We wear different skin care products at the same time for specific purposes. There always seems to be some confusion as to which product goes on first and which goes on top.  How to layer your skin care products is important. The general rule is lightest to heaviest or least oily to most oily.

Many people have been told that serums always go under a moisturizer. This is true in some cases but not a black and white rule. In recent years oil serums have become very popular because they are easier to formulate than water based serums. An oil serum would go on last, on top of your moisturizer.

Once oil is on your skin, it slows down the absorption of water and water based nutrients. Therefore, these water based serums should go on the skin first, before a moisturizer.

There is no need to use multiple serums on your face. Find a serum and/or moisturizer that has the actives in it that you want so you are not using too many products with single actives. Keep it simple. And if you want to keep it real simple, remember that the most important facial product is a good moisturizer – one that contains good actives (Springtide Gold). Sometimes that is all you need.

So lets go through the steps of layering your skin care products.

First, always start with clean skin. A good cleanser is a must. After cleansing, you can use a toner. We recommend our face & body mists. These are hydrosols distilled on our farm. They can be used as toners, but they can also go on the skin at any time, even after makeup. When used after cleansing and before adding any other products, they add a layer of moisture to the skin.

Second, use a serum that is water based. This would include our Razz Tightening Serum with hyaluronic acid. This serum contains no oil and simply provides moisture and tightening ingredients to the skin.

Third, use a moisturizer that is a cream or lotion to layer on top of your serum. These are emulsions that contain both water and oil mixed together. Moisturizers can also contain active ingredients often found in serums. It is ok to combine ingredients in this way to simplify the number of products you use. Springtide Gold moisturizer contains vitamin C, green tea, calendula, fennel and peptides that help with collagen production. A cream like this will penetrate the water based serum but also help to seal it in.

After this, you can add an oil based serum such as Parsley Eye Serum to your layering. Adding an oil serum on top of your moisturizer can help give more of a glow to skin, as well as help lock in moisture. If you were to use an oil based serum as your first layer, the other products would have trouble penetrating that. No actives or water would be delivered to your skin

You can now use makeup if that is your preference or finish with another spritz of hydrosol on the skin and go au natural!

You might also want to add sunscreen after everything else. Sunscreens are formulated more to sit on the surface of the skin to prevent UV light from penetrating.  It can also prevent actives from penetrating your skin.

Enjoy your skin care routine. But whatever you do, don’t spend too much time on it. There are so many other things to experience today!