There may be an enormous contradiction staring back at you in the mirror while you do your morning skin care routine. A common AM routine may begin with cleansing, followed by the application of several layers of quality skin care products, like our Collagen or Hyaluronic Acid Serums. But then the trouble begins: on top of the skin care products, extensive makeup may be applied, sending a healthy routine awry.

The contradiction lies in the different goals between these two classes of product. While skin care products focus on the health and nourishment of the skin, makeup serves a primarily cosmetic role, seeking to achieve a particular aesthetic above all else—sometimes at a cost to skin health. 

Does there have to be a hard-and-fast division between makeup and skin care? With Skin Actives products, a new paradigm is emerging in which makeup can be made to serve both roles, providing a cosmetic enhancement while caring for your skin at the same time. In this blog, we’ll look at two types of makeup products that can be easily improved with the addition of beneficial actives—along with one type that’s too problematic from a health perspective to be worth saving.

1. Foundation

2. Lip gloss

3. Mascara 

1. Set a Foundation for Skin Health 

Foundation is a common starting point in a makeup routine, intended to conceal imperfections with a material closely matching your skin in coloration. Your foundation may contain substances like titanium and zinc oxide that will provide limited sun protection, but the main ingredients are likely used to keep pigments in suspension. While these ingredients may support the shelf life of the product or influence the appearance of the foundation (such as giving it a reflective spark), they won’t do much for your skin’s health, and some may even be harmful. 

For instance, steer clear of foundations containing an ingredient dubiously called “coconut acid.” While this designation is meaningless from a chemistry perspective, it appears to denote a mixture of fatty acids derived from coconut oil. Unfortunately, these fatty acids are a banquet for acne-causing bacteria. Ask yourself: is extending the shelf life of your foundation worth a hefty bill from a dermatologist? 

Under ideal circumstances, foundation should be applied over Skin Actives’ Collagen Serum, ensuring proper nourishment for your skin at the base level. But what about modifying the foundation itself to improve its skin care value? One simple measure is to mix the Collagen Serum into your foundation. This can be done by adding a few milliliters directly into the foundation and inverting the bottle twice. 

Another option is to supercharge your foundation with Antioxidant Booster, turning your inert foundation into a potent tool against oxidative stress. Use caution when trying this approach, however, as the powerful actives in Antioxidant Booster carry a rich color—adding more than a drop may alter the color of your foundation. 

2. Make Your Lips Shine for the Right Reasons 

For something as simple and quick-to-use as lip gloss, is it really worth considering how to improve its skin care potential? Examining the ingredient list of a top lip gloss product tells us why the answer is yes. The main ingredients (those at the top of the list) serve as solvents or dispersants for cosmetic ingredients, like color pigments. While some useful oils can be found further down on the list, they won’t deliver much beneficial action for the skin in the volumes represented here. 

The first step you can take to improve your lip care is applying Lip Collagen Treatment before the lip gloss. By facilitating collagen production, Lip Collagen Treatment will help to smooth out fine lines and wrinkles, while also delivering a healthy boost of antioxidants. Its lush, moisturizing texture makes it the perfect base for a layer for cosmetic lip gloss, giving your lips an even healthier shine.

Another way to enhance your lip gloss is to add a few drops of Antioxidant Booster.

Sound familiar? By now it should be apparent that a bottle of Skin Actives’ Antioxidant Booster can go a long way in improving your skin care routine. 

A note of caution: although we know it sounds tempting, skip the Collagen Serum when adding actives to your lip gloss. As a water-based product, Collagen Serum likely won’t mix properly with the oil-based lip gloss, putting both products to waste.

3. Know When to Cut Your Losses 

Up until now, we’ve shown how easily cosmetic products can be modified to introduce a component of skin wellness. Unfortunately, not all makeup products can be transformed into a healthy alternative with a few drops of Antioxidant Booster: some are simply too damaging to be redeemed. Let’s take a look at mascara. 

Many mascara products on the market today bill themselves as skin care products. Upon close examination of the ingredient lists, however, it becomes impossible to avoid the conclusion that these claims are misleading. Why? The many waxes, cellulose derivatives, and fragrances will block pores and affect the division and metabolism of the keratinocytes, the cells that produce hair. 

Far from producing positive outcomes, these mascara products are more likely to cause eyelash fall-off and growth slowdown. And don’t be fooled by positive messaging like, “Paraben-free. Phthalate-free. Fragrance-free.” Just because a product doesn’t contain notably damaging ingredients (and they often do, in spite of the messaging) doesn’t mean that it will do anything to support skin or hair health. 

What should we do, then, if even mascaras disguised as care products are actually damaging?

One option is to avoid mascara altogether. Here at Skin Actives, we don’t believe that cosmetic products are necessary to achieve beautiful skin. But if mascara is an absolute necessity in your routine, we recommend using an inexpensive mascara and removing it as soon as possible. By all means, wear it for your night at the opera, but take it off as soon as you get home, preferably using an oil-based makeup remover like Skin Actives’ Cleansing Oil. The longer the mascara stays there, the less eyelashes you will see in your future.

A healthier option may be to revive your eyelashes using Skin Actives’ Brow and Lash Serum. Harnessing the fortifying properties of Keratinocyte Growth Factor and Sea Kelp Coral, Brow and Lash Serum will stimulate fuller, more nourished lashes, without the need to coat them in heavy waxes and cellulose derivatives.

As you can see, it’s important to consider the impact of everything that you put on your skin, whether you’re using a given product to address a skin problem or to achieve a particular aesthetic effect. Just because makeup serves a cosmetic role doesn’t mean it should act neutrally—or even harmfully—on your skin. With a few DIY solutions from Skin Actives, you can upgrade your makeup from cosmetics to skin care.