I have very specific morning and evening routines. If I didn’t have these routines, I know I could be in bed at a more reasonable hour (and get my day started more quickly, too). But alas, I am a girl who has a multi-step skincare routine and a bunch of little “to-do’s” I like to take care of in the midst of these routines. Since I am someone who struggles with doing one thing at a time (I’m working on it), I’ve built a morning/evening routine that incorporates little substeps within each bigger step. AKA: I don’t wash my face and then swipe on toner and then do my serums, etc. I wash my face… and then I make my bed and tidy up an area of my apartment. Then, I do my toner. I don’t know why I’m like this but I find it enjoyable to mark off a bunch of little steps in the midst of my skincare regimen. Plus, it allows the different products to sit on my face for a longer period of time. Is this effective? I have no idea, but I like to believe it helps a little.
This also means my morning and evening routines take a lot longer than they normally would. My morning routine isn’t too bad (it takes me about 20 minutes on average) but my evening routine takes forever. Usually an hour to an hour and a half from start to finish, but I take lots of breaks during this routine. Usually, I’ll set a timer for 10 minutes, do as many tasks as possible, and then when it goes off, I get 10 minutes to sit at my laptop and work on blog posts/read blog posts/catch up on personal email/etc. I usually need four 10-minute sets to get through the entire routine, so yeah, it adds up!
I want to note that many nights (like maybe half the time?), I do an abbreviated version of my morning or evening routine. Usually, I just don’t have the energy at the end of the night to do the full routine. You’ll see what that abbreviated version looks like at the end of each bullet list.
Without further ado, here are my morning and evening routines! (Like I mentioned above, each big task has two subtasks beneath it. I need to complete those subtasks before moving onto the next big task. AKA, I brush my teeth, get dressed, and empty the top shelf of the dishwasher before getting started on my skincare routine. Then I wash my face, make my bed, and empty the silverware from the dishwasher before doing toner. Etc etc.)
MORNING
- Brush teeth
- Get dressed
- Empty the top shelf of the dishwasher
- Step 1 of skincare: Cleanser (La Roche Posay Toleriane Purifying Facial Cleanser with Niacinamide)
- Make bed
- Empty silverware from dishwasher
- Step 2 of skincare: Toner (La Roche Posay Effaclar Salicylic Acid Clarifying Toner)
- Fill up water bottle
- Empty bottom shelf of dishwasher
- Step 3 of skincare: Niacinamide serum (The Ordinary Niacinamide 10% with Zinc 1%)
- Take meds
- Tidy bedroom and bathroom
- Step 4 of skincare: Vitamin C serum (innisfree Green Tea Enzyme Vitamin C Brightening Serum)
- Disinfect CPAP mask and dump out humidifier water
- Tidy kitchen
- Step 5 of skincare: Moisturizer (CeraVe Daily Moisturizing Face Lotion)
- Do hair/makeup
- Tidy living areas
Abbreviated version: brush teeth, fill water bottle, take meds, and do CPAP duties. Mayyybe empty the dishwasher if I have the energy.
EVENING
*Anything listed with the asterisk is the same as the morning
- Scoop litter boxes
- Do one chore (like cleaning the toilet, vacuuming the bedroom, or wiping down the bathroom sink)
- Tidy bedroom
- Brush teeth
- Put on pajamas
- Tidy main living area
- Step 1 of skincare: Cleanser*
- Fill water bottle
- Tidy dining area
- Step 2 of skincare: Exfoliator (Paula’s Choice Skin Perfecting 2% BHA Liquid Exfoliant)
- Do my nightly psoriasis treatment
- Tidy dropoff zone (the ledge above my kitchen counter that is right near my front door)
- Step 3 of skincare: Toner*
- Fill humidifier with distilled water and click it back into the CPAP machine
- Tidy bathroom
- Step 4 of skincare: Niacinamide*
- Fill in my One Line a Day journal
- Make tomorrow’s to-do list
- Step 5 of skincare: Hyaluronic acid serum (The Ordinary’s Hyaluronic Acid 2% + B5 Hydrating Serum)
- Tidy left side of kitchen
- Wipe down counters
- Step 6 of skincare: Glycolic acid serum (La Roche Posay Dark Spot Corrector Glycolic B5 Face/Anti-Aging Serum)
- Tidy right side of kitchen
- Wipe down counters
- Step 7 of skincare: Moisturizer*
- Put away any lingering cat bowls/fill up their water bowl
- Start dishwasher
Abbreviated version: Brush teeth, swipe face with a makeup wipe, fill up water bottle, and make sure any dirty dishes are, at the very least, inside the dishwasher (even if I don’t start it that night).
Do you have ridiculous morning/evening routines or are you normal?
I would say that I need entry and exit time in the morning and at night. I have a lot less skincare going down, but I still have my “stuff”
Morning – work out, make coffee, shower, hang out with dog & Hubs while chillaxing on the internets.
Night – quick tidy up, set up coffee stuff for next morning, go upstairs and get in bed and read/snuggle with dog. Take shower (my morning shower is for workout sweat, my very quick night shower is mainly to help with dry eye syndrome), get in bed for real, do NYT crossword, sleep!
Well… let’s just say if I had your routines, my skin would look much better and my house would be cleaner! My “routines” mostly center around brushing and flossing, In the morning there’s also cats to feed, and if it’s a school day, making my daughter’s lunch and breakfast. And then I go for my run if it’s a running day. I think I need some more personal care in there somewhere.
My lack of morning and evening routines is appalling. I think it tells you everything you need to know about me that I don’t own any moisturizer or toner, and my “cream” for morning and night is a little dab of coconut oil.
I do brush my teeth in the morning and at night, though (and usually in the middle of the day at least once as well) and in the morning I make the bed and at night I write in my One Line A Day Journal. That’s about…it. 😐
WHERE IS YOUR SUNSCREEN? Yes, all caps. You LIVE IN FLORIDA.
My routine is also multistep, but I do all of it at once: clean, moisturize, (SUNSCREEN), makeup. If I walked away between steps, I know that I’d never come back.
You overestimate how much time I’m spending outside, lol. I put on regular face sunscreen if I’ll be spending time outside but I’m typically not going outside long enough for it to matter. But when I *am* going to be outside for longer than a few minutes, I always wear a hat + face sunscreen!
My routines are very streamlined, especially my morning routine since time is precious in the morning! Part 1 is done upstairs in our bathroom: I put in contacts, brush my teeth, shower (and wash my face in the shower with a charcoal bar), put on ordinary caffeine serum, put on moisturizer. Then part 2 happens in the main floor bathroom. Part 2 is putting on make-up and blow drying hair. Then I get the kids up, eat breakfast, usher them through their morning routines (Paul is EASY PEASY because he is a morning person, Taco is very very very very very obstinate in the morning). Ideally we are all out the door at 7am.
My evening routine is also pretty condensed. I often floss my teeth while watching a show with Phil. Then I go upstairs to our bathroom, put on pajamas, take out my contacts, wash my face, apply toner, put on that caffeine serum again, put on tretoin (sp?) cream, put on lotion, and go to bed to read!
I’ve followed my mum’s recipe for face care which is basically a small glass of hot lemon and honey first thing before breakfast. Nivea soft on my face and next after my shower, and then, last thing at night after I steam my face, more Nivea soft.
I’m in awe of how organised you are.
Okay, it’s early in the morning, but at first I thought that you took an hour and a half at night to do your skincare routine and I was like, girl, what? What are you doing? But there are OTHER THINGS! This all makes more sense.
You KNOW I love reading about other people’s daily lives so I enjoyed this. I’m trying to think what my nighttime routine consists of. Kind of nothing other than skincare and jammies. I basically finish all my to-do stuff before the evening because I am a zombie by 8:30-9:00.
I love knowing how other people do the things we all do! I think I tend to mix and match some routine stuff, too, like starting my tea and then washing my face or unloading the dishwasher while it brews. My current skincare routine is wash my face with my medicated, foul smelling face wash, then “put whatever I feel like on my face at night” and mix CeraVe nighttime moisturizer with Neutrogena Daily Defense sunscreen every morning.
I sometimes wonder if I was raised by wolves because I do no face/skincare. I put on sunscreen if I am going to be outside, but it is just regular SPF 30 or 50 and it goes all over my body including my face. Otherwise, my morning is brush teeth and put in contacts and my evening is brush teeth and take out contacts. I usually shower when I am done running or exercising so often that is at a random time of day.
You DO have a serious routine. I like to think that I have a routine but it’s a lot less rigid than yours. And I do thinks in chunks… I do NOT walk away when I do my skincare to do other things. My skincare is rather minimalistic though (wash face, put on moisturizer/suncreen and maybe a little translucent powder in the am).
This is exhausting me to read.
I am happy it works for you but I couldn’t do that.
My skin care is ridiculous compared to yours.
I use a tone, then my hyaluron cream. Sometimes I use a serum before.
At night I sometimes use an argan oil instead of my face cream. But I do it how my skin feels.
The other little steps to tidy app and stuff would be helpful but if I want to go to bed I go to bed.
It’s exhausting to DO every day. I don’t know why I’ve done this to myself, but alas.
This is why your skin is going to stay amazing as you age! Mine is lucky if I use a makeup remover at night. 😉
Our nighttime routine feels ridic, but it’s just because I hate cleaning up in the kitchen and dread it LOL.
Engie beat me to it – sunscreen! Every day! You sit by windows, in Florida!
OK, I’m done. And these routines are epic. Mine are laughable by comparison (my face “cleaning” routine has now been reduced to water-sunscreen (AM) – fragrance free moisturizer made by a former hippie (or, well, can you ever be a FORMER hippie?) in my parents’ town. LOL.
Does each kitty have her own litter box?