Male Skin Care Routine HELP

At your age, the most important things are: cleansing, gentle exfoliation, moisturising and protecting. You want to try avoiding products that strip your face of oils. I'll mention the steps and some examples.

1) Cleansing

Get yourself 2 cleansers. One that's moisturising and gentle for daily use in the mornings and evenings.

Nivea Daily Essential Facial Wash Gel
Simple Moisturising Facial Wash

I also reccomend having at least one "strong" cleanser with antibacterial ingredients just in case you have an acne flare up. Anything with tea tree is good.

The Body Shop Tea Tree Facial Wash
Cosrx Low pH Good Morning Gel Cleanser (this one's really good, but not easy to get)

2) Gentle exfoliation

Basically, exfoliate about once every 2-3 days if your skin can handle it. But you want to use gentle exfoliant scrubs instead of something like the St Ives Apricot Scrub (basically like rubbing rocks on your face); I personally use acids and chemical exfoliants to exfoliate, but this is suppossed to be a basic routine.

Clean and Clear Exfoliating Daily Wash (still wouldn't use every day)
Nivea Daily Essentials Scrub

3) Moisturising

If you don't moisturise, you will age a lot faster, your skin will get all dry and sore (thus looking gross), your oiliness could worsen and your acne could worsen as damaged dry skin is quite prone to infections.

Some "light-weight gel like moistursers for the summer or day time use":
Nautrogena Hydro Boost Water Gel/Gel Cream (both are good, the water gel is more lightweight and suited for very oily people).

Some "Night creams":

Neutrogena Anti-Wrinkle Night Moisturiser
Pure Organica Retinol Moisturising Cream

At night is where you need to optimise certain ingredients, to achieve certain benefits. At your age, I would reccommend using something like the cream above which contains Retinol. Retinol is a form of Vitamin A which helps repair skin damage, help fade acne marks and basically prevents wrinkles.

4) Protection

Wearing SPF is the most important thing you can do for your skin. The sun plays a huge factor on skin aeging and darkening acne marks, that you simply can't miss out on this important step.

A problem many people have is finding an SPF cream that isn't any of the following: greasy, drying, comodogenic (acne causing) etc.

I have oily but dehydrated skin, so I really like:

Neutrogena Hydro Boost City Shield - SPF 25 (contains hyaluronic acid so it's very hydrating, even in the winter. Doesn't break me out either, very soft an easy to apply).

If you don't wear sun protection, then definitely don't exfoliate or use any ative ingredients (e.g. retinol). When you exfoliate, "fresh new" skin cells are brought towards your skin's surface, which are more vulnerable to sun damage; thus don't even bother having a skin routine if you don't wear sun protection.




So that's a rather basic skin routine, but it implements things like retinol and sun protection as you want to avoid looking like a 60 year old divorced chronic smoker at your age.

I'm a male, but as I had acne I take my skincare rather seriously, and thus my own routine is a bit more confusing and extensive than the one I've mentioned here. But never let anyone tell you that taking care of your face isn't manly or something. Just imagine when your 50; how will you look in comparision to all your friends who already looked like prunes when they were 30?

Feel free to ask any questions

Thank you so much, couldn't have asked for a more helpful reply.

I asked my mum about all this **** and she got these 2 for someone for christmas and said i can have them (it's a toner and cleanser)

https://bnl.clarins.com/on/demandware.static/-/Sites-clarins-master-products/default/dw690806c7/original/80038167_original_original_1.jpg

Don't know if they're any good?

so do i use the facial wash (cleanser) wash it off, then put the night moisturiser on a night? then in the morning cleanse again then put the day moisturser on? (do i put the SPF cream you listed + the daily moisturser on together, if so which first?)

Those would be good products, especially since the toner contains no alcohol (which is terrible for your skin). And the cleanser isn't the type to strip your skin of oils.

So what you do in the morning is:

1) Use cleanser and wash it off (lukewarm water, don't buy into the whole "use scolding water to open your pores" nonsense - all it will do is damage your skin barrier function (thus leading to severely dehydrated skin).
2) Pat dry face, or pat gently with a towel (which must only be used for this function, and it needs to be replaced often).
3) Apply toner with hands or cotton pad.
4) Apply gel/lightweight moisturiser. This is optional. You should do this step if you feel that the SPF moisturiser isn't hydrating or moisturising enough for you. However, it's always handy having a lightweight moisturiser around for nighttime use during the summer.
5) Apply the SPF moistursier, ideally at least 30 minutes before you leave the house. This has to be the last thing you apply to your face as after you apply it, it sort of blocks other products from being absorbed onto your face.

In the evening:
1) Use the cleanser, dry face here if not exfoliating.
2) About once every 3 days if your skin isn't sensitive, use the exfoliating scrub. Be gentle, and focus more on oiler areas such as the nose and forehead. Wash off with cool water and pat dry.
3) Use toner.
4) Apply (retinol) night cream. Retinol can be very irritating at first. So when you start using it, I'd reccommend you exfoliate in the mornings instead of the evenings just so your skin is less sensitive. If even doesn't solve the issue of sensitive skin, don't use your exfoliating or retinol product on the same day (this is really unlikely unless you have very sensitive skin though).


Some other general tips:

1) You can cleanse and exfoliate in the shower if you wish to. But regardless, whenever you get out of the shower, rinse your face in cool water, pat dry, and follow on with your toner and moisturiser. Letting your face stay dry after a shower is really not good.

2) If you ever buy loads of new products and have no idea in what order to put them on your face, the following prinicipal tends to work for most products:

Watery products > ________________________________________________________________________________ > Viscous products


So basically, you apply in order of how watery a product is.
That's why for example, you apply your toner (very watery) before your creams. The exceptions being SPF, which always must go last - and facial oils which are to be applied before moisturisers.

3) If you have super dehydrated skin, maybe get a facial oil? They work in 2 main ways.

a) This goes for all of them, water and oil don't mix right? So when (AT NIGHT) you apply a facial oil (before your cream), it helps prevent water evaporating from your skin overnight - which causes dehydration, wrinkles and all the bad stuff. I would reccomend using an oil if you believe your skin barrier function is damaged, or you're just dehyrdrated.

The Youtubers Liah Yoo and Gothamista have made some helpful guides on facial oils if you want to look into that.

b) A lot of them have a similar molecular structure to your own skin's sebum e.g (jojoba oil). So your can basically become tricked into producing less sebum (which clogs pores and causes acne), and you can instead reap the benefits of a facial oil (e.g. antioxidant or anti-inflammatory effects).

Of course, you can ask me any other questions you may have.

So out of your original post I'm going to buy the following products (I'm going to get the cleanser + exfoliator in Boots), are they the right ones? Is that everything I will need?

https://gyazo.com/0a89a40581f2e12c787b045c6406e918

Since you're a guy too do you ever find your face to be shiny or look weird when you're out day-to-day? Or does it just look normal?

Thanks btw

Yeah so if you get the Clarins Cleanser and Toner that your mum told you about, one of the exfoliaters, the SPF moisturiser and the night cream (may not be in boots, but just get anything that says anti-aging night cream tbh, and you can check the men's and women's section for the thing that sounds best - skincare isn't really gender specific tbh) - then you should have the bare minumum of what I think you should need. If you can't find anything, don't be embarassed to ask a member of staff or something; explain to them your skin type and what you're looking for in a product.

And tbh, I do believe that my face does look a bit shiny - mainly my nose. I presume it's something to do with the light reflective properties of the SPF. However, it doesn't look like I'm wearing any makeup/glitter/concelaer/whatevertfgirlswear. All I'd say is that your skin gets used to it over time, and even if I look a tiny bit shiny, I remind myself that I'm protected from skin cancer and premature ageing.

EDIT: But also keep in mind that I'm an 18 year old with oily skin so my experience may be different to yours.

Possibly get some blotting paper if the shininess is really bad.

From my experience, "weaker" SPF's are less likely to make you shiny. So if the Neutrogena SPF25 one I mentioned makes you look shiny, maybe try something with a lower SPF?

However, for special occassions or when you're having a photo taken, don't wear an SPF. For example, if you're going out and expecting flash photography, avoid the SPF; it f*cks up the photo and just reflects the flash and makes you look blurry (can't describe it - just don't try it). Try and keep in mind when these occassions will be happenning so you can refrain from exfoliating or retinol for a few days prior to this.

Even if it would work, I don't want to delve into the realm of makeup by getting into using powders and stuff on my face, for myself that's just too far.

Yeah that's the only thing I was worried about but I'd definitely rather keep good skin than be bothered about looking a bit shiny. I've ordered most of the products you said, the night cream I got the retinol one from amazon, I should use that every night, right? Sounds stupid but even now in the winter do I still need to wear SPF?

I'll let you know when all the products come and my first time using them see how I feel. I will remember that because I go out a lot on a weekend nights out so I won't put any SPF on then, do i still wear moisturiser?

Hi I've never had a skin routine before, just always washed my face with soap twice a day. I'm 25 now though so want to start looking after my skin and make sure it stays looking young/fresh, as a lot of my friends are starting to crack and look ugly in the face due to wrinkles/horrible skin. I want to prevent looking like that.

I was on Isotretinoin/Accutane before due to bad acne and since my skin is quite dry.

What products should I buy and in what order/when should I use them?