It’s kinder to our skin
The way we go about applying skincare is important. Right off the bat, we can tell with certainty that the skin on the face is not equal. Different parts of your face require different care methods to achieve the flawless look you’re after. A pinch to the cheeks causes a rosy glow, but a pinch to the undereye area – hello bruising and darkness!
Maybe you’ve been told before never to rub your face with your towel to dry it after you shower or cleanse. That’s because the rough fibre causes microdamage and tearing to your delicate facial skin (and other delicate areas of your body, such as your under arms). Rough massaging can have a similar effect, causing damage you might not see now but could see in a few years time due to a break down in skin elasticity and collagen production.
Skin is one of those things that gives back: the more you care for it, the more it cares for you!
The idea of rubbing skincare products into your face may sound appealing, maybe giving off those massage and at-home-spa vibes. And while it’s true that, in moderation, a facial massage is very beneficial, think of it like an indulgence. It’s not good to do it on the daily in the long run. Why?
Our skin, especially as it ages, can be likened to memory foam. Rubbing and stretching our skin in unnatural positions maybe give us premature wrinkles that we’re trying to avoid. Some excellent creams to tap on for anti-aging include the ETUDE HOUSE Moistfull Collagen Cream.
And you know your undereye? The skin is crazy thin! That’s why it’s the first place that shows when you’ve indulged in a late-night series binge watch. Because it’s so thin, it needs that extra TLC and no rubbing, I repeat, no rubbing! Some K-beauty eye creams come with adorable and useful applicators, like the DR. CEURACLE Royal Vita Propolis 33 Eye Cream.
Delivers more nutrients and moisture when applying skincare
As well as being kinder to skin, the patting technique while applying skincare gives an extra boost of nutrients and moisture as it’s a more concentrated way of delivering the goodness locked within your serum or cream to your skin.
Have you ever tried wiping foundation on instead of dabbing it in with a brush or sponge? It ends up sitting over your pores, making you look a little like an orange peel. It could be the same if you just swiped on your serum and cream, the product sitting above the skin and texture.
By carefully patting it in, it is penetrating the first layer of skin and reaching even further, giving you the results you paid for.
When you dab on your serum or cream, you in effect leave little micro-mountains of moisturiser for your skin to drink up, which is actually exactly what you want when applying skincare. Because you’re not rubbing until the product disappears with patting and tapping, it’s important to leave some time between each layer of skincare to give your skin a chance to fully absorb it.
The caveat is that it definitely takes slightly longer, but in our opinion here at UNBLEMISH, so worth it. You’re going to do it anyway, so why not make it better? Patting = gentle, better absorption, and helps with blood circulation and drainage in the face!
Applying more skincare for where it counts
Of course, some of whatever skincare you use will eventually end up on your hands, and this isn’t a bad thing whatsoever. We want our hands to age gracefully along with our neck and decolletage. But we also don’t want to spend all our hard-earned money on having gloriously smooth hands instead of a gloriously smooth face!
If you rub on your serums and creams, you end up rubbing it all off your face and onto or into your hands. Localizing your skincare to the pads of a few select fingers and dabbing / patting onto your face will minimize your hand’s skin getting greedy and stealing cream from your face.
Of course, you can rub any excess serums or cream into your cuticles after applying the skincare to your priority zones first. This is my preferred method over using a tool for example, because getting some (not all!) of your face skincare onto your hands is a great secret to having luxuriously pampered hands.
You get the best out of each skincare step (especially the 10-step routine)
Patting allows your product formula to be fully absorbed, layer by layer. You’re almost building a little foundation on your skin: toners for the skin’s pH, serums for more intense goodness, treatment creams for tricky hyper-pigmentation or acne scarring, moisturiser to lock in everything etc. Applying your skincare this way is the road to success.
If you rub in each step, you’re essentially breaking up all your hard work and your skin is left a bit confused.
Normal healthy skin is going to be like ‘why the heck have you just smushed Teatree oil on me? I don’t like this! I’m going to break out!” whereas the part of your skin thirsty for concentrated treatment hardly get enough of the restorative properties to be able to heal as quickly as you want it to. Read more about this technique from a dermatologist here.
A plus to patting (gentle slapping too) is that it boosts circulation and gets the blood moving around the face, making your complexion brighter and less fatigued, as well as increase cell-turnover and collagen production. Win, win, win!
Does this mean you can never rub your skin? No, not necessarily. We need to run circles with cleansers, for example. And sometimes, around once a week, a lymphatic draining massage can be very beneficial to your routine. Just view it as a treat or combine it with your oil cleanse.
Hot tip: one of the reasons the rub in method is so popular is because it heats up the serum or cream, thus helping it sink into one’s skin faster. A neat trick to replicate this with the patting technique is to pump out your desired product and proceed to warm it between your fingers before gently patting it on the skin. This works for each step, including cleansers.
If you haven’t tried the patting technique, try it now and compare the difference a few weeks in!