Six Reasons Your Skin Care Regimen Isn’t Working

 

If your bathroom drawers are a graveyard of disappointing products, and you feel like you’re getting nowhere, don’t despair. Despite seemingly endless effort and expense, regimen roadblocks are common. Fortunately, a quick review of the basics can set you on the right path. Here are six reasons your regimen isn’t working and how to fix it.

 

1. You’re Using Multiple Brands

Mixing and matching products from various lines can impede your progress because the products don’t always align in terms of ingredients and formulation. Conversely, products designed to work synergistically will maximize the benefits of all your regimen components. Stick to a single brand and choose complementary products that are tailored to your skin’s needs.

 

2. You’re Not Giving it Enough Time

Change doesn’t happen overnight. Use your products in a daily regimen for a full thirty days—the length of a complete skin cell life cycle—before judging your results. Why thirty days? Because that’s the complete life-cycle of a skin cell. It’s the period needed for your skin to acclimate, for pimples forming under the surface to be brought up and cleared away, and for rejuvenation to begin.

The acclimation period is critical. Understand that with clinical products that accelerate cell turnover, some flaking and dryness is to be expected. Stay the course.

 

3. You’re Skipping Important Steps

An optimized regimen requires four essential products:

1. Cleanser for removing dirt and makeup
2. Toner for getting rid of cellular debris and aiding permeability of follow-on products
3. Serum to correct and repair
4. Daily SPF to protect from UV damage

You can add additional products depending on your individual needs—moisturizers, masks, boosters—but you must not skip any of the primary four. 

Toner is one that often gets overlooked, and yet, it’s one of the most important steps because it loosens the glue between old dead skin cells so they can be lifted off, and it clears oil or cleanser residue to allow your serum to be absorbed more efficiently.

 

4. You’re Not Consistent

No regimen can deliver the best results if it’s not followed consistently. That means completing all four steps every morning and every night, no excuses. Your basic four-step regimen takes less than five minutes twice a day, a small investment for a lifetime of healthy skin.

 

5. You’re Not Applying Your Products Correctly

The basic order is cleanser, toner, serum, SPF, or moisturizer. If you’re using more than one serum, the rule of thumb for layering is lightest to heaviest. Allow each to dry before applying the next.

Your SPF or moisturizer is always applied last to act as a seal and guard against moisture loss. If you apply it before a serum, the serum will not be absorbed by the skin.

Products like acne medications or brighteners should be applied to the entire face. Spot treating allows bacteria to flourish in the surrounding skin, leaving you vulnerable to more breakouts. In the case of a brightener, spot treating can lead to patches of lighter skin.

 

6. You’re Using the Wrong Products

Maybe you’re doing everything right, and it’s your regimen that’s wrong. Make sure you’re using products that suit your skin type and tone and target your specific concerns.

To find out which Vivant products work best for your skin, take our skin care consultation quiz.

Our experts will analyze your results and deliver a personalized regimen that’s guaranteed to bring results. You have a full sixty days to try the products and return them for a full refund if you’re not satisfied.