Here’s a no-B.S. guide to creating an all-natural skin care routine for beginners based on your skin type! If you’re new to skin care or want to revamp your routine, I’m so happy you’re here! Skin care can seem like this super-intense process with products you don’t really need. It doesn’t have to be! We’re going to create your ultimate natural skin care routine and tailor it to what your skin really needs.  I’m going to teach you about all the basics you need to have every single day, and how to simplify it as much as possible. And we’re going the natural route, which means your sensitive skin will finally be happy! But what do you actually need?  This post contains affiliate links. You can learn more here. Pin this image for later! What Makes a Natural Skin Care Routine “Natural?” While there’s no set or regulated definition of “natural” or “clean,” I think we can all agree that a natural skin care routine consists of products that only use ingredients derived from nature with no harmful or questionable substances.  What exactly those harmful ingredients are is a bit more complicated. Because there are little to no regulations within the cosmetics industry, clean beauty and natural skin care tends to be more of a spectrum rather than a set black-and-white rule.  What an all-natural skin care routine looks like to you may not look that way to me, and that’s totally okay! I call clean beauty a journey because our viewpoints on ingredient lists can change over time.  You can have your own natural skin care routine be as pure as you want! I personally am very strict with my ingredient lists for multiple reasons, but once you do your own research and form your own opinions, you’ll create your own clean beauty standards as well.  And Essential Moves to Wellness is a great place to start when it comes to clean beauty education!  Just start with gradually switching out your products as they run out with better, safer options. If you don’t know what a safer option looks like, keep reading! Or you can check out my guide to greenwashing, a sleazy marketing tactic everyone should know about.  My #1 Hack For a Flawless Routine If you take nothing else from this article, remember this: The best daily skin care routine for glowing skin uses non-toxic products in order from least to most heavy.  And there should be a good amount of both water and oil-based products! I know that water and oil don’t mix, but you need both to create an effective skin care routine at home.  You need to start with water-based products because they are lighter and therefore penetrate your skin’s barrier much better than oil. But water also tends to evaporate quickly. So then you put on your lotions and oils as a way to lock all that good water into place while it sits on top of your skin as a kind of nutrient-dense barrier.  Oil doesn’t absorb into your skin as deeply as water, but it provides a good amount of protection! That’s why I’m going to have you put most oils or creams on your face towards the end of your skin care routine.  Here’s a real-life example: If you put your toner on after your serum, then the toner will either sit on top of your skin with the serum or evaporate away. It won’t be able to penetrate your skin’s top layer at all because it can’t get through the barrier created by your serum! Now that we have an understanding of using lightest to heaviest natural skin care products, let’s get into which product you actually need! And don’t worry, you don’t need a 10-step routine (Unless that’s your jam, then by all means!).  In fact, I usually combine a couple of these products to make my life easier. It also creates an incredibly affordable skin care routine that you can work into any budget. But pay attention to the order of them! That’s what really counts.  Before You Start: Determine Your Skin Type Before you get a skin care routine for beginners going, you need to determine what kind of skin you have so you can tailor your routine to your skin’s needs. Everybody has a skin type! So take a look at your skin in the mirror and ask yourself some questions.  Does my face get shiny very quickly? Or does it often feel dry and flaky? Do I get an oily T-zone and then a dry forehead and cheeks?  Now that you’re a little more familiar with how your skin behaves, let’s give it a name and find you a routine. Don’t worry if you feel like you don’t quite match up to a skin type. That just means you have combination skin. You don’t have to fit the description perfectly. But it does mean that your routine might take a bit more tweaking. Dry skin—Often feels tight and flaky with little to no signs of oil Oily skin—Face gets shiny quickly, concentrated but not limited to your T-zone Combination skin—Oily T-zone with dry/flaky cheeks and chin For me, I have alwa