Your skin is the first line of defense your body has so taking care of it is important not just for appearance, but for your overall health. That may sound a little dramatic, but it’s true. Proper skin care helps to keep our outermost surface layer of skin intact. This layer maintains skin's overall hydration and serves as our primary defense against the environment, so keeping it strong and healthy is critical. Harsh cleansers can damage the outer layer by stripping essential lipids and moisture. Using a proper skin care regimen daily can help preserve this important protective layer.

The first step in formulating your individual skin care routine is to identify what kind of skin you have. Is it dry or oily, light or dark, wrinkled or smooth, or somewhere in between? Ingredients in each skin care product should be tailored to meet the needs of your particular skin type. There are three basic skin types with the type being determined by the amount of oil your skin produces:

  • Oily
  • Combination/Normal 
  • Dry

It really doesn’t matter what your skin type is, the steps of a good skin care routine are basically the same:

  1. Cleanse 
  2. Exfoliate 
  3. Repair/Prevent 
  4. Moisturize

1. Cleanse
No matter what your skin type, you will need to wash your face in the morning and before bed. Since the skin loses its natural oils when it is overwashed, it’s best to keep extra cleansings to a minimum. Steer clear of bar soaps as they can be harsh and drying to the skin. Use a cleanser specifically formulated for the face. Look for products that are specifically designed for your skin type and then experiment to find the one that works best for you. Often times products will be labeled according to the special skin type or skin need that it addresses. Theraderm Cleansing Wash is soap-free, oil-free and fragrance-free making it perfect for all skin types. It is gentle enough for twice daily use, yet effective enough to remove even the most stubborn makeup, oils and cellular debris from your skin.

2. Exfoliate
As we age, our cellular turnover slows down significantly. This means exfoliation is one of the most important steps to keep skin from appearing dull and dry. There are few things you should know about exfoliation -- don’t use anything that is gritty as it may cause more damage than good. Using an alpha hydroxy acid-based product, such as Theraderm Fruit Acid Exfoliant, is a great way to bring the healthy glow back to skin. However - there is more to exfoliation than a healthy glow. Keeping dead cells off the surface of your skin also allows any subsequent products to penetrate more deeply and more evenly. This means any corrective or reparative serums, moisturizers or targeted, anti-aging products will be considerably more effective.

3. Repair/Prevent
In order to fight damaging free radicals, our skin needs antioxidants. Not only do antioxidants render free radicals useless, they also help prevent UV damage from the sun. Theraderm OPC Reparative Serum contains oligomeric proanthocyanidins that are 20 times more powerful than Vitamin C and 50 times more powerful than Vitamin E as a free radical scavenger. It is also lightweight making it perfect for all skin types.

4. Moisturize
This is where a lot of people get lost when it comes to a skin care routine. It doesn’t matter what type of skin you have, you need a moisturizer.

Oily
Obviously, oily skin has completely different needs than dry skin does, but allowing oily skin to “dry out” only results in increased oil production making oilier than it needs to be. You could choose Theraderm Peptide Hydrator or OPC Reparative Serum.

Peptide Hydrator is a lightweight cream that contains a patented, healing peptide - Soluble Keratin Peptide. Before you start searching for products with this little jewel -- it is exclusively available in Theraderm Clinical Skin Care products!

OPC Reparative Serum contains hyaluronic acid that attracts 1,000 times its weight in water making it an excellent hydrator for very oily skin.The antioxidant properties are also very soothing and help calm any redness that may be present.

Combination/Normal
Theraderm Peptide Hydrator also works for combination/normal skin as it doesn’t clog pores in the oilier t-zone, but fully hydrates the drier areas.

Dry
You know you have dry skin if your skin feels tight and dehydrated. It also tends to absorb moisturizer like a sponge. If you have dry skin you need to look for a moisturizer with an emollient that will help preserve the lipid barrier that keeps hydration where it can work best. Lanolin in Theraderm Enriched Facial Moisturizer does this and works without clogging pores.

Sensitive/Acne Prone
We couldn’t forget those with sensitive/acne prone skin. This type of skin is characterized by extreme sensitivity to some products, foods and even things they cannot control like the weather. For those with this type of skin, Theraderm Gentle Facial Moisturizer provides just enough moisture without clogging pores or irritation.

With so many different skin types and skin needs, you can see why having a consistent, quality skin care routine is so important. Theraderm Clinical Skin Care strives to produce high-quality products that helps return skin to its normal, healthy state.