The Perfect Skin Care Routine for Your Makeup Style

Makeup and skin care go hand in hand. Every makeup artist will tell you that healthy skin makes a better canvas for beautiful makeup, so your skin care will affect how your makeup looks but your makeup will also affect your skin’s health. That’s why, when you’re strategizing your skin care routine, you should consider what type of makeup you typically wear.

How do you do that, exactly? Here’s a guide to shaping your skin care routine based on your typical makeup looks.

Skin Care Routine for Full Face Makeup

If you go all-out with full-face makeup on most days – specifically if you’re applying foundation to your full face – there are a few aspects of your skin health you want to prioritize. The first is cleansing. Makeup can block your pores and cause inflammation and irritation so at the end of the night, you want to make sure you wash your skin particularly well to avoid breakouts.

The second is exfoliating. If there are dead skin cells on the surface of your skin then your foundation can look gritty and dry, so exfoliating will give your makeup a smoother, more even finish.

Finally, don’t forget hydration. Using both makeup remover and an effective cleanser, as necessary as they are, can strip moisture out of your skin so you need hydrating products to replenish that moisture.

Your Daily Routine:

• Makeup remover
• Hydrating cleanser to replace moisture that makeup remover can strip from your skin
• Soothing serum to combat inflammation from makeup and makeup remover
• Rich moisturizer

Extras to Throw In:

• Deep cleansing masks about once per week
• Exfoliating 2-3 times per week

Skin Care Routine for Minimal Makeup

Let’s switch gears and go to the opposite way – wearing very little makeup. This might mean some days you wear no makeup at all. Maybe a typical day for you is just mascara and a touch of lip color, or just a brow pencil. Either way, you rarely wear a full face of foundation and makeup.

In this case, your top focus in skin care is typically your complexion. You want it to look even and beautiful without makeup, so you want skin care products that will give you that effortlessly elegant look.

Another aspect you might incorporate into your skin care is caring for the finer details of your face. For example, eyelash conditioner can give you healthier and more aesthetic eyelashes without the need for mascara, while brow conditioner can give you consistently beautiful brows and lip products can make sure your lips are smooth and soft. These types of products give you the aesthetics of light makeup but without, well, the makeup.

Your Daily Routine:

• Cleanser that is optimized for your skin type, whether your skin is normal, oily, dry, or combination
• Serum to reduce dark spots and give you a more even skin tone
• Moisturizer that is formulated for your skin type
• Tinted sunscreen each morning to protect your skin while giving it a smoother complexion

Extras to Throw In:

• Eyelash conditioner
• Eyebrow conditioner
• Lip masks
• Anti-aging products

Skin Care Routine for Eye Makeup

For some, it’s all about the happy medium – you don’t usually wear full-face makeup, but you aren’t a minimalist either. A typical day for you might be only eye makeup, highlighting those features that people first notice about you.

In this case, your skin care priority is the skin around your eyes, of course. You want to focus on minimizing the inflammation and irritation that can come from applying and removing makeup daily on this delicate skin. You also want to concentrate some anti-aging skin care in this area, keeping the skin as firm and smooth as possible for a smoother makeup look.

Your Daily Routine:

• Eye makeup remover
• Cleanser that is formulated for your skin type
• Eye cream that either soothes inflammation or firms the skin (or both)
• Moisturizer that is suited for your skin type

Extras to Throw In:

• Anti-aging eye serums
• Products to reduce dark circles or puffy eyes

Creating Your Perfect Personal Skin Care Routine

Developing your skin care routine isn’t the easiest task. There are so many factors to consider like your skin type, your daily habits, and yes, your makeup use. Even with these considerations, there’s always some trial and error to find specific products that work well with your skin.

Remember that building and optimizing your skin care routine is always a work in progress and that your ideal routine may change over time. The tips above, though, can at least put you on the right track to finding that perfect combination of products for your skin.