15 Vital Steps to Perfecting your Skincare Technique

We all strive to have beautiful, healthy, glowing skin. With the abundance of devices and products hitting the market daily, trending multi-step layering techniques, procedures, lasers, treatments and facials, it’s easy to become overwhelmed and intimidated, with no clue where to begin. The question remains: where should we focus our time, energy, and money for the best results?

From the time that I was in my teens, my mother would emphasize the importance of taking good care of my skin and the ritual that went with it. She preached about proper cleansing, exfoliating, toning, and moisturizing. It was that simple! Mom would tell me that I must never pull at my skin or stretch it while removing makeup, cleansing, or applying creams, especially around the eyes! We would regularly visit the wonderful beauty counters at luxury retailers, taking appointments with the beauty consultants from all of the best brands to learn the latest and greatest beauty tricks. 

Because of my mother’s encouragement, I’ve always taken good care of my skin and have made efforts to learn about advancements in skincare that would help maintain youthful, healthy, skin.

I’ve sought advice from doctors who recommended various non-surgical procedures that can be intrusive, painful, and require several days of downtime, with no guarantee of results. I found this daunting and would leave the consultations confused and not comfortable in going ahead with trying such procedures.

There are so many different opinions from professionals and influencers alike on what to do to achieve great looking skin. But, when we remove all the noise, the answer to this is really quite simple: an uncomplicated, consistent skincare routine combined with smart lifestyle choices can help delay natural aging and prolong healthy, youthful skin. 

Below are the easy steps that I would recommend for an effective skincare regimen.

Every morning and evening:

1. Cleansing your skin is the first and most basic step

It is important to use a good, hydrating cleanser, that really cleans your skin, is not harsh or drying, and does not feel greasy or tacky after rinsing.

Our Vitamin C rich Essence Noir™ Cleanser blends potent Kakadu Plum Extract and detoxifying Brazilian Clay with soothing Oat Kernel Extract to help brighten and purify your skin, leaving it effortlessly hydrated and more youthful looking.

How to use: Rub a pearl-size amount of Essence Noir™ Cleanser between damp fingers to create a silky lather. Prior to cleansing, cup your hands over your nose and mouth and take a moment to enjoy the product’s aromatherapy benefits. Massage over a damp face. Rinse with lukewarm water.

2. Look for and use a performance-based toner – this a must!

Many people discount the importance of using a toner or do not understand the benefits. A good toner enhances the skin’s surface, helps restore the skin’s natural PH and helps serums, moisturizers, oils, etc. absorb into the skin.

Our Essence Noir™ Tonic is a high-performance, treatment-based toner that, along with helping restore the skin’s natural PH, helps restore brightness, and texture, while protecting it from harmful environmental aggressors. With naturally derived fruit acids and Silver Mushroom & Beet Root Extract it gently exfoliates and reveals brighter, more hydrated and glowing skin.

How to use: After cleansing, pour a few drops of Tonic into your palms or on a cotton pad and gently splash or swipe onto your face and neck.

3. Apply a face oil – Get the glow

When using Baume Noir™ Face and Eyes, there is no need to apply a serum. Both creams have 21+ active ingredients, including all the actives that you would find in various serums… Hyaluronic Acids, Vitamin C, etc. And with our Biomimetic Micro Vector (“BMV™”) delivery technology, these actives are transported deep into the epidermis.

Throughout the colder months, in the evening, I apply Elixir Noir™ Face Oil before my face cream. It penetrates deeply and pairs beautifully with Baume Noir™ Face to provide the extra hydration that I need. In the warmer weather, I will often use the oil alone in the evening. Elixir Noir™ Face Oil is intensely nourishing and light weight. Rich in Squalane, Pumpkin Seed Oil and Rose Hip Seed Oil, it improves firmness, texture and the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles, while reducing redness and blemishes and balancing the skin’s natural oils.

How to use: Apply 4 to 5 drops of Elixir Noir™ Face Oil into the palm of your hands. Rub hands gently whilst pressing and massaging the oil onto cheeks, forehead, chin and neck. It is wonderful to use when giving yourself a lymphatic massage (see below).

4. Apply your eye cream – Never skip it

People have often asked me why they need an eye cream. “Can’t I just use my face cream?”. The simple answer is that yes, you can.  In the case of Baume Noir™ Face, our clinical studies did show a significant reduction in fine lines and wrinkles around the eye area. However, incorporating a targeted eye cream into your daily skincare routine can not only minimize the appearance of wrinkles, it can also tackle other skin concerns like puffiness, dark circles and pigmentation. In our Baume Noir™ Eyes, we have added a proprietary complex of Green Tea Extract, Pomegranate and Caffeine that work in tandem to smooth visible fine lines and wrinkles, ease puffiness, and diminish under-eye darkness. It incorporates a 90% concentration of active ingredients and emollients which are delivered deep into the skin through our BMV™ technology. Persian Silk Tree Extract, Vitamin C, and Hyaluronic Acid help to visibly restore, strengthen, lift and firm the fragile skin around the eyes, leaving you looking fresh, youthful and awake.

How to use: Warm a small amount of Baume Noir™ Eyes by rubbing it between your ring fingers in circular motions. Apply Baume Noir™ Eyes by lightly pressing it into the skin under and around the eye.

5. Moisturize your skin – maintain a radiant, hydrated, youthful look

With a velvet-like texture, Baume Noir™ Face is a global moisturizer to be used day and night. It visibly reduces the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles, helps to hydrate and brighten the skin using a Biomimetic Micro-Vectorized technology to deliver an 80% concentration of a powerful blend of 21 active ingredients through multiple layers of the skin. Rooibos Tea Extract, Hyaluronic Acid and naturally derived Vitamin E help to protect, nourish and hydrate while Matrixyl, Squalane and Vitamin C help to firm and exfoliate the skin revealing an overall ageless looking complexion with a soft-focus finish.

How to use: Massage a pearl size amount between your fingertips before lightly pressing into the skin. Don’t forget to moisturize the neck, always using an upward motion.

6. Apply a sunscreen – Protect your skin

Using a sunscreen over your moisturizer is an essential part of your skincare regimen, rain or shine. Sunscreen works to protect your skin from wrinkles, age spots and the risk of skin cancer. Look for a broad-spectrum SPF, meaning that your sunscreen protects from both UVA and UVB radiation. I like to use a light-weight tinted sunscreen to give my skin a glow.

Once to twice per week:

7. Exfoliate your skin – Get revitalized, clean, smooth skin

Exfoliation is an essential step in taking proper care of your skin which cleans your pores and removes dead skin cells, promoting skin regeneration.

Our Essence Noir™ Polish is an exhilarating facial scrub that features triple-action physical, chemical and enzymatic exfoliating properties and utilizes Bamboo and Volcanic Sand Extracts, Activated Charcoal, and Glycolic Acid to collectively aid in the removal of expired skin cells while also refining pores. Skin is left feeling smooth, fresh and hydrated.

How to use: We recommend exfoliating once to twice per week. Using gentle pressure, massage a dime-size amount of Essence Noir™ Polish over damp skin. Rinse immediately or leave on for 2 minutes for enhanced exfoliating benefits.

8. Micro-needling – a minimally invasive effective home treatment

A micro-needling device is a minimally invasive tool that penetrates the skin’s surface using tiny needles. By puncturing the skin, you create micro injuries that stimulate the body’s natural wound healing abilities, resulting in cellular regeneration and increased collagen and elastin production, helping to reverse and prevent the signs of aging. I often compare micro-needling to laser treatments, in that they both disrupt the skin, forcing it to heal.

Our Roller Noir™ Skin Revitalizing System features 192 0.5mm Titanium micro needles. This performance enhancing skincare treatment is not painful and helps to facilitate the natural exfoliation of the skin; smooth fine lines and wrinkle; improve texture and tone; reduce scarring due to acne; reduce hyperpigmentation; refine pores; enhance product absorption; and plump the skin. 

How to use: For optimal results, use Roller Noir™ 1-2 times per week. With gentle to moderate pressure, roll the device vertically 4-5 times over the cleansed treatment area. Always lift the roller to reposition it. Repeat horizontally and then diagonally. Treat both the face and neck.

9. Intensive Dry Masque Treatment

To complete an at home reparative and restorative spa treatment, after cleansing, exfoliating and micro-needling, apply our Youth Revealed or Vitality Revealed Dry Techstile™ masques, which both incorporate our proprietary BMV™ delivery technology. Youth Revealed has 87% age renewal active ingredients and emollients that help to hydrate, brighten and reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles by stimulating the synthesis of collagen and elastin to visibly tighten the skin, improve skin texture and reduce the depth of wrinkles. Vitality Revealed is a bio-stimulant treatment that delivers a proprietary cocktail of vitamins and nutrients with an 81% concentration of active ingredients and emollients to aid in visibly reducing loose and sagging skin, restoring hydration, promoting a natural glow and encouraging cellular regeneration while improving overall skin texture.

How to use: Apply the masque on a cleansed skin. Activate the formula by lightly massaging the surface of the techstile™. Repeat 3 to 4 times. Wear masque for 15 minutes.

Additional tips for healthy skin:

10. Lymphatic Drainage Massage

Lymphatic drainage massage is a great at-home treatment to reduce puffiness, improve the clarity of the skin tone, lift tired features and help the skin glow. It targets lymph nodes on the neck and face and drains the toxins built up underneath the skin that cause dull skin. The massage brings more oxygen to the skin and nourishes and supports your skin's natural functions for health and vibrance.  

How to do it: There are various tools that have become popular for lymphatic massage including natural fiber dry brushes, jade rollers and gua shas. But you can get all the benefits of lymph drainage by simple using your hands and our Elixir Noir™ Face Oil.

Start at the base of the neck, at the sides where your arteries are, with gentle upward circles up to the jawline. Moving upward, gently circle under the front of the chin to the jaw, starting at centre and working outwards. Continue to the centre of the face just above the lip area. Then along the cheeks, followed by the orbital bone, from the center along the bottom, then along the top of the ridge, then along the cheek bone and finishing along the forehead, always from the centre outward in circular motion.

11. Maintain a healthy diet – be conscious of what you consume

Even if you practice the best skincare routine with great products, if you do not maintain a good diet, it will reflect in your skin. For a healthy, supple, vibrant skin, you need to supply your body with vitamins, minerals and nutrients that it needs. Take a holistic approach by eating a varied and balanced diet including antioxidant rich fruits and vegetable and healthy fats from nuts and oily fish. Stay away from processed foods!

12. Hydrate throughout the day – Water, Water and more Water

Your skin is the largest organ in your body and it is predominantly made up of water. If it is not properly hydrated not only will it become dry, tight and flaky, it will become more prone to aging. Drinking sufficient water helps the skin to be hydrated and the body to flush out impurities and toxins, prevent acne and contribute to a healthier, glowing skin. It’s generally recommended that we drink about 2 litres (8-9 cups) of water per day.

13. Get a good night’s sleep

Our skin repairs itself as we sleep. It makes new collagen which prevents sagging. It boosts blood flow which helps prevent dark circles and puffiness and gives the skin a healthy glow. It removes toxins, repairs cells and damage caused by the environment, creates new cells and replaces aging ones. A good night’s sleep results in skin looking fresher, younger, and more radiant. (It’s recommended that we get 7 to 9 hours per night.)

  14. Don’t smoke!

Smoking will make your skin look older, dull looking and contributes to wrinkles. It damages collagen and elastin and narrows the tiny blood vessels in the outermost layers of skin, decreasing blood flow and depleting oxygen and nutrients that are important to skin health. It is often easy to identify a smoker as they will generally have more wrinkles in the lip area from pursing their lips while puffing and around the eyes from squinting to keep smoke out.

15. Relax

Your skincare regime shouldn’t stress you out - it should make you feel great! With the busy pace of life, and so many uncertainties about the future, we often can feel overwhelmed by the world around us. Taking care of your skin is one small way to help you connect with your body, and yourself. Relish these moments, as brief as they may be. You’ll feel that much better for it.

Give your body what it needs with all the new beauty products or luxury skincare products, including lifting dry masks for example, from Nannette de Gaspe.

Best,

Nannette de Gaspé 

If you have any questions about the ingredients we use in our products, reach out today: info@nnttbeaute.com