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Yesterday, while surfing the Facebook forums, I came across a 12-step routine with 4 moisturizing products. The Korean routine has many steps, and indeed, moisturizers are applied sometimes up to 10 layers. European women just copy/paste the routine without even thinking.
Why isn’t this a good idea?
I spent more than a month in South Korea in spring. And other than the deserts, I’ve never experienced such dry weather. My combination skin (shiny on the T-zone) literally turned into crocodile skin within hours. Despite an incredible amount of products, my skin was completely dehydrated, and it took me several days to get back to normal skin.
In South Korea, the air is arid. Hence Korean women are obsessed with hydration because they also have dry skin (that’s why they don’t have enlarged pores). So, of course, in South Korea, it is encouraged to have up to 10 layers of hydration. No problem at all.
But in France, the air is not as dry. We don’t need to have as many moisturizing layers. We don’t have the same routine near the sea as in the desert. As we don’t drink as much water in the desert as near the sea, do we?
How many moisturizing products per routine?
3 maximum.
- A hydrating toner
- A hydrating serum
- A moisturizer
Hyaluronic acid
But beware of hyaluronic acid. Hyaluronic acid is a humectant, so it attracts up to 1000 times its weight in water. But hyaluronic acid has to draw water from somewhere. If all your “hydrating” layers only contain hyaluronic acid, it is counter-intuitive. Because they will draw that water directly from the skin, so the water will be drawn to the outer layers of the skin, while the deeper layers will be dehydrated. This means => your skin ages faster, or your skin compensates with sebum; excess sebum = pimples.
Whereas if the water is drawn from the environment (the air is humid) or other products (thermal water, or moisturizer, not containing hyaluronic acid), the hyaluronic acid will seek this external source of water instead of drawing from the skin itself.
Recommended routine
In my routines, I often recommend a treatment serum, so here is the order and routine that I recommend:
- cleanser
- thermal water to remove the residue of tap water
- thermal water to pat on the skin
- hydrating serum (with or without hyaluronic acid)
- treatment serum
- moisturizer without hyaluronic acid
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