Transform your routine with Minimalist Skin Care

With the wide selection of skin care products to choose from today, it’s easy to be overwhelmed with options—and to overdo your skincare routine. This can easily result in irritated skin—and your acne, blemishes and wrinkles left unresolved. 

Piling a large amount of chemicals onto your skin isn’t the best solution for your problems. Sometimes it’s better to keep your routine simple, and this is the logic behind a skincare trend that’s becoming popular today: the Minimalist Skin Care Diet. 

What is the Minimalist Skin Care Diet?

The Minimalist Skin Care Diet, or simply the skin care diet, has absolutely nothing to do with food, let’s make that clear. It’s a skincare routine where you reduce the number of steps you do to the most basic routine—around two or three steps, hence the “diet” in its name. Its goal is to reduce the amount of chemicals that you use on your skin, which in turn reduces the likelihood of irritation. This gives you a cleansing effect: you cleanse your skin of the excess chemicals that may be causing an imbalance in your skin. Through the Minimalist Skin Care Diet,  your skin will be restored to its most natural, non-irritated state. 

What’s in the Minimalist Skin Care Diet

If you do decide to follow the skin care diet, be prepared to say goodbye to your serums and other oils—this skin care regime only has two to three basic steps: 

1. Cleanse. You only need one gentle cleanser formulated specifically for your skin type. There’s no need for a different cleanser for day and night—remember that this product will be rinsed eventually and won’t stay on your skin long. As long as it removes dirt and makeup well and it’s the right formula for your skin, you’re good to go. 
2. Moisturize. After cleansing, you need to restore the moisture stripped during the cleansing process—and this applies to all skin types, even ones with oily skin. Properly moisturized skin will help control oil/sebum production, which in turn keeps acne at bay. Choose a gentle formula without fragrances, harsh chemicals and essential oils that clog the skin. 
3. Protect. Whenever you’re going out, you should put on wide-spectrum sunscreen to protect your skin from UVA/UVB rays. This applies even on cloudy days—UV rays can pass through clouds and still damage your skin. 

The skin care diet also reminds you that exfoliating shouldn’t be done every day. If you are using a chemical peel, do it every six weeks to avoid damaging your skin and to maximize its renewal effects.

What ingredients should you have?

Because the minimalist skin care diet aims to reduce irritation, your routine isn’t the only thing that should change—the products that you use should change as well. Under this skin care routine, you’ll want to avoid anything with harsh chemicals and stick to gentle and natural ingredients as much as possible. And check the ingredient list of the products you use—minimalist skin care usually involves products that only have eight ingredients or less. 

Some of the most popular products and ingredients used under this skin care routine are: 

• Micellar water: Micellar water effectively cleanses, removing makeup and dirt on your skin without removing the skin’s natural moisture. If you can find one with a rose water formulation, even better. 
• Vitamin C: A moisturizer with vitamin C as its main active ingredient works to brighten your complexion, lighten dark spots and discoloration, and promote the production of collagen—the main building block of your skin. 
• Retinol: Retinol is a vitamin A derivative that also boosts collagen, helping reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. It also helps improve your skin tone and color. While retinol isn’t necessarily a mild ingredient initially, you can build up your tolerance to it—and it can become your holy grail once your skin is used to it, because it addresses a wide range of skin problems. 
• AHA/BHA: These two are popular ingredients in cleansers, and they’re a good place to start if you don’t know how to revamp your routine. Make sure to get a cleanser based on your needs: AHA is a collagen stimulant best for normal to dry skin and is not oil-soluble; while  BHA is an antibacterial agent and a skin-calming ingredient that can get through oily skin, and is best known for being gentle on sensitive skin types. 
• Aloe vera: One of the key ingredients in the SMACNE Exfoliating Cleanser, aloe vera is rich in antioxidants, enzymes, vitamins A & C that help nourish the skin. It also is known for reducing swelling and irritation. 

Dermatologist-approved

If you’re wondering what dermatologists think about the skin care diet, here’s the thing: they’ve been doing this for years. 

Dermatologists have often talked about how many of their patients come to them with acne problems, only to discover that they’ve been using too many products that contradict each other’s effects. What they end up doing is reducing the skin care routine to the most basic, keeping the products minimal to help avoid irritation. This is easier to maintain, gentler on the skin and cheaper too! 

If you want to try the Minimalist Skin Care Diet, we’ve got just the thing for you: Our free SMACNE trial kit! Formulated to be gentle and still powerful enough to address acne while rebalancing and rehydrating your skin, these two products will transform your skin—and simplify your skin care routine. Find out more about our free trial offer here.