Your Scrub Is Ruining Everything

There are two types of exfoliators, physical and chemical. Physical exfolation is the clumsy kind of exfoliation. It’s when you use grains, beads and anything rough on your face to slough off dead skin. The trouble is that these little grains aren’t clever at all. They scratch off dead cells, but they don’t know to stop there – off comes the healthy skin too.

In terms of oil production, nobody leaves a winner. They strip oily skin so thoroughly that it goes a bit bonkers, churning out even more oil to fix the scrub’s mess. On dry skin, the oil that’s been taken can’t be replaced, so you’re left with a big puff pastry head.

If you’ve got acne, physical exofliants can make it worse. They spread bacteria, can open blemishes and slow down healing by forever creating fresh scratches.

The fix? Ditch the face scrubs and go for a chemical exfoliant.

Your Oil Cleanser Is Ruining Stuff Too

I love oil cleansers, but not as the last step. An oil is brilliant for washing away makeup. They feel lovely, and you don’t have to fuss over your face too much before every trace of mascara has been melted away. But that’s it. They’re a pre-cleanse step, not something that will remove the day’s grime and oil from your pores. That goes for most of them – even the ones that brands cheekily try to say are ‘purifying’ or whatever else. After you’ve taken your makeup off with an oil, you need to follow with an actual cleanser.

If you move straight on to serum, you might as well be pouring it down the skin. Firstly, skin that’s not properly clean won’t absorb the benefits from anything you pat over dirt. Secondly, oil is a brilliant barrier. As well as dirt blocking your serum or moisturiser, residual oil will form an impenetrable wall.

The fix? Take off your makeup, then cleanse your skin.

Your Heavy Layers Are Ruining Everything Else

Remember that awful oil barrier from the last paragraph? IT’S BACK.

If you layer your skin care, you’ve got to make sure to do it in the right order. Some ingredients can’t soak through others. That means your zillion quid moisturiser might just sit atop your serum. Your skin will never see a cent’s worth of benefit because your heavy-based serum is blocking your lightweight moisturiser.

A lot of the time, it is as simple as the packaging says. In some cases, and if you mix and match between brands, it’s not that easy.

In a nutshell, stack your skin care from light, water-based products to heavy, oily products. Oil is the barrier here, so you’ve got to put the rest of your skin care onto your skin, underneath its wall.

I can’t say it much better than graph on how to layer skin care, because graphs are great and Kat, the graph-making gal, is a legit scientist.

The fix? Use what you like, just be mindful of how it mixes with the rest of your skin care.