Little Known Hacks for Getting the Most Out of Your Skin Care Products

1. Identify your skin type

These days, there are skin care products on the market to tackle just about any issue, but it's super helpful to know your skin type and what you want to achieve. Does your skin usually feel dry, oily, normal, sensitive, or a combination of more than one of these?

To help you figure out which one you have, wash your face with a gentle cleanser and don’t apply any makeup. Then, wait an hour.

If your skin feels tight, rough, or flaky, you may have dry skin. If your face tends to look shiny and feels greasy, especially on your forehead, nose, and chin (that's the T-zone), you might have oily skin. If your T-zone is oily but your cheeks are dry or normal, that's likely to be combination skin. If your skin feels balanced—not too dry or too oily—you have ‘normal’ or well balanced skin. And if your skin easily reacts to new products or gets red and irritated often, you might have sensitive skin.

2. Understand what’s essential, and what’s extra

Cleansing and moisturising are most people’s skin care ‘essentials’. This is a great place to start, because it can form the foundation of your whole routine.

Once you've got those down, you can start adding in the fun stuff like serums, toners, and other products. These are your ‘extras’, and they’re made to enhance your routine or target specific results. Start simple with just a couple of products and then gradually build up to a multi-step regime.

3. Consider skin care tech

Skin care products are not just lotions and potions. There are also some exciting electric beauty products out there too, like the Shark CryoGlow LED Mask, which uses red LEDs, blue LEDs, and Infrared to help deliver noticeable skin results at home. LED masks could help boost your skin care routine or provide some consistency while you experiment with other products.

4. Build a skincare routine – slowly

It can be a good idea to try out one product at a time, gradually adding steps into your routine one by one. This makes it easier to identify the culprit if something doesn’t agree with your skin. Stop using a product immediately if you experience any adverse reactions.

5. Remember that one routine may not suit you forever

Changes to your skin health, hormones, age, and environment can all impact your skin and the way it reacts to products. You may need to change your routine over time, as your skin ages.

LED masks like the Shark CryoGlow are a great option if you’re looking for a product that you can adapt as your routine changes – different modes may suit you at different times, as your skin’s needs change. For example, you may initially want to focus on the Blemish Repair routine, using it daily for 8 weeks, then later you may decide to try an 8-week Better Ageing routine. You can also personalise Under-Eye Chill mode with 3 different temperatures to suit your mood, day to day – you might even like to use a cooler setting to help wake you up in the morning, or a gentler temperature to relax in the evening.

Can I use different skincare products every day?

You should always read the instructions for each product, as usage instructions will vary.

While it might be tempting to switch up your skin care products every day, it can be best to stick to a consistent routine – for example, Shark CryoGlow should be used once daily for 8 weeks to see the best results. Remember, it can take a few weeks of consistent use to show noticeable results.

Which skin care products should not be refrigerated?

It’s best to carefully read each product’s storage instructions, as this will vary for every product.

Some people love keeping eye creams and gels in the fridge because it feels nice and cool when you put them on – thankfully, Shark CryoGlow has an integrated Under-Eye Cooling mode to help soothe and depuff tired eyes with adjustable temperatures whenever you like, so there’s no need to banish your eye creams to the kitchen.

Can I use skincare products after the expiration date?

We all know about ‘best before’ dates on food, but cosmetic products do have expiration dates too. Look for the 'PAO' (Period After Opening) icon on the label – a number generally followed by an 'M' and an open jar symbol. This tells you how many months you can use the product for, after opening. You may sometimes see this timeframe given in years, rather than months.

Can men use women’s skincare products?

Most skin care products are gender neutral. Shark CryoGlow is designed for a universal, comfortable fit.