The Best Practices for Skin Cycling with LIV + GRACE

You probably don’t need us to tell you the importance of cleansing, moisturizing, and consistently applying SPF no matter the season or weather, but skincare routines can get tricky when you add more products like serums, exfoliants, and toners. There’s most likely been a time or two when you’ve asked yourself: When should I apply each product? What’s the best skincare order? We, along with the rest of the beauty community, have found an answer in the dermatologist-approved skin cycling trend. Here’s the inside scoop on skin cycling and how you can take part with LIV + GRACE SKINCARE products:

Skin cycling, a strategic method trending on social media, calls for cycling through your PM skincare products to maximize results and minimize irritation. Instead of using upwards of five products, skin cycling keeps it on the simple side with a few easy steps.

The skin cycling method allows rest days between active ingredient products, helping your skin’s microbiome to recover and stay in tip-top shape. This is especially helpful as the overuse of acids and retinol can irritate the skin. 

The classic skin cycling routine consists of a four-night schedule. Night one is exfoliation, night two is for retinol or an active brightener, and nights three and four are recovery nights, which is where you focus on hydration, balancing the microbiome and skin barrier repair. Once you finish the cycle, you repeat the process. Keep in mind, as your skin becomes more use to the actives, you can us the actives more often and shorten the cycle. 

The “classic skin cycle regimen” is set up so that you use your exfoliating products before your retinol, allowing your skin to absorb it with ease. However, if you’ve never tried retinol or acids before, introduce them one at a time as it can be easy to overdo these ingredients. To make your skincare routine a little easier, Cindy O’Brien, holistic aesthetician and founder of LIV + GRACE SKINCARE, customized a skin cycling routine just for you:

Night one is exfoliation night, so get prepared to clear out your pores while sloughing away dead skin. To begin, start with the LIV + GRACE SKINCARE Pomegranate + Apple Exfoliating Gel Mask, which gently dissolves and "unglues" dry lifeless skin with effective, but never  harsh, fruit enzymes to keep skin feeling hydrated and smooth. 

Next, apply your Brightening Anti-Oxidant Serum (BAOS) to give the appearance of firmer, tighter, even skin, while helping to eliminate dark spots. End night one with the LIV + GRACE SKINCARE, Rose + White Tea Sleep Mask  to lock everything in; it feeds the skin with plant based hyaluronic acid and an abundance of other phenomenal micronutrients targeted to nourish the skin. 

Grab your LIV + GRACE Purify Gel Cleanser, a gentle and effective cleanser that clears pores and rinses away surface debris without drying or stripping the skin's natural barrier. Or if you prefer a creamy cleanser, you can use the Damage Control Creme Cleanser, which hydrates and works hard to give your skin more active ingredients, like vitamin c and other skin nutrients for a balanced, youthful glow. 

Next, apply your favorite retinol and/or the LIV + GRACE SKINCARE Brightening Anti-Oxidant Serum (BAOS); it features skin-loving ingredients like 2 stable vitamin Cs and 5 natural skin brighteners, including  licorice root extract and turmeric to keep your skin looking and feeling healthy. End the night by moisturizing with the light and silky LIV + GRACE SKINCARE Goat Milk Hydrator. (It leaves your skin so soft!)

Night Three and Four: Recover and Repeat

Now that your skin has been hard at work, you can ease into the recovery nights of skin cycling. Use a hyaluronic serum, like LIV + GRACE SKINCARE, Marine Peptide Hyaluronic Serum and a silky natural facial oil to stay hydrated, plump and moist while strengthening the skin barrier function and balancing the microbiome. LIV + GRACE has two facial oils to choose from, Rescue Hydrate, a plant based retinol alternative, “dry oil” that soothes and nourishes with natural A, C and E vitamins. Or Super Seed Oil that blends 9 cold pressed oils, like Marula, Grapeseed, Pomegranate and Cranberry to deliver omegas and ceramides to help skin absorb and thrive, without leaving any residue.  

You can also add an ultra gentle AHA like the LIV + GRACE SKINCARE Rebalancing Clarifying Tonic that’s known to deliver radiance and renewal to all skin. At the heart of this essential clarifying step is a rich, plant-powered nourishment formulated to reveal healthy-looking skin that appears brighter, clearer, and tighter after each use. 

Then start your skin cycling routine all over again!

While skin cycling is pretty easy to understand as it has very few steps, there are a few things we’d like you to take note of when skin cycling with LIV + GRACE SKINCARE. The retinol (we recommend the Environ C-Quence) and the LIV + GRACE Brightening Anti-Oxidant Serum (BAOS) can be used three days a week if your skin is strong and resilient when using active ingredients.  

You can add the LIV + GRACE Overnight Spot Treatment after your nightly products if you need an ultra-clean, nontoxic way to address those pesky blemishes that pop up. Make sure it’s the last item you use and only apply it on the tip of the blemish.

If you’re pregnant or don’t want to use synthetic retinol or Retin-A, you can use a drop or two of a plant-based retinol alternative like the Liv + Grace Rescue Hydrate that’s perfect for everyone. 

With LIV + GRACE SKINCARE, you can use products that you know are curated with love and care because we know clean skincare is real skincare. We ban ingredients many people have never heard of and are considered hormone disruptors, carcinogens, and neurotoxins. All LIV + GRACE SKINCARE products contain the finest, most sustainably sourced, clean beauty ingredients to trigger the body’s natural healing and protective processes to elicit a youthful radiance.

So tell us – how’s skin cycling working for you?