With all the skincare products out there, even a simple skincare routine can seem mystifying. Do you really need toner? At what point in your routine should your serum come in — and, also, what’s a serum? But it doesn’t have to be so confusing. From understanding the right skincare routine order to knowing what, exactly, those skincare steps should be, our guide will walk you through what you need to know.
Your Daytime Skincare Routine
The purpose of a good skincare routine in the morning is twofold: to refresh your skin after waking, and to prepare your skin to handle whatever the day may bring, be it pollution or UV rays. Here, we provide an overview of simple daytime skincare routine steps for morning, including the ideal skincare routine order to use your products:
• Paso 1: Cleanse skin
• Paso 2: Tone skin
• Paso 3: Apply a serum
• Paso 4: Dab on eye cream
• Paso 5: Moisturize with a day cream
• Paso 6: Apply sunscreen
Morning Cleanser
Even if you properly cleansed your skin the night before, cleansing again in the morning is a good idea. Sweat and oil production doesn’t stop with the clock, so doing a repeat helps you start with a clean slate. You can choose a formula according to your skin type: If your skin tends to be dry, reach for a nourishing formula like Absolue Nurturing and Brightening Oil-In-Gel Cleanser a hydrating facial cleanser with a blend of cleansing oils. It moisturizes skin as it gently removes impurities, sweat and excess sebum and leaves skin looking more even with visibly tighter pores and a brighter skin complexion.
If you’re on the oily side, however, consider washing with a purifying cleanser like Crème Radiance Cream-to-Foam Cleanser meant for normal to combination skin before moving onto the rest of your routine. If you have a dry skin type you may like to use Crème Mousse Confort a creamy foaming cleanser with a comforting formula.
Morning Toner
Next, prep your skin for the rest of your skincare routine with a moisturizing toner. Unlike the harsh toners of years past, there is a new generation of toners formulated to help hydrate skin while toning. And that’s important, because toners are designed to prime skin to prepare it for the rest of your skincare products in your routine. (Think of skin as a sponge; for it to work best, you need to moisten it first.)
Our favorite Tonique Confort with Acacia Honey leaves skin feeling clean and re-hydrated whilst our Absolue Rose 80 Toner helps to brighten and revitalize skin.
Morning Serum
Now that your skin is both clean and prepped, it’s time to use a serum as the next step in your skincare routine. Serums often contain specific ingredients in your face serums, which are targeted treatments that help to address the appearance of fine lines, wrinkles, and dark spots; serums are a good way to incorporate active ingredients into your skincare routine... Advanced Génifique Face Serum is formulated with Bifidus Prebiotic, Vitamin Cg and Hyaluronic Acid. The formula targets the key signs of youthful skin — in just seven days skin looks younger and youthfully radiant - after only 1 bottle skin appears smooth, firm, and fine lines and wrinkles are visibly reduced. Still curious about serums? Learn everything you need to know about face serums here.
Morning Eye Cream
The skin around the eyes is notoriously thin and delicate, which is why it’s one of the first areas to show signs of aging. (Case in point: crows feet.) Therefore, a dedicated eye cream is important, especially if you’ve noticed dark circles and puffiness on a regular basis. Use your ring finger to pat the eye cream gently around your eye area. Our hydrating eye cream Advanced Génifique Eye Cream provides the under-eye area with all-day under eye hydration. It also instantly smooths fine lines and targets eye wrinkles and dark circles over time for visibly brighter under eyes.
For an eye serum in your skincare routine our Brightening Eye Serum Advanced Génifique Eye Light Pearl helps to improve the look of dark circles, visibly reduce eye bags and visibly fortify eyelashes and is a great pairing with Advanced Génifique Eye Cream.
Crema para el día
It’s time for one of the key steps in your routine, since hydration is important to achieve healthy looking skin. Our wide range of day creams target many different skincare concerns. For a luxurious day cream experience with improved firmness, radiance and 24-hour hydration our Absolue Soft Cream is a treat. The indulgent cream visibly revitalizes skin with moisture, firmness and plumpness.
For a daily anti-aging effect try our Rénergie Lift Multi-Action Day Cream with SPF 15 — a multi-tasking face moisturizer which helps to visibly firm skin and provide all-day moisture and hydration combined with sun protection.
For oily skin try our Hydra Zen Gel Cream which contains Hyaluronic Acid and Salicylic Acid. The formula provides up to 24 hours of hydration it’s one of our recommendations as Lancôme’s best moisturizers for oily skin.
Rain? Shine? Doesn’t matter — sunscreen still needs to be a part of a good skincare routine, as research shows that sun exposure is responsible for 80% of signs of aging, including wrinkles, sagging, and dark spots.1 The same goes if you’re indoors, since windows typically don’t offer sufficient protection against the sun’s harmful UV rays. If your day cream doesn’t contain SPF, follow up with a facial sunscreen. Our. UV Expert Defense SPF 50+ Primer and Moisturizer offers sun protection coverage with an aquagel technology that is oil free + cooling + invisible.
Your Nighttime Skincare Routine
A good nighttime skincare routine is beneficial for maintaining healthy looking skin — for a few reasons. First, nighttime is when skin’s moisture barrier is more permeable2 , meaning that formulas can get to work on the skin’s surface! For your night skincare routine steps:
• Paso 1: Use a makeup remover
• Paso 2: Cleanse skin
• Paso 3: Exfoliate & Mask
• Paso 4: Tone skin
• Paso 5: Apply serum
• Paso 6: Dab on eye cream
• Paso 6: Apply night cream
Removedor de maquillaje
Unless you want to wake up with raccoon eyes, first remove any stubborn eye makeup with Bi-Facil Eye Makeup Remover as the first step in your cleansing routine. Not only do makeup removers like this effectively remove even waterproof formulas, but they also do so gently enough that they’re safe for those who have sensitive eyes or wear contact lenses. And that’s important, as continued tugging and rubbing the eye area to cleanse it can result in damage to the delicate skin there over time.
desmaquillante facial
As you’ve heard time and time again, it’s of utmost importance to cleanse your skin before bed. De lo contrario, la combinación de maquillaje, grasitud y suciedad acumulada durante el día podría obstruir los poros, lo que a su vez puede provocar erupciones. For your evening cleansing routine use a gentle cleanser like Crème Mousse Confort that leaves skin soft and soothed as it cleanses.
Exfoliante
After cleansing, exfoliate your skin. Exfoliation is the process of removing dead skin cells from the surface of skin to reveal new, healthy skin. One common method is with a scrub, which uses mechanical exfoliation. Our Exfoliating Rose Sugar Scrub gently sloughs away dead skin cells and impurities with real sugar grains. Other methods of exfoliation include the use of a product with Alpha Hydroxy Acids or Beta Hydroxy Acids like our Clarifique Face Essence an exfoliating & hydrating treatment with Glycolic Acid and Salicylic Acid. An exfoliating essence simply dispense three drops and gently press over the skin for exfoliating action. (Depending on what method of exfoliation you use, certain common exfoliation ingredients, such as glycolic acid, cause sensitivity to sunlight — which is why we recommend saving this step for nighttime only.)3 The best frequency depends on your skin type — dry or sensitive skin types should exfoliate once or twice a week, while those with oily skin may want to exfoliate every night.4
Skincare Mask
One to two times a week, target your skincare concerns with a face mask. Our sheet masks are one of the quickest and easiest ways to instantly improve the look of skin plumpness, glow, and smoothness (so they’re especially great to use before a big event). Try our Advanced Génifique Hydrogel Melting Sheet Mask and follow it with the rest of your nighttime skincare routine, including toner.
Tonificador
Just as you do in the morning, apply a toner like Tonique Confort or Absolue Rose 80 Toner again after your cleansing routine to rehydrate dry and uncomfortable skin — round two.
Nighttime Serum
Serum gets the spotlight again, since serums are designed to deliver efficacious formulas to the skin’s surface. For that reason, it should be a mainstay in your nighttime skincare routine. The evening is the perfect time to apply powerhouse serums and serums with must-have ingredients.
For an anti-aging effect try our Rénergie Triple Serum – Anti-Aging Serum with Hyaluronic Acid, Vitamin C + Niacinamide, & Ferulic Acid. This triple-dose serum helps improve volume loss, visibly reduce wrinkles & brighten dark spot appearance. Learn how to use it in your routine for the best results. For renewed and glowing skin try our luxurious facial serum Absolue The Serum. Absolue The Serum is a concentrated formula that helps accelerate epidermal cell renewal to ultimately achieve glowing and younger-looking skin as it helps target uneven skin texture, uneven skin tone, dullness.
Evening Eye Cream
Eye cream is a great product to incorporate in your morning routine but it’s also an important part of your nighttime skincare routine. Treat your eyes while you snooze and experience the benefits of an eye cream overnight (or you may also like to use an eye serum, or both an eye serum and eye cream) Gently dab on product to help refresh and brighten the look of the eye area come morning. Advanced Génifique Eye Cream is a great option for overnight eye care and is formulated with top ingredients including Hyaluronic Acid, Vitamin Cg, and Bifidus Prebiotic. For a luxe experience try our Absolue Eye Cream.
Crema para la noche
A night cream is your final skincare routine step. These tend to be even richer than your day cream, and they’re great for keeping skin well-moisturized overnight. And that’s essential, seeing as research5 shows that the skin barrier is more permeable overnight. That means that its more absorptive — which is a good thing — but also that it’s prone to moisture loss. Our night creams tend to be formulated with emollients, such as shea butter; emollients help to seal moisture on skin’s surface and help fortify the barrier.
For a night skincare routine and moisturizer try our Génifique Advanced Night Cream which improves skin’s moisture barrier overnight and instantly locks in hydration lasting for 72 hours**. The transforming texture softens and melts into the skin as you apply it and delivers rich moisture while melting on the skin to absorb without an oily or greasy feel. It’s also formulated with 10% Bifidus Prebiotic, Hyaluronic Acid and Triple Ceramide Complex and the formula works to restore hydration and plumpness while you sleep to wake up with skin looking radiant and well-rested.
For visibly smoother and replenished skin from the moment you wake up our Rénergie Lift Multi-Action Night Cream is our comforting night cream with lifting, firming, and anti-wrinkle benefits to replenish skin overnight. The rich anti-aging night cream is enriched with Linseed extract containing peptides, the skin. With a silky powerful formula and helps to tighten skin overnight and reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles over time.
Wanting to learn more about your skincare routine?
Discover a skincare routine for oily skin.
Dive into how a face serum benefits skin.
Learn why moisturizer is important at night.
Discover our moisturizers for dry skin.
Learn how to create a skincare routine for winter.
Read how to treat yourself to a spa-like skincare routine.
1 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3790843/ 2 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9424081 3 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2791365/ 4 https://www.aad.org/public/everyday-care/skin-care-secrets/routine/safely-exfoliate-at-home 5 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022202X15373590 ** In a clinical study on 24 women, after 72 hours