My top 5 skincare tips for happy, healthy, beautiful skin

Friends know me as a makeup person, and I totally am (I’m constantly playing with the idea of being a makeup artist instead) but I’m equally passionate about skincare. At the end of the day, all the makeup in the world can only do so much. You need a good canvas for your makeup to look good, and for that you need a good skincare regime.

Also, for me at least, there’s nothing more liberating that being happy with the way my skin looks with no makeup. I’ve noticed I’m able to play around more with coverage and colours as well, now that I’m not spending as much time trying to cover up skin imperfections.

If you’ve ever talked to me about skincare, I’ll likely have said at some point that skincare has to be individually tailored, and that it’s really about trial and error. So, while there is no one-size-fits-all, and please keep in mind I’m no professional, here are my best skincare tips.

Hydration station
This is just through my personal experience and my recommendations for friends, (having said that, I’ve yet to have this piece of advice backfire on me) but whatever your skin type is, it needs hydration. The question is: how much?

If after you wash your face with a cleanser your skin starts to feel tight after about a minute, chances are it doesn’t hydrate itself enough. If that’s the case, I can’t recommend a serum enough. Nothing fancy, the Hyaluronic Acid 2% + B5 from The Ordinary is a really good choice. And then follow up with a good, simple moisturiser right after. I like the First Aid Beauty Ultra Repair Cream – the oatmeal is super soothing – and the CeraVe Daily Moisturiser. Both these products include ceramides, which help to build up your skin’s natural barrier, and that’s what your skin needs to retain hydration.

If your skin is able to feel comfortable after cleansing, this doesn’t mean you can leave it at that. All it means is that it’s likely sufficiently hydrated without an additional hydrator, but you still need a moisturiser to lock that hydration in. So skip the serum, but do pack on a moisturiser.

Don’t dry out
I cannot stress this enough: hydrate and moisturise as soon as possible after you cleanse. If you wait until you think, “oh, it feels a little dry, I need to moisturise”, it’s already too late. Your skin had already lost some of its natural hydration.

Don’t forget when you cleanse, you’re inevitably taking away some of your skin’s hydration, so you need to replenish it ASAP. But to put that hydration back and then lock it in, you really don’t want to wait too long before you apply your skincare products.

So, cleanse, gently pat dry, and go right into your serum and moisturiser. When your skin is damp, it absorbs better, so you’re really getting the best bang for your buck when you apply you skincare while your skin is in the best state to take it in. This goes for your body hydration, too. It’s why my body moisturiser in in the shower and I apply it while my skin is still damp.

I like to wash the body moisturiser off my hands before applying my face skincare products because my body product is thicker and I don’t really want it on my more delicate facial skin. My body moisturiser is often fragranced as well, and I also don’t want that on my face. But if you’re only using a moisturiser or a serum and moisturiser on your face you can probably apply that in the shower after patting dry, too, before moisturising your body. I’m just extra and tend to have a lot of steps for my face.

Neck it
Don’t forget to bring your products down to your neck, which is delicate and needs hydration, too. Also, your neck is one of the areas on your body that shows your age the soonest, so you want to take care of it.

It’s easy, after you’re applied skincare to your face, use whatever’s left on your hands and sweep it upwards along your neck to your jawline. Still have some left over? Apply it to the back of your hands.

Be gentle
Sometimes I’ll see people aggressively rub moisturiser onto their face and it kills me. I’m glad you’re wearing moisturiser, but the skin on your face is delicate, and you really don’t want to rub and drag it so much. That’s how you get wrinkles.

Use the same pressure on your face as you would on a baby animal’s head: soft, tender, and thoughtful.

Furthermore, there’s no need to keep “rubbing it in”. Make sure your products cover your entire face and neck (some might even bring it all the way down to their nipples, I personally don’t bother, I already have body moisturiser from my collarbone down) but once all areas are covered, hands off! If you keep rubbing it in, your fingers will start to absorb the products instead. Just let your face do its thing and absorb the products. Go meditate…or have a cookie.

Bonus Heidi hack: Whatever I’m smoothing onto my face, I also always use it over my lips. Your lips have skin, too, and they also need hydration. So whether it’s my serum or moisturiser, I always consider my lips just another part of my face and apply my skincare there, and I always apply a lip balm at the end to seal it all in. Not to brag, but I’m about to be 34 and my full lips are still my favourite feature. *mwah!*

Know thyself
This is the trickiest part, because it really does come down to experience, paying attention to your skin, and learning to read it. It took me years to realise my skin isn’t oily, it’s dehydrated and that’s why it’s oily. (I find most people are the same.) Once I stopped using harsher cleansers and lighter lotions made for oily skin, and switched to milder cleansers and thicker moisturisers to really lock in my serums and natural hydration, my oil production reduced by at least 40%.

The other thing to keep in mind while you learn about your skin is to take recommendations with a grain of salt. Whether that’s from a salesperson or the back of a product, again, there’s no one-size-fits-all and what works for someone else might not work for you. However, this does require trial and error, so just be patient and remember it takes your skin about a fortnight to adjust to a new product. So give it two weeks before declaring a product ineffective on you.

It’s hard to offer ideas and advice on this, so here are just some of the things I’ve learnt about my skin, and maybe reading it will inspire or trigger ideas for you and your skin.

• I can’t use Vitamin C. I know most skincare gurus love this ingredient for its brightening, regenerating and antioxidant properties but my skin is so sensitive when it comes to Vitamin C it reacts with lots of tiny bumps all over that take an age to die down whenever I do use it. Having said that, I believe antioxidants are more effective when eaten and I use retinol for skin regeneration anyways, so I don’t feel like I’m missing much here.
• I love a good chemical peel and I have some great products for this, but I always have to avoid my cheekbones. Whenever I’m using my Sunday Riley Good Genes or The Ordinary Lactic Acid 10% + HA serums, or my Drunk Elephant T.L.C. Sukari Babyfacial mask I always, always put a hydrating serum or mask on my cheekbones instead. Everywhere else on my face loves the AHA/BHA, but my cheekbones will turn red and develop that tight, dry skin that sticks around for days.
• Dairy is not my friend. Sadly, for me, this was not always the case and I grew up on a lot of milk. About four years ago though I made the decision to switch to soy, partly for animal rights reasons, but also because I’d become lactose intolerant. (Which I’ve found is common among Asian people as they age!) Now, whenever I eat or drink anything dairy I’ll quickly feel bloated and acidy, and my skin breaks out. I can’t fully give up cheese, but I eat a lot less now and I drink no milk at all. Which brings me to my next point…
• Your skin evolves! As you get older, what your skin needs and likes will change. I know people who’ve used the same serum for 10+ years, and maybe that works for some, but I would encourage you to try something new if your skin doesn’t feel as good after using something as it once did. The ingredients and intensity of my regime today is nothing like what it was ten years ago, so that’s something to keep in mind.