Part 3 of the Guide to Troubleshooting your Skin: Weekly Treatments

For the full guide, please visit the Guide to Troubleshooting Your Skin 

Weekly treatments are an integral part of any skincare regimen, especially if you have some specific skincare concerns you want to actively treat.

There are a lot of different weekly treatments out there and they all focus on varying objectives: moisturization, exfoliation, collagen boosting, refining, pore treatments (including black and whitehead removal), brightening, etc. 

Some of the popular modes of treatment include: sheet (face) masks, overnight sleeping packs, face peel pads (e.g. Dr. Dennis Gross alpha-hydroxy peel pads), hydrogel masks, exfoliating scrubs, and more. 

When picking what's right for your skin type, think about what you want to address first.  

Is your skin dry? Then try to add in a 1-2 weekly moisturizing sleeping pack or a weekly hydrating sheet mask.  You can also add a face oil  to your weekly treatments if it isn't something you want to use on a daily basis.

Do you have excessively oily skin and/or blemishes and break outs? Try adding an acid-based peel that comes either in a peel pad or gel/serum format once to twice weekly, depending on how sensitive your skin is to chemical exfoliants.  

Is your skin irritated or very sensitive? You can incorporate sheet masks with aloe vera, snail mucin, lavender, chamomile, or other soothing ingredients into your weekly skincare regimen.  But make sure you steer clear from products that contain alcohol, because this can exacerbate sensitive skin issues.  However, if it's listed lower down the ingredient list, there probably isn't enough to irritate your skin so don't disregard a good product just cause of this rule! 

Do you have anti-wrinkle and anti-aging concerns? Try sleeping packs, sheet masks, or cream masks that contain snail mucin, collagen, and hyaluronic acid in the ingredient lists.  Also, anti-oxidants such as green tea extracts can help combat free-radical stress and restore your skin to a more youthful appearance. You can also add a face oil high in anti-oxidants to your weekly treatments if it isn't something you want to use on a daily basis.  

Are you concerned with acne scars or hyperpigmentation? Look for weekly treatments that contain vitamin C, AHA/BHA, retinol, arbutin, mulberry extracts, licorice extracts, or tranexamic acid.  These ingredients, when used effectively with a low pH skin care regimen, can help to reduce dark spots on your skin as well as help brighten its overall tone.

Last, but not least, do you struggle with clogged pores (i.e. black/white heads)? I know I do, and the best way to combat these would be pore strips or a three step pore pack like the one offered by Skinmiso.  There are other clay masks that can help to "absorb" excess oil and dirt out of pores, but they do very little in actually removing existing black/white heads that are stuck in your skin.  Those will need either manual removal with a black/white head pick (the skincare esthetician tool with the needle on one end and the metal hoop on the other) or pore strips.