The Gee Edit Blog
Skin Week
As your Gee tried-and-trusted beauty experts, we're bringing you our beauty knowledge and breaking down your optimal skincare regimen by product type, order sequence, ingredient highlights and how to achieve your best skin. Keep reading to learn more.
Cleanser
Quite possibly the most underrated-yet-highly-important part in an effective skincare regimen, the cleanse sets the tone for maximum penetration and absorption of the rest of your regimen's ingredients.
It's all about choosing the right cleanser. If your skin is dry, sensitive or is in a reactive phase due to travel, hormones or pollution, aim to use a cream-based, gentle cleanser with calming properties like oatmeal, aloe or pumpkin seed extract. If you have large pores, an oily skin-type or are breaking out, choose a gel-based cleanser to pull out impurities from the skin, with ingredients like clay or salicylic acid. For combination skin, a light gel or foam cleanser produces the best cleansing benefits without stripping the skin.
Shop based on skin-type here.
Gee Beauty Tip
Remember - if you wear makeup, removing your makeup properly is the first step, as a pre-cleanse before your cleanser. Your cleanser can't remove all your makeup properly AND cleanse the skin all in one step. Choose either a Gee Beauty Clean Sweep makeup wipe or the Gee Beauty Oil Cleanser.
Exfoliation
Along with cleanser, proper exfoliation sets the tone for maximum penetration and absorption of your serum ingredients by gently buffing and eliminating the dead skin. A good exfoliation will instantly show off a glow to the complexion and bring vitality to the skin.
When it comes to exfoliating, you can choose a manual or physical product (meaning it has some type of scrub or physically refining effect on the skin) such as Dr. Barbara Sturm Facial Scrub or Goldfaden MD Doctor's Scrub, or you can choose a chemical product (meaning the ingredient itself provides the exfoliating and refining effect) such as Sunday Riley Good Genes, Dr. Dennis Gross Peel Pads (which come in 3 strengths so that you can tailor the effect to the needs of your skin), or Dr. Barbara Sturm Enzyme Cleanser, which is a rice-powder that is mixed with water to softly smooth the skin.
Serums
Serums are like the superstar, powerhouse, or celebrity of your skincare regimen - and for good reason. They generally deliver the most concentrated form of any ingredient you're looking to give an effect to the skin.
We always recommend beginning your skincare regimen with formulas that are thinnest, to the thickest. Serums should be applied before creams, because they are thinner and finer, and penetrate directly into freshly-cleansed skin for maximum effects. If you are layering serums in the morning: always begin with vitamin C first, and then your hydrating serum, a face cream, eye cream and then SPF. In the evening: if you are applying an active or refining serum (with retinol or acids like glycolic or salicylic) apply this first and your hydrating serum after, followed by a face cream and eye cream. We don't recommend mixing refining serums like retinol and glycolic acid as its too active for the skin and can cause irritation.
Shop by result here.
Tools + Masks
Ahhh the fun part! Regardless of ingredients, this step should always be an experience for you because it boosts the effects and results of all of the other steps. Generally you can see the immediate effects, like when using the NuFace device, or a brightening sheet mask.
You can even try to create a special moment out of it, like relaxing for 10 minutes when a mask is on, applying a cream one while in the bath, or using a skin tech device while watching your favorite show.
Nourish
Generally the final step in your regimen, the nourishing component really gives the skin a supple, hydrated glow to the skin.
Face creams + oils can come in a range of textures, weights and finishes, and often we have a few different versions in our regimens, depending on our skin's unique needs and even based on the seasons. Once you get to know your skin really well, you can switch it up, just like your wardrobe.
Colder months call for richer textured cream with more replenishing or calming ingredients, and can even be layered with an oil underneath to help penetrate the nourishment. Warmer months call for lighter textures, or even switching from a cream to a lighter lotion or hydrating serum.
Apply your eye cream after your face cream. While we may want to load up on our eye cream to help boost the effects, applying too much product here where the skin is much thinner and without pores can actually create the reverse of the desired effect. Too much product just puddles here.
