A Portuguese summer is long rather than dramatic, and a routine built for it should be the same. Vitamin C is a morning ingredient, and it goes on a cleansed face before cream and before sunscreen. That is the sequence Sesderma sets out for each of its vitamin C products, and it is why the whole thing is simpler than the shelf suggests: three steps on the face in the morning, and two on the body after the shower.
The Face, in the Morning
Start with the Liposomal Vitamin C Brightening Serum. Three to four drops on a cleansed face and neck, morning or evening, patted gently until absorbed. Sesderma is unusually precise about where it belongs: after any water-based serum, before creams, and with sunscreen after it in the morning. The bottle is 30 ml and the dose is counted in drops, so it lasts.
The Vitamin C Liposomal Moisturising Cream is the same family in a heavier texture, 50 ml, applied morning and evening to a cleansed face and neck and pressed in until it has gone. If you use both, the serum goes first: the rule is always the lighter texture before the richer one, and the cream is the richer one here.
Repaskin Facial SPF 50+ Sunscreen closes the morning. Sesderma asks for a generous application as the final step, fifteen minutes before sun exposure, then reapplication every two hours, and after swimming, sweating or towel drying. Those fifteen minutes are the part most people skip, and observing them costs nothing: apply it while the coffee is being made rather than at the door.
- Liposomal Vitamin C Brightening Serum
- Vitamin C Liposomal Moisturising Cream
- Repaskin Facial SPF 50+ Sunscreen
The Body, After the Shower
Instituto Español is the Spanish house much of southern Europe grew up with, and its body range is built in litres rather than millilitres. Two textures cover a summer. The Rosa Mosqueta Body Oil, 400 ml, is warmed between the palms and massaged in circles over damp or dry skin, daily after showering. The Aloe Vera Body Lotion, 500 ml, goes on clean, dry skin and is massaged in until it has absorbed, with the house pointing to the areas that want extra comfort after shaving or waxing.
Oil or lotion is a question of texture and of hour. On damp skin the oil spreads further and takes longer to settle, which suits an evening. The lotion absorbs faster and lets you dress sooner, which suits a morning. There is no need to choose permanently; most summers use both, in different rooms and at different times of day.
Why the Order Is the Whole Trick
Every product in the face routine names the step that comes after it. The serum says creams next; the cream says sunscreen next; the sunscreen says nothing next, because it is last. Follow that chain and there is no decision left to make before eight in the morning. The body half has no chain at all, which is why it can be done half asleep.
The Sizes, and Where Each One Lives
The face steps are small and the body steps are not. Thirty millilitres of serum and fifty each of cream and sunscreen belong in a bathroom cabinet, in that order on one shelf, because a routine kept in three different rooms becomes two routines within a week. The oil is 400 ml and the lotion 500 ml, and both are used standing up with a towel in one hand, so they belong wherever the towels are. In a hot month the sunscreen is the one to duplicate: a second tube in a bag is what makes the two-hourly reapplication happen at all, and it is the only step in this routine that is meant to be repeated away from home.
How Often
- Serum: three to four drops, once a day. Sesderma permits morning or evening; morning is the one that pairs with the sunscreen step.
- Cream: morning and evening on a cleansed face, always before sunscreen in the morning.
- Sunscreen: every morning as the last step, fifteen minutes before going out, then every two hours in the sun.
- Body oil: daily after the shower, on damp or dry skin, warmed in the hands first.
- Body lotion: daily on clean, dry skin, and again on the areas that want it after shaving or waxing.
Three steps and a quarter of an hour in the morning; two steps and a towel in the evening. Kept up across a whole summer, that is a ritual rather than a routine, which is the only kind that survives August.
Laissez un commentaire