I have reached a point in my life in which I have realized the importance of my skincare routine. As I inch ever closer toward 40, I see the fine lines and wrinkles and the worsening of those pesky under-eye circles that certainly don’t improve with my 4:00 a.m. wake-up time. Even though I know that spending time on my skin, especially the skin on my face, is crucial, I am tired. I have 2 small kids, a full-time job, and a whole lot of life to live that doesn’t leave me much time to devote to skincare on a daily basis.
As I discussed in my Tips to Relieve Dry Winter Skin post, I also have eczema. So skincare for me isn’t just about vanity (although it is a lot about vanity). I must put time into caring for my skin to keep my condition under control.
Considering my eczema, my inability to stop advancing the clock, and my chronic fatigue, I put my mind to devising the ultimate skincare routine for tired moms. My goal was to put the health of my skin first, promote graceful aging, and do it in as little time each day as possible. I read the blogs, watched the YouTube videos, did the trial and error and came up with a routine that is gentle on my sensitive skin, cost-effective, and has been completely sustainable. My hope is that the research and testing I put into cracking the skincare for tired moms code helps you to simplify this one area of your busy life.
Skincare Routine
Morning
Shower
I am a morning shower person. The little ritual of stepping into a warm, steamy shower cues my brain into being ready for the day ahead. For me, a shower is the easiest step in my whole skincare routine. The only skincare I do in the shower is get my face wet. I do not wash my face with a cleanser in the morning.
I have found that washing my face twice a day really dries it out and leads to more eczema flare-ups. If you have extremely oily skin, you might need to wash your face both morning and night, but if you’ve been doing the twice-a-day thing and your skin is in rough shape, it might be worth it to try washing your face only in the evening.
Vitamin C
The next step in my morning routine is to apply Vitamin C. It’s an antioxidant that is supposed to make your skin appear brighter, but my main reason for including it in my morning skincare routine is to make my sunscreen work better. I’m a tired mom, so I’m looking for efficiencies in my skincare routine and Vitamin C before sunscreen packs a punch!
I apply the Vitamin C product to my pretty damp face almost immediately after I get out of the shower. Applying the product to wet skin makes it all the more effective – another tip for maximizing skincare for tired moms!
There are sooo many products on the market that contain Vitamin C in many different forms. I have found that my skin responds best to products that use straight-up ascorbic acid rather than a Vitamin C-derivative. Ascorbic acid isn’t the most stable substance, though, so be mindful of what other ingredients are used in conjunction with ascorbic acid in the product you are buying and also what the packaging looks like.
My favorite Vitamin C product is Timeless Skincare’s 20% Vitamin C Serum. This serum combines ascorbic acid with Vitamin E and ferulic acid (which help to stabilize the Vitamin C), and it’s packaged in an opaque bottle, which keeps the ascorbic acid from oxidizing in the bottle and becoming a useless waste of money. It’s a winner if you’re in the market for a new Vitamin C product!
Moisturizer
As soon as I finish patting that Vitamin C serum into my face, it’s on to moisturizer. Don’t dilly dally with this step. It is so important to lock that moisture into your skin as soon as humanly possible.
The ingredient I prioritize in a daytime moisturizer is ceramides. With my eczema-prone skin, it’s crucial that I maintain the health of my skin barrier, and ceramides are the best way to make sure I keep it in tip-top shape. Ceramides slow down water-loss by holding onto the moisture in your skin, keeping your face from looking crusty and gross. I think we can all agree that no one wants a crusty face.
My all-time favorite moisturizer to apply in the morning is VaniCream Daily Facial Moisturizer. It’s creamy enough to make my face feel supple and happy but doesn’t feel greasy. It’s a winner!
Sunscreen
This is the most important step of any skincare routine – tired or not! Do not skip sunscreen every morning, I beg of you!
It took me over 30 years to make sunscreen a part of my daily routine, but I will never go back. I wear sunscreen on my face 365 days a year (366 this year!). It doesn’t matter if it’s hot or cold, sunny or rainy, I wear sunscreen. And I highly recommend that you do the same.
I typically pick a tinted mineral sunscreen for my face. My sensitive, eczema-prone skin does not appreciate chemical sunscreens, but I’m not in love with that ghostly look you get with traditional white mineral sunscreens. Tinted mineral sunscreens can get very pricey, but I’ve found that Neutrogena Purescreen+ is a great budget-friendly option. I appreciate that it comes in multiple tints, because my extremely fair cool-toned skin doesn’t mix well with most very warm shades favored by the cosmetic companies.
Although I do like tinted mineral sunscreens, my favorite sunscreen for you is whatever sunscreen you like and will wear consistently. It’s so important and it takes 30 seconds to apply.
Evening
Two-step cleanse
Although some may read two-step cleanse and think it’s incompatible with a skincare routine for tired moms, hear me out! I promise I don’t do anything that takes more time than is necessary.
The first part of my two-step cleanse is an oil-based cleanser. The oil content in these sorts of cleansers gently melts any makeup, sunscreen, and gunk off your face. They are particularly awesome for removing mascara, which I find never wants to leave my eyelashes once it has been applied. There are a ton of these on the market these days, but the one I keep going back to is The Inkey List’s Oat Makeup Removing Cleansing Balm. It does a decent job removing the sunscreen and minimal makeup that I wear and doesn’t leave my skin red, tingly, or inflamed thanks to the colloidal oatmeal (an eczema-sufferer’s best friend).
My second cleansing step consists of using a traditional facewash to get rid of any oil residue from my first cleanse. Traditional facewashes are great for this, but not go great at removing the stubborn stuff we put on our faces each day, so that’s why the two-step process is a must. I make sure to pick a super hydrating cleanser that won’t leave me with that dry, tight, squeaky-clean feel. My go-to for this step is CeraVe Hydrating Facial Cleanser. It is so creamy and leaves my face feeling plump and moist. It’s also fragrance-free, which I very much appreciate.
Alternating actives
I use two active ingredients in my evening skincare routine, but never on the same night. I’m not saying you can’t combine active ingredients, many people can with great success. My super sensitive skin just cannot deal with too much at one time, though. So instead of picking one and foregoing all others, I alternate.
The first active ingredient I use in the evenings is a retinoid. I’m sure you’ve heard that retinoids are the gold standard in anti-aging skincare. They are backed by lots of clinical evidence demonstrating increased collagen production and decreased wrinkles. Yeah, sign me up for that! The best retinoid to use is prescription strength tretinoin. But this involves going to the dermatologist pretty regularly, and I just don’t have time for that at this stage of life (I’m a tired mom, remember!).
So, I opt for adapalene, also known as Differin Gel. This is a new entrant to the over-the-counter drug world. When I was a teenager, you could only get Differin via prescription. It doesn’t have as much data behind its ability to increase collagen and decrease wrinkles, but what data there are seem promising.
The other active ingredient that I use on alternating evenings is a chemical exfoliant. One side-effect of getting older is that your skin cells don’t turn over as quickly as they once did. To speed up this process a bit, it’s a great idea to exfoliate, either physically or chemically. As I’ve mentioned approximately 67 times in this article, I have eczema. Physical exfoliants and eczema do not mix. It’s just not a good idea to physically abrade a damaged skin layer.
With physical exfoliants off the table, I turn to chemical exfoliants. You can go with alpha hydroxy acids (AHAs), beta hydroxy acids (BHAs), or poly hydroxy acids (PHAs). AHAs are your work-horse chemical exfoliants, BHAs are great for acne, and PHAs are super mild. One might think I would go the PHA route, but I don’t. I use lactic acid, which is a milder AHA. It’s the Goldilocks of chemical exfoliants for me.
Moisturizer
Just as in the morning, I seal off my nighttime skincare routine with moisturizer. If you don’t have crazy dry skin, eczema, or some other skin condition, you can likely just use the same moisturizer you use in the morning before bed. That doesn’t work for me. I need a much thicker cream for overnight, even in the warmer months.
I always go for a cream that is packed with ingredients that are nourishing and great for the skin like ceramides, niacinamide, or coenzyme Q10. My pick for a night cream in the Spring and Summer is Eucerin Q10 Antiwrinkle Face Cream. It’s just thick enough to get the job done, but my face doesn’t feel like it’s being suffocated in the heat and humidity of the warmer months.
In the Fall and Winter there is no better option than CeraVe Skin Renewing Night Cream. I have tried many many night creams in my day, and even creams that have extremely similar ingredient lists don’t hold a candle to this product. They will have to rip this night cream from my cold, dead hands to get me to give it up. I live in fear of it being discontinued. Give it a try, I promise I’m not over-hyping it!
That’s it! This is the best skincare for tired moms. It takes me only a handful of minutes morning and evening, and it works well. I hope you give it a try as a Mother’s Day gift to yourself this year!