Men’s grooming made simple

Regular facial treatments help to refresh your complexion at a deeper level, but clear, bright skin can be achieved and maintained with a well-planned grooming routine.

Men’s skin is significantly different to women’s in terms of its thickness, collagen density and texture. As such, your daily grooming routine should be tailored to suit your needs.

And thankfully, a skincare regime doesn’t need to be incredibly complex. Instead, following a few key steps will keep you looking your best.

A simple breakdown of cleansing, exfoliating, moisturising and sunscreen

Cleansing

It might be the most obvious step in a daily grooming routine, but a surprising number of us forget to wash our faces at the end of a long day when all we want to do is to hit the pillow.

If you do nothing else, cleansing twice-daily is the most important maintenance of your skin. In contrast to women, men’s skin tends to have larger pores and, thanks testosterone, active sebaceous glands, which are responsible for producing oil.

Cleansing regularly helps not only to wash away the grime of the day (particularly important for office workers caught in the city smog) but also to unclog pores and maintain oil control. This aids in preventing breakouts and blackheads.

Invest in a cosmeceutical-grade cleanser to avoid parabens and other additives that tend to strip the skin. For sensitive or dry skin, a foaming or mily cleanser is better suited.

Exfoliating

While cleansing is important, sometimes it can’t work hard enough to clean deeper down in your pores. An exfoliating scrub helps to unclog pores and remove dead skin cells, instantly brightening the skin as it works to naturally rejuvenate itself.

For more sensitive skin or to help in resurfacing the skin’s texture, Ultraceuticals’ Even Skintone Serum is a leave-on exfoliant, working like pac-men to dissolve and impurities, leaving you with a more refined complexion.

Moisturising

Even if your skin is naturally oily, it’s still possible for it to become dehydrated, leading to dull, tired-looking skin and, in some cases, even more oil production. Dry skin speeds up the ageing process as the collagen loses its elasticity.

It’s important then to keep skin well hydrated by moisturising after cleansing. Many brands offer moisturising products specific to various skin types – a lightweight lotion for oily skin provides a shine-free finish, for example – so look for one that best suits your needs.

At night, a thicker, creamier moisturiser can be applied to enrich the skin with nourishing nutrients and prepare it for the day ahead.

The eyes have it

Unlike the rest of our face and body, the skin beneath the eye doesn’t naturally regenerate itself. As a result, ageing is typically first seen in the area, with small lines fast turning into wrinkles, particularly for those who spend a lot of time in the sun.

But because of it’s the eye area’s delicate nature, many treatments, such as face masks and microdermabrasion, can’t be used on it. Yet there are ways to help protect and rejuvenate the eyes area.

Applying an eye cream on a daily basis will help to moisturise and smooth the area. Nonetheless, it should be applied fairly sparingly, and not immediately beneat the eyelid. Gently dab the cream on the edge of the bone around the eye area, which will absorb into the surrounding skin while avoiding irritation.

Sun protection

In Australia, skin cancer is an all too common – yet largely preventable – occurrence thanks to our regular exposure to the sun.

Health concerns aside, sun is one of the most significant factors in premature ageing, leading to wrinkles, dark sun spots, freckles and course, leathery skin texture. And yet this, too, is preventable.

Many men might wear sunscreen for a day at the beach but neglect to use it on a daily basis, despite considerable time spent outside on the commute to work. Beyond that, UVA rays (the most damaging) can penetrate through glass, so the sun is usually damaging your skin while you’re sitting at your desk.

A sunscreen with a high SPF rating will not only protect your skin from UVA and UVB rays, but also allow it time to heal and the immune system to repair damage. after cleansing and moisturising should be a daily step not forgotten.