Trust us when we say that nothing divides a room full of beauty experts quite like a debate over how long to leave between each step of your skincare routine.
While some experts insist that formulas can be slapped on one after the other in a matter of seconds, others stand by the viewpoint that in order to get the most out of your products, you should wait a little while before applying the next step.
I, for one, thought I knew the basic rules when it came to skincare — double cleanse with a muslin cloth, always take off your makeup before bed, layer products from light to heavy and so on.
But recently, TikTok and Instagram have been trying to convince me that I’ve been missing a key ingredient: time. Apparently, I haven’t been giving myself enough time in between each step of my routine to let the products sink in and do their thing.
In fact, apparently, by piling on each product moments after the last one, I might even be minimising their effect. Or so some say. But what’s the truth when it comes to how long to leave between each step of your skincare routine?
How long should you leave between each step of your skincare routine?
As dermatologist Dr. Whitney Bowe explained in a video, “there’s no exact science” but you should be waiting — at least in between some steps. “You don’t want to wait too long between cleansing and starting your skincare routine,” she wrote. “The longer you wait, the more water evaporates off the surface of your skin (trans epidermal water loss).”
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So, what are the benefits of waiting between steps?
To get to the bottom of this issue once and for all, we’ve reached out to a whole bunch of skincare experts to try and make some sense of it all.
