Consumers want highly effective skincare routines that support the skin barrier balance. Skin cycling promotes skin barrier health by regulating the use of chemical exfoliants and active ingredients. Let’s take a look at the details of skin cycling and how your brand’s products can support the process.
What is Skin Cycling?
Skin cycling is a four-day skincare routine in which you utilize chemical exfoliation on day one and retinoids or other actives on day two, followed by two rest days that include moisturizing. This cycle promotes less skin irritation commonly seen from using active ingredients like retinoids.
Trending Skincare Ingredients
Niacinamide. Retinoids. Peptides. Alpha hydroxy acids (AHAs) and beta hydroxy acids (BHAs). Ceramides. Salicylic Acid.
As a beauty brand in the industry, you are familiar with all these trending ingredients. But what do they have to do with skin cycling and why is usage frequency important to skin barrier health? Let’s dive in.
Maintaining Skin Barrier Health Through Skin Cycling
Overuse of retinoids, acids or chemical exfoliants can lead to skin barrier breakdown and dryness, which can cause many skincare issues like acne, premature aging, and lackluster skin. Through a proper skin cycling routine, you can effectively use products with active ingredients in the right order to improve efficacy, and then let skin rest for a few nights to breathe with soothing and moisturizing treatments. Thus, maintaining a healthy barrier to keep the skin’s natural moisture locked inside.
Skincare Routine Education
Providing your customers with a thoughtful science-backed skin cycling routine like the examples below helps boost brand authenticity. In this economy, consumers want science to support their skincare purchases and justify cost per use of specialized skincare products like retinols or chemical peels. A skin cycling routine is an opportunity for beauty brands to educate their consumers about ingredients, efficacy, and cost-effective skincare purchases.
Anti-aging skin cycling routine: To combat dullness, uneven skin tone and signs of aging
- Night 1: An AHA/BHA gentle peel pad exfoliates, improves skin texture, and reduces visible signs of aging with glycolic, tartaric and malic acids and niacinamide. Follow this with a vitamin neutralizer pad that hydrates, soothes, and purifies the skin with multi-fruit AHAs, sodium bicarbonate and mineral pyrrolidone carboxylic acids (PCAs) known to balance moisture levels and reduce discoloration.
- Night 2: Use a sheet mask loaded with bakuchiol, a natural retinol alternative that helps normalize individual skin pigmentation and allows the skin to repair itself.
- Nights 3 & 4: Lock in moisture with a drip-free gel-coated mask that hydrates, boosts elasticity and brings balance to the skin with polyglutamic acid, centella Asiatic leaf extract and plant-based squalene.
Balancing skin cycling routine: To combat visible shine, blemishes and provide antioxidant support
- Night 1: An AHA/BHA gentle peel pad exfoliates, improves skin texture, and reduces visible signs of aging with glycolic, tartaric and malic acids and niacinamide. Follow this with a vitamin neutralizer pad that hydrates, soothes, and purifies the skin with multi-fruit AHAs, sodium bicarbonate and mineral pyrrolidone carboxylic acids (PCAs) known to balance moisture levels and reduce discoloration.
- Night 2: Apply a nourishing superfoods sheet mask that utilizes the power of superfoods to support a healthy skin barrier plus green tea, coconut, and avocado oil to provide ultimate hydration.
- Nights 3 & 4: Strengthen the skin barrier and seal in moisture with a fortifying essence mask loaded with glycerin, polyglycerin-3 and glycolyl trehalose.
Opportunity for Beauty Brands
Beauty brands can offer a full skin cycling routine to their consumers by just adding one or two products to their lineup. If your skincare line already offers moisturizers and serums, you can add a gentle chemical peel pad or an advanced formula mask loaded with actives to the collection. Then, use infographics, blogs and ingredient call-outs to build authenticity and educate your consumers about skin cycling.
TaikiUSA is the custom skincare manufacturer that can help expand your beauty brand’s line of skincare with quality product that keeps up with demand. When partnered with us, your brand owns your product formulations, and you can feel confident knowing that our ingredients and raw materials are ethically sourced. We deeply understand skincare challenges, and we help brands of all sizes bring new solutions to market at scale with global reach. Interested in learning more? Click here to start a project.