8 Step Morning Skin Care Routine and Guide to Layering Skin Care Products

How you prepare your skin in the morning vs. how you prepare your skin before bed is a totally different game. Your skin has different needs in the morning than it does at night. And the product line up in your morning skincare routine and the order in which you apply these products can make them work even harder.

In this article, we break down the details of an eight-step morning skincare routine. We also guide you to layering your products.

Why Do You Need a Morning Skincare Routine?

By now, you’ve probably established your own skincare routine. But if you’re not treating your skin differently in the morning than right before you go to bed, you’re doing it wrong. Establishing a good morning skincare routine is the most important thing you can do for your skin.

Prepping your skin for the day ahead is all about protecting it from the environmental stressors it comes into contact with. In contrast, our nighttime skincare routine aims to target any specific skin concerns before the regenerative process of beauty sleep begins. Things like the heat, dry or windy weather, pollution, and dirt are environmental stressors that your skin comes into contact with daily, leading to skincare woes like breakouts, sunspots, and premature aging.

That’s why it’s so important to protect against them with a solid morning skincare routine. And sure, your beauty shelf is probably bursting with all the usual skincare products, cleansers, creams, serums, eye creams. But…

Are You Layering Your Products the Right Way?

The order in which you apply your skincare products in the morning matters. For each product to be effective, you need to follow a particular routine that doesn’t cancel out the previous product’s benefits.

Basically, you want to layer your skincare products based on their weight and consistency to allow the heaviest products to penetrate through the lightest ones (or the lowest to highest pH). Please make the most of your morning skincare routine by following our eight-step guide to layering your products!

8 Step Guide to Layering Your Skin Care Products in the Morning

A quick pro-tip before we begin is to keep each product layer thin and evenly distributed. There’s no need to wait between each product. Just move right from one application to the next. Your skin absorbs much more efficiently when it’s damp.

Step 1. Cleanser

You might think you can skip a morning face wash if you showered the night before, but aside from providing your skin with a morning pick-me-up, it’s necessary for clear skin. Germs from your pillowcase can move to your face as you sleep, even if you wash your pillowcases regularly. Bacteria from your saliva and oils from your hair move onto your pillowcase and then to your face as you move around at night.

The only way to guarantee a clean face in the morning is to wash with a hydrating cleanser as soon as you roll out of bed. Use cool water (this will take down any eye puffiness from the night before) and massage the cleanser into your skin in gentle circular movements.

Step 2. Exfoliant

Whether you use a chemical exfoliant like an alpha hydroxy acid or a mechanical one like a scrub made from particles like salt or sugar, exfoliating your skin at least once or twice weekly is essential to good skin health. Regular exfoliation promotes healthy cell turnover by gently buffing away the buildup of dirt, oil, debris, or anything else trapped on top of your skin after cleansing.

When you exfoliate, focus on your T-zone. It is the area between the forehead, nose, and chin. These are the areas where pores are most likely to clog.

Step 3: Toner

The very first step in the product layering process after washing your face is often overlooked. Many people tend to skip toner in the morning. However, a hydrating toner balances the pH of your skin and preps it for the rest of the products to follow in your morning skincare routine.

Step 4. Spot Treatments

If you’re suffering from breakouts or have breakout-prone skin, acne treatment medications like salicylic acid and benzoyl peroxide should be applied now, directly onto the affected spots only, unless otherwise recommended by your dermatologist. This allows the medications to be absorbed directly into the skin without any other product barrier to dull its absorption.

Step 5. Serum

Serum is the next layer in your morning routine. Serums are super-concentrated, nutrient-dense treatments that address specific concerns, so it’s good to keep them as close to the skin as possible.

Adding a vitamin C serum into your daily morning skincare routine helps with the appearance of dark spots, uneven skin texture, and enlarged pores. It also helps neutralize damage from UV rays and environmental pollutants.

Step 6. Eye Cream

The skin around your eyes is the thinnest on your face, making it the first to show signs of stress, fatigue, and premature aging. An eye cream provides extra hydration to that sensitive area, prone to getting dry and irritated. If you suffer from dark circles under your eyes, a good cream can reduce or even remove them.

Regular use of a brightening eye cream can improve the eyelid’s skin elasticity. It can also prevent crows feet and collagen loss.

Dab a small amount of eye cream under and around your eyes, on the upper eyelid, and just below the eyebrow arch using your finger pads. Follow the feel of your eye socket as you apply the cream.

Step 7. Moisturizer

Your moisturizer is almost your last layer and step in your morning skincare routine. Moisturizer not only hydrates your skin. It also seals in steps one through six.

Dot your daily face moisturizer onto your face and rub it into your complexion in gentle circular motions from the center outwards. This daily facial massage will reduce puffiness, boost circulation, energize your skin, and release muscular tension in your face.

We strongly recommend choosing a natural face moisturizer for best results. Natural moisturizers usually lack ingredients that can irritate or even harm your skin. Sustainably made, natural moisturizers are also not only better for you but the environment.

Step 8. Sunscreen

Sun protection is a crucial step in your skincare routine. SPF should always be a component in your morning routine because of exposure to UVA and UVB rays. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends using sunscreen every single day before going outside, even on cloudy or cool days, to prevent the risk of skin cancer.

A sunscreen spray can help ward off damaging UV rays and fight back against the early signs of aging like brown spots and fine lines. The World Health Organization reports that up to 90% of visible skin damage can be attributed to sun exposure.

Look for one with SPF 25 or higher for your everyday routine. Don’t forget to reapply your sunscreen every few hours.

Some people may wonder if they need a special sunscreen for the face or if a general one for the body works. While a general sunscreen is better than nothing, facial sunscreens are specially designed for the face’s sensitive skin. They’re less likely to irritate the skin and cause acne breakouts.

Do My Morning and Night Time Skincare Routines Need to be Different?

We all have skincare routines that we’ve grown comfortable with, but you should have a different routine at night than the one you have in the morning. Your skin’s needs differ in the morning versus the night.

During the day, your skin stresses as it’s exposed to dirt, oil, UV rays, and pollutants. So the morning skincare routine focuses on protection. Many daytime products contain free-radical-fighting antioxidants, such as vitamin C, to protect your skin. Daytime products also tend to be lighter in consistency for easier layering under sunscreen. It’s important to protect your skin by cleaning and moisturizing properly every morning with skincare products that will protect your skin from these harmful external stressors.

Your night time skincare routine is the time to reach for your anti-aging creams or reparative serums of choice to target problem areas. Why? Because your skin is most receptive to their active ingredients while you’re asleep. During your body’s sleep cycle, it repairs each of its systems, including your skin. So while you sleep, your skin works to reverse all the damage caused by sun exposure, stress, and pollution from the day.

Morning and Night Time Skincare Ingredients

Some ingredients can be useful in both your morning and nighttime skincare routine. Others do their jobs more effectively when used at the proper times.

• Retinoids are best used at night when your skin is in its repair phase to encourage skin cell turnover.
• Anything with vitamin A derivatives breaks down in sunlight. Using them during the day not only renders them less effective but can cause skin irritation.
• Antioxidants protect against sun damage and repair the skin’s daily stress. They can be used in both your morning and nighttime skincare routine.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does my skin look better in the morning?

Do you find that your skin glows and seems particularly plump when you wake up? Perhaps your wrinkles even look less severe. It’s likely because gravity doesn’t pull down on your face when you’re sleeping the way it does when you’re upright during the day. Your face also doesn’t move during sleep the way it does when you’re awake and expressing yourself, and those movements can deepen wrinkles.

You may also find your skin looks good in the morning because of your mood. If you follow a proper sleep schedule and get a good night’s rest, you will feel refreshed as you perform your normal care routine.

To ensure you sleep well, choose the best mattress for your sleeping style. Side sleepers benefit from a soft to medium mattress, while back and stomach sleepers do better on a medium-firm to firm mattress.

Should I use toner every day?

Face toner is often thought of as one of the more skippable steps during a care routine. However, it’s important to consider it because it preps your skin for moisturizers, serums, and creams. It does so by balancing the skin’s pH levels.

Make sure you choose a toner that matches your skin type, particularly if you have sensitive skin or are prone to adult acne. Let your skin air-dry and follow up with the next product.

Should I wash my face as soon as I wake up?

Yes, washing your face in the morning after you wake up is an excellent morning routine. It rids your skin of the debris you inevitably pick up while you’re sleeping. Dust, allergens, and skin cells you previously shed can all wind up your face by morning.

Plus, splashing some cold water on your face can give you an extra jolt of alertness. Just make sure you’re not over-washing and stripping your skin with harsh cleansers.

How can I tighten my pores?

When it comes to pores, remember that no one is scrutinizing you as hard as you are scrutinizing yourself in a mirror. Try to relax and accept how your skin naturally looks. Pore size is predetermined by genetics, so there’s no way to truly shrink them.

That said, you can improve its natural look with daily cleansing and gentle exfoliating. These steps clear the pores of any gunk that can stretch them out and make them look overly large. If your skin is particularly clogged, try a face mask made of clay to remove unnecessary facial oils.

And apply a regular coating of facial sunscreen. UV rays break down the skin’s collagen and elasticity, which can make your pores seem bigger. Ensure you’re not just applying sunscreen in the morning, but every few hours throughout the day.

Can I skip moisturizer?

It’s not uncommon for people to think that a serum alone is enough – that they can skip the moisturizer. However, we strongly recommend you do not do this. Moisturizers are an important part of locking in a serum’s hydrating ingredients.

If you don’t moisturize enough, you are:

• More likely to experience acne breakouts. Whether you have dry skin or oily skin, moisturizer can help maintain hydration levels.
• More likely to notice wrinkles. A good moisturizer plumps up the skin and hides developing fine lines.
• More likely to lose skin elasticity. Without the conditioning effect of moisturizer, your collagen and elastin fibers may stiffen and break down.

Is it better to wash your face at night or morning?

It’s best to wash your face twice a day, morning and evening. However, if you must choose between the two, it’s better to wash your face at night. Cleaning your face at night removes everything your skin accumulates during the day.

That said, morning washings are still important. Washing your face after you wake up rids your skin of everything that settles on it when you sleep. Even the best pillows collect dead skin cells, dust, and other debris that can affect your skin’s look.

Can I wash my face three times a day?

Yes, if you want to give your face a simple midday washing, it should be fine. However, avoid over-washing your skin. If you clean your face too often, your skin may produce extra oil to compensate, throwing off its natural balance.

Your Morning Skincare Routine is Important!

The bottom line is if you’re not paying special attention to your morning skincare routine, it’s time to start. Your skin has different needs in the morning versus the night time. So it’s important to vary your routine at different times of the day.

Stock up on all of our product recommendations. And remember that the best skincare routine is one that you follow consistently. If you stick to it, you should see visibly healthier, happier skin in no time.