Ask Cult Concierge: The Best Skin Care Routine For Sensitive Skin
Everyone’s skin can be sensitive at times, but for some it can be worse than others. You’ll know you have {sensitive skin} if the smallest thing (like removing your make up) causes irritation, leading to redness and possibly small bumps and an uneven tone and texture. Your skin might feel dry, oily and breakout-prone all at once, which is far from ideal!
Sensitive skin is also linked to a compromised skin barrier — it’s a bit of a chicken and egg scenario, as a compromised skin barrier means you’re more prone to sensitivity, but sensitivity can also weaken your skin’s barrier. Using the wrong products will only make things worse, which is why it’s important to choose your products wisely and maintain a consistent {skin care} routine to keep your skin calm and balanced.
In this guide we’ve outlined our recommended morning and evening skin care routine, including the best skin care products for {sensitive skin} at every step. A new skin care routine always takes a little while to get used to — give it a go for four to six weeks to allow your skin to acclimatise and to see how any potential purging settles.
MORNING SKIN CARE ROUTINE FOR SENSITIVE SKIN
STEP ONE: CLEANSE
{Milk Makeup’s} {Vegan Milk Moisturizing Cleanser} is one of the best cleansers for sensitive skin. It’s a squalane-based cleanser that also features oat milk, fig milk, argan milk and aloe vera extract (to name just a few!) to soothe, comfort and rehydrate your skin, whilst gently eradicating night time impurities. Squalane helps to restore balance to your complexion and keep it looking dewy and plump.
Alternatively, {Biome One Cleansing Balm} from {Cultured} is a 'ph perfect' rebalancing and gently purifying cleanser, designed to respect your skin barrier with a broad-spectrum prebiotic effect that supports microbiome resilience. With no added preservatives or fragrance and a honey-like texture, this pumpable soap-free cleanser will leave you with skin that feels clean, fresh and calm.
STEP TWO: TONE
Next, I recommend something mild yet effective like {Caudalie’s} {Grape Water}, a beautiful fragrance and alcohol-free formula that contains just three ingredients to tone and hydrate your skin. Grapes are a natural antioxidant and will revitalize and protect, without any chemicals or unnecessary ingredients.
Hydrating facial mists are not only really fun to use sensorially but are also able to feed your skin a lavish dose of hydration without you having to worry about touching (and potentially irritating or re-introducing bacteria to) your face more than you need to.
Alternatively, you may prefer the calming effect of {Honest Beauty’s} {Calm & Go Face Mist}, which marries pro-vitamin b5 with hyaluronic acid and squalane to soothe, hydrate and nourish your skin in an instant.
STEP THREE: MOISTURISE
You can then lock in that moisture with {Ceramidin Liquid} from {Dr.Jart+} - one of the best moisturisers for sensitive skin. Formulated with Dr.Jart+'s Ceramidin Complex™ - a proprietary derma fusion of ceramides that help strengthen your skin’s moisture barrier to defend against moisture loss - this hydrating serum/moisturiser hybrid will leave your skin feeling soft and nourished.
STEP FOUR: SPF
Now, the most important step of your AM routine comes at the end, when you'll want to apply a high performing SPF 40+. This is because UV exposure (whether it looks sunny outside or not!) is the cause of almost 80% of the visible signs of ageing - destroying existing collagen in your skin, exacerbating pre-existing conditions, and damaging skin cells at a DNA level.
{Thank You Farmer’s} {Sun Project Water Sun Cream SPF50} is one of the best sunscreens for sensitive skin. It’s a lightweight yet nourishing formula that will quickly sink into your skin without clogging your pores or feeling greasy. It also contains hyaluronic acid, so helps to retain your skin’s moisture levels as it works to protect it.
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EVENING SKIN CARE ROUTINE FOR SENSITIVE SKIN
STEP ONE: CLEANSE
In the evenings, you may find that you want to use a cleanser that’s a little more robust than your morning choice in terms of effectively removing the day's pollution/SPF/make up as well as delivering your skin the nourishment it needs to repair while you sleep.
{OSKIA’s} {Rest Day Comforting Cleansing Milk} feels like a comforting hug for the skin, offering a gentle but effective cleanse that comforts and balances a compromised microbiome. It contains rose and lavender flower water, organic cactus extract, bisabolol and MSM to help soothingly de-clog pores, whilst oat ceramides and pomegranate repair your skin’s lipid barrier.
STEP TWO: TONE
You can then tone with either your {Honest Beauty} {Calm & Go Face Mist} or {Caudalie} {Grape Water}, before prefacing your moisturiser application by pressing {THE INKEY LIST’s} {Hyaluronic Acid Serum} into your still-damp complexion. Hyaluronic acid is a wonder ingredient that literally draws moisture into your skin, ensuring that it remains a perfect environment for cell renewal and the production of collagen, which is key to healing and regeneration.
STEP THREE: MOISTURISE
For your evening moisturiser, apply a night cream for sensitive skin like {Biossance’s} {Squalane + Omega Repair Cream} - a whipped decadent moisturising repair cream with all the good fats (lipids), plant sterols and ceramides your skin needs to exceptionally hydrate, nourish, plump and replenish your complexion. It leaves skin looking radiant and improves the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles thanks to the inclusion in its formula of a unique sugarcane-derived squalane, which mimics the natural oils present in all of our skin.
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