The Best Skincare Routine For Your Thirties
Prep. Correct. Prevent.
You know you’re getting older when you care more about skincare than high heels.
Let’s face it, by the time we are in our thirties, we are already looking at correction of skin concerns that were cause by the damage from our teens and twenties. Moms out there, take note: Make your kids and teens use sunscreen daily. They will thank you later! Also, if you don’t want to read all the details, scroll to the bottom for our recommendations for the best skincare products for anti-aging.
You’ve heard us talk about the fact that over 80% of age-related changes are caused by sun damage. This doesn’t stop just because you are using anti-aging products. In fact, the most important skincare product you can invest in is sunscreen, but that’s boring, right? So what exactly is the best skincare routine for people in their thirties?
We like to think of skincare as having three categories, getting the skin ready, correction, and prevention.
In order to get the skin ready for our correction and prevention products, we do three things: cleanse, exfoliate, and tone. A gentle cleanser like ZO Skin Health’s Gentle Cleanser or Exfoliating Cleanser is a popular choice for most of our patients. Gentle Cleanser is a foaming option that leaves the skin feeling sqeaky clean and free of makeup and debris. Exfoliating Cleanser is a thicker cleanser with sperical vitamin E beads, great for oily or acne-prone patients. However, there are some patients that have such a compromised skin barrier due to environmental exposure and dehydration that they require a more hydrating cleanser like ZO Skin Health’s Hydrating Cleanser. This cleanser is usually only ised for a short time or in patients with conditions like exzema or psoriasis.
The next step in getting skin ready is exfoliation.
Get rid of that St. Ive’s Apricot Scrub that all of us 90’s and Y2K babies used! That will do nothing but destroy your skin barrier and actively damage delicate skin cells. We recommend a mechanical exfoliant like Exfoliating Polish by ZO Skin Health. Exfoliating Polish is different than other exfoliants in that its particles are spherical and not shard-like. They are magnesium crystals that warm as you exfoliate, invigorating the skin and remove dead cells to reveal smoother and more radiant skin. Two to three uses per week is more than enough for most patients.
The final step in getting the skin ready for correction is toner. This is not your Clean & Clear astringent from high school.
For oily, acne prone patients, we recommend Oil Control Pads by ZO Skin Health. These have a 2% salicylic acid solution saturated on a textured, round pad. For the rest of our patients, Complexion Renewal Pads will do the trick! Providing an additional layer of exfoliation, these pads help to normalize the pH of the skin, allowing products to penetrate and do their job even better.
Now it’s time to talk about anti-aging and correction of age related concerns like fine lines, sun spots, wrinkles, enlarged pores, texture and more. In our thirties, one or two products in the morning and evening should be enough to reverse the damage. We typically recommend an antioxidant and skin barrier repair product like Daily Power Defense by ZO Skin Health. This product contains a whisper of retinol (not enough to make you peel, flake, or feel irritated) and a small amount of vitamin C, a powerful antioxidant and protectant against sun damage. It also contains other barrier and DNA repair agents to reverse the effects of free radicals and lock in your body’s natural moisture. This product is used once daily in the morning after cleansing, exfoliating and toning the skin.
Check out our blog on Why you will never need a moisturizer again.
Before we talk about prevention and our final product for morning use, we need to talk about the most important product in the entire routine for people in their thirties: AlphaRet Overnight SkinBetter Science.
This is the newest addition to our skincare arsenal and we’re seriously impressed. This patented product gives you all the benefits of a retinol or tretinoin without the unwanted side effects like redness, dryness, peeling and skin irritation. AlphaRet Overnight is applied nightly after toning the skin. Itslacric acid bonds and emollients allows for a slow release of the ethyl lactyl retinoate and avoidance of unwanted side effects.
Retinoids have received a bad repuatation from numerous sources. They DO NOT thin the skin nor do they dry it out. In fact, clinical studies have proven that they actually thicken the skin in a positive way by stimulating collagen production and actually support hydration. Not only do they hydrate an plump, but they increase akin cell turnover resulting in clearance of hyperpigmentation, improvement of fine lines and wrinkles, smoothing of textural abnormalities and reduction of the appearance of enlarged pores. They are also a gold-standard product for fighting acne!
This product is probably the single most effective anti-agin product that a patient could purchase apart from sunscreen. The 30 mL size that we carry in office and online lasts 5 months making it super affordable as well.
Now we transition to the final category of skincare, prevention.
Prevention comes from using a broad spectrum UVA/UVB sunscreen that is SpF 30 or higher. We now have a sunscreen bar at McKinzie Aesthetics Center so that you can try all the sunscreens that we carry and find your perfect fit. We have sunscreen sticks, compacts, SPF with primer, sunscreens with smart toning technology to match various skin tones and more basic sheer options.
The best skincare routine for patients in their thirties:
MORNING (AM)
Gentle Cleanser (Exfoliating Cleanser for oily/acne-prone skin)
Exfoliating Polish (Use 2-3 times/week)
Complexion Renewals Pads (Oil Control Pads for acne prome patients)
Don’t forget an eye cream like Eye Brightening Creme by ZO Skin Health or Alastin Restorative Eye Cream