It can be incredibly frustrating when you start a new skin care regime and it just doesn’t meet all your expectations right away. But you know that saying, ‘Good things come to those who wait’? It can take a little while before you begin seeing the results your product of choice promises to deliver on. But how long is too long?
Think of a new skin care regime on your face as the most exquisite garden you’ve ever wanted to cultivate. To grow beautiful green blades of grass, or see the hues of purple and gold on delicate flowers, you need to start at the beginning and be patient with growth. You can’t expect to plant a sunflower seed and see its blooms the next day! Your skin is the same, and patience is key to seeing the results you want.
It’s important that when you start a new skin care routine, most active ingredients in skincare products need at least two months or so to take full effect and achieve your desired results. Practice patience, little grasshopper. If your skin hasn’t improved immediately, it doesn’t mean that it won’t. It just means more time is needed to adjust to the products, and your new routine as a whole.
Also keep in mind that when you start something new, especially if you don’t already have a regimen in place, your skin can go into panic mode, and reach a stage where it looks worse than when you started. This is skin purging, and is different to what you might consider a breakout. It happens when a new skin care product causes pimple formation to speed up and your clogged pores beneath the surface claw their way up in one giant breakout.
One of the wonderful things about our Hydrabotanique skin care range is that the ingredients known to cause these breakouts – retinoid and hydroxyl acids – are ones we don’t use! So if you do breakout slightly from a new routine with natural products, it’s just your body’s way of expelling all the gunk that’s been built up either from years of non-care or chemical-based products.
When we talk about individual types of skin care product, they can vary in result time. Cleansers, for instance, you should be able to notice a difference straight away in whether they’re right for your skin type or not. If your skin feels too dry, cracked, or you get a rash, it will be the wrong product for you.
But let’s go further into the timeline, because the truth is, as difficult as it may be to get into a strict beauty regimen, keeping a consistent schedule is essential if you want to see actual results. As much as we moan and groan about it, creating a habitual routine is key. In the case of rough skin texture and large pores, you’re going to have to wait anywhere between 8 and 12 weeks before you start seeing results.
If you’re looking to brighten up your skin and ease hyperpigmentation, this will take even longer – about 2 to 3 months. Anti-ageing results clearly cannot happen overnight. If it did, we’d be on to a miracle product that reverses the ageing process! Any visible difference can take up to 6 weeks, but the upside is that waiting will pay off in the long run.
Don’t make the mistake of giving up too quickly with your new regimen. Progressively, your skin will begin to adjust – you just need to get through that initial stage to reach your skin’s ‘sweet spot’, and the benefits will far outweigh the waiting game!