You've found the perfect-for-you skincare gems, but you may still have questions of what products, in which order, at what time of day you should use them. If this is you, look no further because we've taken the guesswork out of an intuitive skincare ritual for morning and night!

As important as discovering the perfect skincare ritual, so is knowing what works best for morning and night. 

Optimally, you should have a morning and a nighttime skincare ritual because your skin has significantly different needs from dawn until dusk than it does from dusk until dawn!

In general, your daytime skincare ritual aims to fortify your skin and protect it from environmental pollutants and UV damage, whereas your nighttime skincare ritual aims to treat specific skin conditions and help the skin rejuvenate during sleep. 

 

Daytime Skincare

During the day, your skin faces environmental pollutants, UV exposure, climate and environmental changes, bacteria from touching your face, and more, which put daily stressors on your skin. Not to mention the impact wearing makeup has on the skin. So the key focus for a daytime skincare ritual is protection. At Earth Harbor, we also believe an important focus is to simply help you feel good in your own skin as you go throughout your day — being healthy, glowy, and radiant.

While it's important to have a daytime skincare ritual, it's also important to know which products to incorporate during the daytime based on the ingredients they contain. Vitamin C is a valuable daytime ingredient since it is a powerful antioxidant and can promote collagen production, help strengthen the skin, and protect skin cells from damaging free radicals caused by UV. Antioxidants can help combat the skin stressors you might face throughout the day.

Hyaluronic acid is a natural and powerful ingredient that is found in your skin. Opting for products that contain plant-based Hyaluronic acid helps pull moisture from the air onto your skin to help your skin stay hydrated and happy all day long.

When it comes to your morning skincare, starting with a blank canvas is key. Using a facial cleanser helps you wash away germs, dirt, impurities, and the nighttime products off your face giving you a fresh face.

Morning time is a great opportunity to include your UV protection products. UV damage can occur even on a cloudy day and indoors, so having it in your daytime skincare ritual is very important. 

A morning skincare ritual can be quick and easy, while still incorporating important products like your cleanser, toner, serum, ampoule, moisturizer, etc. We recommend saving specific treatments like exfoliants and masks for nighttime, although we support your skintuition if you prefer to use these special treatments in the morning.

 

Morning/Daytime Skincare Basics Include:  

1. CLEANSE
2. TONE
3. TREAT
4. EYE CREAM
5. MOISTURIZE
6. UV PROTECTION

Tip: It’s usually a good rule of thumb to apply leave-on products thinnest to thickest, but paying attention to what your skin is telling you it prefers the order of application to be is even more important than sticking strictly to this rule. 

 

 

 

Earth Harbor Morning/Daytime Skincare Ritual for All Skin Types:

1. Cleanse:

• AHOY LOVE Nourishing Cream Cleanser (all skin types) -- Other Earth Harbor cleansers are great to use if preferred

2. Tone: 

• TIDAL ROSE Crystal Hydration Toner (all skin types)

3. Treat: 

• Ampoule(s): As needed based on skincare goals; layered or mixed into a skincare cocktail (all skin types)
• Serum(s): Celestine Serum and/or Samphire Serum based on skincare goals (all skin types)

4. Eye Creme:

• AQUA AURA Reparative Eye Creme (all skin types)

5. Moisturize: 

• Water-Based
• MERMAID MILK Nutrient Glow Moisturizer (normal, combination, blemish-prone, sensitive, and oily skin types)
• SIREN SILK Multi-Tasking Hydration Creme (dry and mature skin types) 
• Oil-Based
• Layer after or mix in with your water-based moisturizer, as needed, for 1) extra barrier protection, 2) moisture retention, and/or 3) added glow! Choose from CALYPSO Rejuvenating Moisture Elixir for a lighter-weight option or NYMPH NECTAR Superfruit Radiance Balm for a richer option. These oil-based moisturizers can also fully replace the aforementioned water-based moisturizers if you feel like your serums deliver enough moisture for your skin’s needs.

6. SPF:

• We hope to offer SPF ourselves one of these days! Getting the formula perfect is a must before we launch one!
• Make it a marine-friendly sunscreen of at least SPF 30.

*Steps 3-5 can be condensed in ways unique to your specific skin based on your skincare cocktailing!                

 

Nighttime Skincare

During the day, your skin went through a lot! Since so much happens to your skin during the day, the best nighttime skincare rituals focus on restoration and rejuvenating your skin. Your night time skincare ritual is not only aiding your skin from its hard day’s work, but is also preparing it for the long night ahead and the many things that happen to your skin as you sleep. These double-pronged reasons are why an optimal nighttime skincare ritual is different from a daytime skincare ritual. Your nighttime skincare ritual can be more intricate than the daytime, depending on your preferences as well as what your skin currently needs. Adding some additional steps to cater to exfoliation, nourishment, hydration and/or detoxification is beneficial for your sweet skin.

Cleansing your face at night helps remove makeup, impurities from the day and gives you a fresh start before adding your other nighttime products, noting that double cleansing has added benefits! This technique uses two cleansers; first, an oil-based cleanser (like our SUNSHINE DEW Cleansing Oil), and second a water-based cleanser (like our AHOY LOVE Cream Cleanser or our Facial Bar Soaps). Washing your face first with an oil-based cleanser helps break down any makeup and remove the buildup of dirt and impurities while keeping your natural oil production (sebum) balanced. Followed with the second step of cleansing with your go-to water-based cleanser, which further prepares your skin for the skincare gems that follow and doubly ensures your face has unwanted elements removed.

During your nighttime ritual, you should incorporate unique treatments like acupressure, facial massage, exfoliants, and masks. It's best to add these treatments to a nighttime ritual for a number of reasons including: certain exfoliants can cause photosensitivity, acupressure and facial massage can sometimes cause temporary redness, these treatments typically take a bit longer thus lend themselves to nighttime wind-down routines better than quick daytime routines, exfoliants and detoxifying masks can temporarily reduce the oil on your face as they work to rebalance your microbiome. These are also reasons why applying nourishing night creams and other bioactive moisturizers after the treatment(s) is key. Up next is more on why hydrating and moisturizing skin at night is crucial...

While you are catching zzz's, your skin begins to lose moisture. Your sebum production peaks at midday and slowly but steadily decreases as the day goes on. When it's finally time for bed, your sebum production is at its lowest output of the day. When you have less oil on your skin, moisture can evaporate faster, resulting in dry skin that ages more quickly. Not only is your skin losing moisture from evaporation, but also due to your body temperature. Your body raises slightly in temperature at night, and the pH of your skin changes making your skin somewhat more acidic than daytime, which accelerates this moisture loss. It's important to keep your skin hydrated both topically and from within. In addition to your hydrating night cream, have a glass of water before bed (room temperature).

During the night, as your skin replaces old skin cells with new ones, your skin is also recovering from stress. The physical stress you can experience during the day can affect your cortisol levels, affecting your skin! This hormonal rollercoaster can cause inflammation, puffy cheeks, inflamed and red skin, and dark circles under your eyes if you're not fully resting at night. Cortisol left unchecked can cascade into a number of other hormonal issues, which can negatively affect skin as well. It puts a new meaning behind beauty sleep!

Also keep in mind that as you get your beauty sleep on, hair oils, dust mites, sweat, dead skin cells, and even impurities that your nightly skincare products help pull out all collect on your pillowcase during the night. As you toss and turn on your pillow, these things can work their way onto your skin, which can result in clogged pores, germs, or oil impacting your skin.... This is why when you wake up in the morning, it’s so important to perform your morning skincare ritual all over again.

Now you can see why at Earth Harbor we not only relish in delivering ethical products with real results for your beautiful and unique skin, but why we also believe it is equally important to bring you delightful products that offer serenity, happiness, and self-love day in and day out. We hope you absolutely cherish your daily and nightly skincare rituals. You deserve to treasure every second of them!

 

Nighttime Skincare Basics Include:

1. DOUBLE CLEANSE
2. TONE
3. TREAT
4. EYE CREAM
5. MOISTURIZE
6. FACIAL OIL/BALM

When perfecting your skincare ritual, whether it's day or night, the order that your skincare gems are applied is important. You've already invested in quality skincare, now make them work efficiently and effectively, and the order they are used helps achieve this goal. 

 

 

 

Earth Harbor Nighttime Skincare Ritual for All Skin Types:

1. Double Cleanse

• Oil-Based
• SUNSHINE DEW Antioxidant Cleansing Oil (all skin types) - Feel free to end your cleanse here if you feel like she got the job done
• Water-Based
• AHOY LOVE Nourishing Cream Cleanser (dry, mature skin types)
• COCONUT CHARCOAL Purifying Facial Soap (oily, combination, blemish-prone skin types)
• ROSE BAY Balancing Facial Soap (sensitive, normal skin types)

2. Tone

• TIDAL ROSE Crystal Hydration Toner (all skin types)

3. Treat

• Ampoule(s):
• As needed based on skincare goals; layered or mixed into a skincare cocktail (all skin types)
• Serum(s):
• LUNA RAIN Phyto-Resurfacing Night Serum and/or other Earth Harbor serums based on skincare goals (all skin types)

4. Eye Creme

• AQUA AURA Reparative Eye Creme (all skin types)

5. Moisturize

• SIREN SILK Multi-Tasking Hydration Creme (night moisturizer for all skin types) - Other Earth Harbor moisturizers can be used in place of Siren Silk depending on skin’s current moisture needs

6. Facial Oil or Balm

• CALYPSO Rejuvenating Moisture Elixir, as needed (all skin types, but at night especially oily, combination, blemish-prone, sensitive skin types)
• NYMPH NECTAR Superfruit Radiance Balm, as needed (dry, mature, sensitive skin types, or all skin types in need of a sleep mask treatment)

*Steps 3-6 can be condensed in ways unique to your specific skin based on your skincare cocktailing!

Bonus! Masking 

• 1-3 times a week, you may want to incorporate a hydrating or detoxifying mask or an exfoliating treatment to remove dull, dead skin cells and reveal replenished, fresh, radiant skin. As always, multi-masking and/or mixing TIDAL ROSE Crystal Hydration Mist or any Earth Harbor treatment into our DIY masks is welcomed!
• For a hydrating and moisturizing mask: Apply NYMPH NECTAR Superfruit Radiance Balm as the last step in your skincare ritual.
• For a hydrating and detoxifying DIY mask: Apply BLUE CRUSH Marine Perfecting Mask after cleansing your skin.
• For a detoxifying and physical exfoliating DIY mask: Apply CACAO COVE Detoxifying Indulgence Mask after cleansing your skin.
• For an enzymatic exfoliating mask: Apply GLOW JUICE Refining Enzyme Mask after cleansing your skin.
• For a physical exfoliating mask: Use CITRINE SEA Purifying Exfoliation Potion as an oil cleanser and leave on for 2-3 minutes before washing off. 

 

Empower Your Skincare Ritual

The purpose of this post is to empower you with the resources and education necessary to create an intuitive skincare ritual day and night that is uniquely yours. If you have any questions, our merbabes are always standing by at hello@earthharbor.com to help answer them so that you can always put your best, most genuine self forward.