The Grooming Manual
Advanced Men's Skin Care Routine
Are you the type of guy who likes to go all out when you do something? If so, this advanced men's skin care routine is for you. We've expanded upon our basic men's skin care routine to lay out the foundation for the absolute best routine you could have for your face.
Step 1: Cleanse:
The foundation of great skin and a bright complexion is clean skin. Generally, a best practice is to wash your face upon waking up, and after any major activity where you sweat, or right before you go to bed. You never want to end your day with oil and sweat sitting in your pores. Ideally, you'd wash your face twice a day.
Before washing your face, open the pores by warming up your face with warm water. A warm face causes the pores to expand, helping to make sure the face wash gets inside and cleans up any oil or build up. Lather up your face for 30 seconds with a men's face wash by lightly rubbing in a circular motion. Try not to pull down on the skin as you don't want to help gravity and expedite the natural occurrence of loose skin.
Rinse with cool water as this will shrink your pores, preventing new dirt and oil from entering. Pat your face dry since rubbing your face encourages premature wrinkling from stretching the skin. Your face should feel clean, but not "too clean". People have been programmed by cheap drugstore brands to think your face should feel tight after its washed. This is actually bad for your skin as it can increase oil production, create breakouts, and excessively drying out your skin accelerates aging.
Step 2: Scrub:
We recommend using a men's face scrub (exfoliating) 3 -4x a week, depending on your skin type. Exfoliation will help remove dead skin cells and any deep down impurities within the pores. Ideally, scrub before you shave to help loosen up whiskers and elevate them further above the skin, allowing for a closer shave.
Only scrub your face after washing it. Apply a dime sized amount of scrub to your face and gently rub the scrub over your skin. Focus on areas where dead skin is more likely to build up, usually the nose, forehead and neck. Be careful of scrubbing too harshly around the eye, where skin is most delicate, you don't want to encourage wrinkles. If using scrub before a shave, make sure to concentrate on the areas of your face you plan on shaving.
After scrubbing your face, rinse with cool water to close your pores, preventing new impurities and oil from entering. Pat your face dry as rubbing your face encourages premature wrinkling from stretching the skin.
Step 3: Balance:
(If you have dry or sensitive skin, you can skip ahead to Step 4. But for guys with oily or acne prone skin, Step 3 is a must. Men with normal skin should also try it out - the results may surprise you.)
Next, balance your skin's pH and oil levels with skin toner for men. It's designed to remove facial impurities, restore the skin's pH balance, and reduce oil production. Use it after washing and exfoliating. Make sure to avoid any toner that contains alcohol, menthol, or other harsh ingredients. Instead, choose a natural skin toner for men with witch hazel.
Using skin toner will also prepare your skin for the next two steps...
Step 4: Hydrate:
After cleansing and exfoliating, you'll need to moisturize your skin with a face moisturizer. The best face moisturizers for men will help keep skin cells hydrated (meaning your face will look firm and energized), protect the face from impurities entering into your pores, and also provide anti aging benefits.
After cleansing and/or scrubbing, pat your face dry then apply the men's face moisturizer. Apply the moisturizer all over your face, taking special care of the areas on your face that get dry most often.
Depending on your skin type, someone generally only needs a little bit of face moisturizer. The best men's face moisturizers will quickly absorb into the skin. If you have dry skin, you may need to reapply a few times a day. If you have oily skin, you still need to moisturize, just not as often. Remember, drying out your skin actually creates excess oil production, so keep it hydrated.
Step 5: Prevention:
The final step of our advanced skin care routine is to prevent aging.
Men's Face Serum: The first step in an effective anti-aging routine is face serum for men. This powerful product absorbs quickly, penetrating your skin's deep tissue to stimulate collagen production. Instead of protecting the outer skin, the best men's face serum revives and repairs the tissue beneath where the aging process begins.
Men's Anti Aging Cream: At night, before you go to bed, instead of applying a face moisturizer, apply an anti-aging cream for men in the same manner. Using an anti-aging cream nightly will allow the cream to work with your body's natural nightly restoring process to help slow down aging and plump up skin cells. You'll be able to wake up looking better than you did before you went to sleep.
Men's Eye Cream: Since the area around the eyes is the first part of the skin to age, you'll want to use a men's eye cream in the morning and at night.
Apply a thin layer of eye cream for men after the face moisturizer in the morning. Take special care to make sure it absorbs under the eye and around the eye socket. In the morning, this will help reduce puffiness and dark circles.
At night, apply the eye cream after the anti-aging cream. It will help firm the skin around the eyes and hydrate the skin cells, allowing you to wake up looking refreshed.
SPF: The final step of prevention is to reduce your exposure to the sun. We generally recommend guys stay out of the sun as much as possible since it doesn't matter how much SPF you put on, the sun will find you and harm your skin. If avoiding the sun is unrealistic, use a natural sunscreen for men with zinc based SPF. If you start to burn, it's already too late, your skin has already been permanently damaged. A final note: If you're one of those guys who thinks "I don't need sunscreen", just remember, skin cancer is very real.
