Best Skincare for Teens

The best skincare for teens is ultimately a routine you can follow. Start off simple, treat your skin like the royalty it is, know that acne is common but not the only battle to fight, and that there are a bajillion products out there and you don’t need most of them! We also know that proper skincare doesn’t start and end at acne care, though we all want to avoid pimples whenever possible.

What about acne?

Let’s get this one out of the way first, since acne-prone skin is the thing people seem to be forever associating with teenage skin. Acne is a fact of life for everyone. Let me repeat: Who will get a zit at some point in their lives? Every. Single. Human. Even babies get acne!

If major breakouts or ongoing issues with acne are plaguing you, discovering what type of acne you have will help you figure out how to treat it. Knowing more about your acne can help you to know which products to avoid and which to add. The main types to look at are cystic, hormonal, and acne caused by products, all of which genetics, stress, and environment factors contribute to.

In general, it’s best to clean, but not over cleanse, your skin and avoid potential pore-clogging ingredients. There’s a lot of content out there about acne already. But skincare for teens doesn’t have to center on acne alone.

Tip: If you have acne or are fighting a particularly brutal breakout, change your pillowcase every 2-3 days. Making sure everything your face is touching is coming in contact with a clean surface gives your skin the upper hand in repairing and mending itself.

Avoid abrasive products

When any of us get acne, our gut is often to reach for abrasive products or physical exfoliants. Products like AHA, BHA, and scrubs or certain face masks *can* be helpful with acne treatment and/or prevention, but are also easy to overdo. Keep in mind that teenage skin is more elastic and it’s harder to tell if you’re going too rough with rubbing, scrubbing, or product layering until it’s too late.

Beating it up by laying on the products and scrubbing and scrubbing the skin is a recipe for irritation (and yes, acne) and can damage the lipid barrier, which causes more irritation (and, yep, acne), and so the cycle continues.

Tip: Instead, slowly incorporate some exfoliants or acne treatments. A good rule is to pick one of each and don’t exfoliate more than once a week.

Properly care for dry skin

Flaky skin is dry skin. Your instinct might be to turn to an exfoliant to get the flaking skin off (I know mine still is!), but that causes further irritation by leading to additional dryness, and again, a cycle continues. Instead, using repairing and moisturizers containing ingredients like ceramides and peptides help repair the skin and help dry skin become healthy skin.

Additionally, we sometimes think our products aren’t working well if we don’t feel like something magical is happening. We may think that feeling tightening, burning sensations, or stinging or tingling means a product is working extra well or penetrating more deeply. Some products tingle, some don’t, and anything that burns isn’t going to be your friend for long.

You also don’t have to be afraid of oils. Though folks with oilier skin will want to use non-comedogenic oils—oil that doesn’t cause acne— oil is a necessary part of the skin biome and research continues to show that many plant oils have anti-inflammatory properties and support the skin barrier. Remember too that, beyond dryness and flaking, the body’s response to under moisturized skin is to create more oil.

Focus on barrier repair

The lipid barrier is an upper layer of skin that acts as a protector. When the lipid barrier is disrupted, including through over exfoliation, focusing on barrier repair enables the skin to rehydrate. Moisturizers with peptides and ceramides are an easy way to quench thirsty skin and help the lipid barrier repair itself. Products containing peptides and ceramides can also be added separately, in addition to a good moisturizer.

No matter what, be gentle with whatever products you choose to use. Barrier repair is your friend at all ages; supporting and protecting a healthy skin barrier now is definitely setting the skin up for success as you age.

Fun fact: Barrier repair is the main focus of the exceedingly popular K-Beauty (AKA Korean beauty) and nourishing the skin, hydration and barrier repair are all main tenets of that philosophy.

Start good habits now

The best routine is one you can actually follow. Below is a simplified version of our popular Skincare 101 guide that’s perfect for teens or beginners.

1. Use a gentle cleanser.
Wash your skin morning and night and remove makeup. You don’t have to scrub like your life depends on it. Use even-handed, gentle, circular motions.

2. Moisturize.
We talked about this above, but it’s THAT important! Heavier moisturizers are better in the winter when the skin is craving more, lighter lotions and serums are better in the summer when our bodies produce more sweat and oil.

3. Wear sunscreen.
My motivation for finally wearing sunscreen more often involves not wanting wrinkles. But for someone with teenage skin, let me tell you about hyperpigmentation…

Hyperpigmentation can go hand in hand with acne, so as the site of a former pimple heals, think of it as a new, raw piece of fresh baby skin that’s now on the surface and facing the harsh reality of sun and daily life. Putting sunscreen on helps it from becoming a dark spot or more permanent addition to the topography of your face. Dermatologists think sunscreen is *the* biggest thing we can do for our skin, and it’s extra important when you have acne.

Final thoughts

That’s it. That’s the routine. Simple. Easy to follow. And it’s easy to add onto as you find things you want to try — please, one experiment at a time — or as you get older. Your skincare routine should change some as you age, but creating good practices and habits now will set your skin up for success in the future.

Leah M. Charney (she/her) is sassy yet classy and is always seeking a beauty routine to match. She delights in both the science and aesthetics of the clean beauty movement.