Skin Care Tips From a Professional Esthetician

To start off this new year, I wanted to begin educating myself on the importance of taking care of your skin. I was lucky to get in touch with my esthetician, Stephanie Rosengren, to learn all about skin care! Stephanie has always loved makeup and aesthetics. After her youngest started preschool, she decided to attend esthetician school and fell in love with the science behind ingredients in skin care. Now, Stephanie shares her passion with others at her skin care business, Charm Skin Studio. Located in Sacramento, California, Stephanie does everything from facials, waxing and cryoskin body sculpting to give her clients healthy skin and a better lifestyle. You can check out Charm Skin Studio by following Stephanie @charmskinstudio on Instagram or click the image to visit www.charmskinstudio.glossgenius.com.

How often should you be practicing a skin care routine?

“You should be doing a skin care routine everyday, both morning and night religiously. If you go to bed without fully taking your makeup off, you’re aging your skin by 7 days. When you sleep at night, your skin naturally produces oils. Just because it’s an oil doesn’t mean it’s a bad oil and you don’t always want to clean it with an exfoliating cleanser, but a gentle oil based cleanser to clear your skin is best to use before using your serums and SPF for the day.”

What products do you believe is the most important to have in a daily skin care routine?

"You will definitely need a cleanser, a serum that will work best for your skin, a moisturizer, an exfoliant, and an eye cream. If you’re not using anything right now I wouldn’t go out and buy all of these things at once and start using it because if you do that then you’re not going to know what’s working and what’s not. Definitely introduce them slowly into your routine and it will make it easier to start remembering each step and what products are working. You also want to buy products from a professional grade. Just because it’s from Ulta, doesn’t mean it’s necessarily the greatest product for your skin. Anything that is Esthetician recommended would be ideal.”

What is your greatest tip for maintaining young and healthy skin?

“You can preserve your skin in its state so I would stay starting young and starting a very good, healthy routine and talking to a professional about what is best for your skin and your skin type since everybody is absolutely different. Something that I use isn’t necessarily going to be best for you and something that you use might not be something that is best for your sister because everyone is completely different. There is a few different skin types such as sensitive, acne, and aging. Then there’s also categories such as oily, dry and combination. No matter your skin type, sun rays is what ages your skin so starting to wear SPF early is most important. ”

Do you need different products for the morning and night?

"Yes, it is pretty crucial because at night you naturally produce good oils so at night time for instance I wear a retinol and I use a vital C enzyme mask which is like a really heavy moisturizer, but those are two things that I really wouldn’t want to wear during the day. If I’m wearing a retinol in the day time then I’m going to be very sensitive to the sun so you’d want to wear something a little bit more gentle such as a vitamin C serum and SPF. Even when it’s overcast, theres still rays and that is what ages you so wearing SPF ever day is very important.”

How often should you get facials and what does it do for your skin?

“You should be getting facials once a month. It’s like going to the gym for your skin because your pores are congested and I don’t always recommend people extract them themselves. During a facial you exfoliate at a completely different grade than you naturally would at home. If you’re in need of a microdermabrasion or something like that, your esthetician would be able to best assess that. What we see under the magnifying light is 10x more than what you see at home.”

As a professional esthetician, what are your favorite products and what products do you recommend for people who are starting to learn about skin care?

“SPF. I love SPF, it’s the hardest thing to get people to use but it’s so essential because it can prevent the winkles, age spots, sun spots and prevent taking years off of you. I’ve seen people who use sunscreen and people who don’t use sunscreen and those who have used sunscreen their whole life look years younger than those who haven’t.”