If you’re like me, you probably have a collection of random skin care products – some you’ve received as gifts, some you’ve picked up at various shops, or some that you’ve received in subscription boxes. These are products that you want to use but that are waiting for a spot to open up in your skin care routine, like a new cleanser you want to try out after you finish your current bottle.

After you’ve decluttered, come up with a way to organize the products that are left. Drawer dividers can be a great way to have a space for cleansers, a space for serums, a space for moisturizers, and so on. This way, when you finish a product, it’s easy to head to the drawer and grab the next one to try.

While you’re doing this, it’s a good idea to label the products too with the date when you received them. You don’t need the specific date – a general timeframe like the month is fine – but most skin care products should be tossed after about 30 months on the shelf unopened.

5. Set Your Skin Care Focus for the Year

As you’re refreshing your skin care products, it’s also a great time to refresh your skin care goals. Think about what you most want to focus on for your skin this year. Maybe you want to go hard in against aging, or you want to focus on getting your facial redness under control. As you head into the year ahead, use this to guide your skin care routine and your shopping strategy so you’re buying products that align with your priorities.

6. Take Stock of What You Need to Replace

While you’re thinking about what you want for your skin this year, take a moment to critique what’s working and what isn’t in your skin care routine too. For example, if you’ve been using a moisturizer consistently but you still have skin as dry as the Sahara, it’s time to bid adieu to your go-to moisturizer and look for something that can do the job better.

7. Make Seasonal Swaps

Finally, think about what needs to change in your skin care routine to account for the changing seasons. The air is very different in the fall and winter than it is in the spring and summer, so what your skin needs will vary from season to season too. You might need to make some swaps for the warmer weather that’s setting in, like using a lighter moisturizer since the air isn’t so dry, taking your sun protection up a notch, or using a stronger cleanser that can handle the added pollen in the air and sweat from hot days.

It's so easy to get stuck in a rut with your skin care, using the same products you picked out during the Bush administration or building up a stash that’s too overwhelming to dig into and use. This spring, invest a little time into refreshing your skin care – your skin will thank you.