Your skin care ingredients are important if you want to have a good and effective skin routine. If you are reading this post is because you want to know the type of ingredients you place on your skin (don’t worry, me too). At the start of my skin routine journey, that was the first thing I did with the products I used. Nowadays with so much marketing (and manufacturers not having our skin needs in mind) and so much information out there, it’s easy for us to be deceived.

Imagine, buying a product that says ‘’This will get rid of your acne!’’ but in fact, the ingredients in the product we have bought are doing the opposite?! ABSOLUTELY NOT!

We will not get deceived by those marketing gigs! However, for this to happen we have to know what ingredients are good for our skin, and this post will tell you all about it!

Niacinamide

Niacinamide (also known as vitamin B3) is one of the TOP ingredients for skin care! Niacinamide is considered to be a multipurpose ingredient as it can help with acne, prevents premature signs of aging, protect against sun damage, etc.

Niacinamide can also

• builds a healthy skin barrier: When you have a damaged skin barrier you will have inflammation and as a result, this will increase the risk of infections in your skin. If you are looking to have glowing skin, it is important for your skin barrier to be healthy.
• Retains moisture: Niacinamide can also help by preventing the evaporation of the moisture of your skin to the environment. It is also good for calming the skin when it has suffered any irritation, acne, etc. It is also good for people that have sensitive skin.

Vitamin C

Vitamin C (also known as Ascorbic Acid) works best to reduce skin pigmentation and dark spots, which causes your skin to look brighter after consistently using it. It is great to use during the morning together with your sunscreen as both work really well together. It is also a great ingredient as it boosts the produced collagen to slow down aging (which we all want, HAHAHA).

Note:
Collagen is what helps our skin look youthful (great if you are fighting against anti-aging)

Niacinamide + Vitamin C

If you want to place both ingredients on your skin, YOU CAN, they work beautifully together and bring twice of the benefits to your skin! While niacinamide will work to retain moisture, working in dull skill, and large pores, … vitamin C will work in boosting collagen and protecting the skin from free radicals. Both ingredients together will allow your skin to be smoother and have an even skin tone.

Note:
Free radicals (also known as electrons) are unpaired electrons that look to stabilize themselves in our skin. Once this does not happen it causes cell damage which can be noticed in our skin through fine lines, aging, etc.

Hyaluronic Acid

Hyaluronic Acid is a gel substance that has the ability to retain moisture. This is another ingredient that works as an anti-aging component as it can hold 1,000 its weight in water, which you would clearly see through the natural glow in your skin after using this ingredient. We will produce less hyaluronic acid in our skin as we age and the production of it will slowly decrease. So, it is very important we start using this in our late 20s.

Hyaluronic Acid + Niacinamide

You can also use Niacinamide and Hyaluronic Acid together, and those ingredients together will give super hydration to your skin. These two ingredients will protect and reduce the moisture loss of your skin. Using these products together during the night will allow your skin to recover without any environmental disturbance.

Salicylic Acid

Salicylic Acid is a great ingredient for people that suffer from acne or breakouts in the skin. It’s a really good ingredient to control oil production in the skin (amazing for people with oily acne-prone skin as it calms irritation). You can find this ingredient most in face washes or in cleansers and it works to clean dead cells and clean your pores. If your skin has dead cells it will likely look dull, so cleaning the skin from those dead cells will allow the skin to shine. This is a very important ingredient you should have in your skin routine to use from time to time.

Note:
If you are not prone to acne and don’t have oily skin, is advisable for you to use this ingredient with caution as your skin might react.

Always use a little bit of this ingredient at the back of your ear and see if your skin will react before using it on your face.

Salicylic Acid + Niacinamide

These ingredients also work really well together especially when you are at the beginning of an acne face. My skin has seasons where I have acne-prone skin and every time I use these two together, within days, my acne disappears. So, I really recommend them as these two ingredients work well together to combat acne, bacteria, and any clogged pore. Both stop oil production, however salicylic acid will go deeper into the pore which is what we want if we have acne.

Lactic Acid

Lactic Acid is a form of an AHA, and AHAs work to exfoliate the skin which is meant to remove the dead skin and replace it with new skin. Lactic Acid is formed from fermented milk so this is ideal for people with sensitive skin. AHAs are considered to be water soluble which keeps the moisture of your skin.

Different AHAs in the market

• Glycolic Acid
• Citric Acid
• Mandelic Acid