The Bespoke Skincare Movement: How Creating Your Own Skincare Routine Went Viral

For beauty experts and enthusiasts, personalised skincare is nothing new. Last year, however, “bespoke skincare” officially became a buzzword and it is only going to get more popular in 2018. More women and men took an active role into their beauty routine with the hope of getting some of the benefits of professional treatments at home. Magazines and the internet saw a surge of articles featuring how to make one’s own face mask cocktails or how to add skin boosters to moisturisers. With big companies taking notice of how men and women want products that specifically address their unique needs, it looks like the bespoke skincare movement is here to stay. This movement doesn’t come without warning from skincare experts, however. Although many people are now more knowledgeable about skincare than before, acting as a chemist-cum-dermatologist isn’t the safest route to a bespoke skincare routine. To help you out, here are our recommendations for safe and effective personalised skincare.

A Sure and Safe Way To Start Creating Your Bespoke Skincare Routine

To fully address your skin woes, any treatment you choose must be targeted. This involves truly understanding your skin type and taking time to understand your skin concerns. Once you’ve figured out what your skin type is (e.g. oily, dry, combination, ageing or acne-prone skin), your next step should be to figure out what your primary skin concerns are (for instance wrinkles, pigmentation or rough texture). Another important consideration is things like your age, general well-being and the environment you live in (sunshine, pollution and humidity all impact your skin’s health and appearance). The next step is to start designing your skincare routine. The most important essentials are to cleanse, tone, moisturise and protect the skin. Within each of these steps, you can boost the skin and tackle problems by choosing the correct bioactive skincare products. One key rule should be not to introduce too many active skincare products at the same time as this can cause sensitisation and your skin will feel and look angry for a long time.

Choosing Your Cleanser, Toner & Moisturiser

The best place to start creating your bespoke skincare routine is funnily enough at the beginning. We’re big fans of double cleansing in the evening as a way to get rid of dirt, makeup and pollutants whilst choosing a hydrating cleanser in the mornings. The toner is when you can introduce exfoliating or oil regulating active ingredients such as glycolic acid or salicylic acid. These can help smooth fine lines, unclog pores, even out and brighten skin tone. Finally, the moisturiser can hydrate, nourish and protect your skin. Choosing your perfect moisturiser will depend on understanding your skin type. Look for a formulation that has hyaluronic acid for optimal hydration a well as Vitamin A, Vitamins B and Vitamin C to help smooth and brighten your skin. You can either use sunscreen separately or find a moisturiser with SPF.

Upgrading Your Bespoke Skincare Routine

Once your skin has become comfortable with your new skincare routine, you can start to have a little more fun. Introduce a masking and exfoliating step once a week. this will resurface your skin, target particular problems and nourish it. The choice of chemical or physical exfoliating products will depend on your skin type (only use chemical exfoliants on dry skin). This is also the case with the mask as it will depend on your skin type and problem areas. Other add-ons to your daily skincare routine include facial essence if you have dry skin as well as face serums. The latter allows you to use active ingredients like Retinol and Vitamin C in formulations that are more easily absorbed by the skin and the concentrations can be more easily adjusted.

Once you’ve mastered the basics of a bespoke skincare routine, you can then look to do the same with the eyes. Start by choosing a dedicated eye moisturiser that targets your specific concerns (e.g. dark circles or lines). Next up, try to introduce Retinol serum around the eyes in the evening and Vitamin C during the day and evening. If you don’t want separate products, look for a moisturiser that contains both of these and remember to use sunscreen during the day if your moisturiser does not have it already. After that, try to regularly use an undereye mask to help hydrate and soothe your under eye skin. If after all this you can’t get enough of skincare and want to seriously up your game, have a look at the wonderful world of Korean beauty (or K-beauty for those in the know) to indulge in a multi-step world of bespoke skincare heaven.

Say Goodbye to the Blanket Beauty Approach

Even before it became a trend, we at City Skin Clinic had always promoted “bespoke beauty” including skincare and professional treatments. We do believe that the best way to look after your skin and get serious results is to have an evidence-based and personalised approach to beauty. One important thing to understand about bespoke skincare is that it can seriously boost the appearance of your skin but only if you take a slow and steady approach as well make sure that you stick to your routine. Most skincare treatments will take at least 4 weeks of regular use (sometimes more like 8-12 weeks in the case of Retinol) to see any proper effects. Another thing to bear in mind is that there is always a limit as to what you can do. Exfoliating agents are excellent at resurfacing the skin but if you need quicker and more pronounced results then the only solution is professional ski treatments like advanced clinical facials, chemical peels or microneedling. Fine lines can be reduced using exfoliation and Retinol but for deeper wrinkles then you might want to consider Botox and fillers anti-wrinkle treatments. Also, there is no skincare solution at the moment for replacing volume loss, so problems like under eye hollows, sunken cheeks or face sagging can only be effectively treated with dermal fillers or other professional treatments. With that being said, no one can’t benefit from a bespoke skincare routine and even if you opt for professional aesthetic treatments, the results are always better on those who look after their skin properly.