It's Time For A Skincare Routine 2: Exfoliators and Toners

Like yeah, you sweep your floors, but sometimes you’ve got to vacuum and mop. 

Image: Paramount Pictures

Missed Step 1? Read 'It's Time For A Skincare Routine 1: Cleansers' here!

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Note: all recommendations are author's own and prices are correct in AU$ at time of publication. Please ensure you know your own skin conditions before using any of the below recommendations.

It’s Time For A Skincare Routine- as discussed on Episode 11 of the Large Almond Latte Podcast.

Have you read the other parts? Make sure you get all your beauty hacks in order for your fresh new routine here.

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Exfoliation

Exfoliation is a deep clean. You want to ensure you have the AHA queen Glycolic Acid in your product.  Doing this once a week ensures the rest of your products get to enjoy fresh, juicy, plump skin.  But just like the heat on your Nando's order, glycolic acid products come in different strengths.  This goes for all your products really.  You can get glycolic from 5%-50% which is your heavy duty chemical peel.  Like in that episode of Kath and Kim where they get acid peels.

Image: ABC

Our recs:

Institute 14% Glycolic Scrub- $36

• Leaves your skin feeling next level clean

Dr Dennis Gross Alpha Beta Universal Daily Peel - $141

• Spenny holy grail packed with AHAs and BHAs, plus some retinol for anti-ageing.

Toners

If you haven’t used a toner in a while, you might be thinking of a toner as that pure methylated spirits type liquid that comes in your Clinique three pack with the cleanser and moisturiser and buuuurns. Toner isn’t vodka for your face anymore.  It’s essentially a primer for what’s about to come, but just like with make-up primer, if you’re lazy, or ‘busy’ it’s probably a step that can be missed.

There are a few types of toners to look for based on skin type.  AHA/BHA or PHA toners alone or together for a mild exfoliation and pore penetrator or hydrating toners, which will contain something called ‘Hyaluronic Acid’.  Hyaluronic is another new buzzword.  Like an ant can lift 1000 times it’s body weight, Hyaluronic acid can hold 1000 times it’s weight in water. Toners can be used daily in most cases and are super gentle.  Once you’ve applied toner, you have to wait a full five minutes before the next step and let's be real- who has time for that, even in iso with nothing else to do, I don’t have time for that.

Our recs:

Glow Recipe Watermelon Glow PHA + BHA Pore-Tight Toner $54

• A gentle PHA+BHA infused watermelon toner that quenches skin's thirst while minimising the appearance of pores.

• Smells wild

The Ordinary Glycolic Acid 7% Toning Solution $12.50

• Perfect entry level with a mild exfoliant

Next step: Serems