Skin Care Cycling
By: Tana Mardian
If you’ve been on social media in the past month, you might be overwhelmed with the amount of skincare recommendations you’ve heard. With much debate about which products give you “glass skin” or the “glazed doughnut” look, figuring out our best skin care routine can be a confusing and expensive process to keep up with. While many influencers speak only from experience about their favorite products, other figures on social media have clinical experience in this realm. Board-certified dermatologist Dr. Whitney Bowe has taken over the Tik Tok world with her trademarked method, coined “skin cycling.” So what is skincare cycling, and how does it work?
This system was designed to break down how to best layer our skincare products, as well as to clear up the confusion around the frequency at which we should use “active” products, like retinoids and chemical exfoliants (Jackson, 2022). With this in mind, Dr. Bowe has broken down the skincare cycle into four main steps that take place over four nights: Exfoliation Night (night one), Retinoid Night (night two), and Recovery Nights (nights three + four).
Night One: Exfoliation Night. This step is all about preparing the skin for the next night. After cleansing, Dr. Bowe recommends using an exfoliant — specifically a chemical exfoliant over a gritty, sandy physical exfoliant or scrub (Bowe, 2022). A widely-known chemical exfoliant is alpha hydroxy acids (AHAs). The most common AHAs seen on the market are glycolic acid and lactic acid, but this categorization extends to malic acid, lactic acid, citric acid, pyruvic acid, and others. The mechanism of a physical exfoliant makes sense in removing dead skin cells, but how does a chemical exfoliant work?
While AHAs gained popularity in the mid-1990s for their anti-aging properties, in this case, their exfoliating abilities are the main focus. The precise mechanism by which AHAs exfoliate is still largely a mystery, but the current understanding is that AHAs are able to remove calcium ions from epidermal cells, or the skin cells of our outermost layer of skin. This results in a weakening of the connection between skin cells and therefore causes dead and dry skin cells to shed and flake (Tran et al, 2015). This will allow for the next night to have an even greater effect.
Night Two: Retinoid Night. Dr. Bowe states that retinoids can be one of the most important steps in your skincare routine (Bowe, 2022). Retinoids, derivatives of vitamin A, are often used topically for their anti-aging properties.
When we think about the aging process of skin, there are two main components: chronological aging and photoaging. While chronological aging is inevitable as we get older, photoaging occurs from our continuous exposure to the sun, and therefore, UV light. While sun exposure accelerates aging by various mechanisms, much of this damage ultimately results in reactive oxygen species (ROS). ROS lead to changes in genes and proteins, causing skin damage (Mukherjee et al., 2006). So how can retinoids combat these changes?
Retinoids are known as one of the most effective options for slowing the skin’s aging process. While the mechanism of this is complex, retinoids help regulate how our cells replicate, differentiate, and continue the cell cycle. Retinoids advance the proliferation of keratinocytes, which are the cells that make up most of the epidermis and are essential for skin repair. Retinoids enhance the epidermis’ protective function while also protecting collagen from degrading. They limit the amount of water that evaporates from our skin into the environment, promoting greater skin hydration (Zasada & Budzisz, 2019). These are just a few of the ways that retinoids can combat the aging process and keep our skin healthy.
While nights 1 and 2 both have powerful benefits, it is important to let the skin recover on nights 3 and 4.
Nights Three and Four: Recovery Nights. As the name of this step suggests, the last two nights of the skincare cycle are designed to allow your skin barrier to repair through moisturization and a break from active products (Bowe, 2022).
When we refer to the skin barrier, this is generally in reference to the stratum corneum (SC), or the outermost layer of the epidermis. The SC works to maintain water content in the skin, as well as to act as a barrier and responder to foregin invaders trying to permeate the skin (Del Rosso et al., 2016). The SC mainly performs these actions through its lipid barrier. Moisturizers protect this layer of the skin through their actions as humectants, emollients, and occlusives, which have individual functions. Improving skin hydration, moisturizers directly provide water to the skin while also providing a blockade to reduce water loss to the environment. Applying moisturizer can help fill in the gaps between skin cells that are partially flaking off, and it can allow the lipid layer to better absorb, maintain, and redistribute water (Purnamawati et al., 2017). All in all, taking these recovery nights is essential to the optimization of our skin barrier.
With all of the skincare products floating around in our bathroom drawers, it can be confusing to figure out a routine and to understand why we are doing this routine. Dr. Bowe has worked to clear up some of this confusion, providing a nightly guide to get a routine started. While this plan seems specific, Dr. Bowe also acknowledges the need to tailor these steps to your specific skin needs, depending on s kin type and concerns. For example, she mentions that acne-prone skin may need only one recovery night, whereas someone with rosacea may need an extra recovery night (Jackson, 2022).
This guide can lead the way toward a simple and effective skincare routine, but it is important to speak to your doctor before making any big changes. For a more individualized routine, make sure to reach out to a nearby dermatologist to get their recommendations that are tailored to your specific skin care needs.
Reference List:
Bowe, D. W. (2022, August 11). Classic Skin Cycling™: Why it has gone viral and how to do it. Dr. Whitney Bowe Beauty. Retrieved September 25, 2022, from https://drwhitneybowebeauty.com/blogs/derm-scribbles/skin-cycling-dr-bowes-viral-beauty-editor-approved-skincare-method?_pos=3&_sid=1dea902dd&_ss=r
Del Rosso, J., Zeichner, J., Alexis, A., Cohen, D., & Berson, D. (2016). Understanding the Epidermal Barrier in Healthy and Compromised Skin: Clinically Relevant Information for the Dermatology Practitioner. The Journal of Clinical and Aesthetic Dermatology, 9(4 Suppl 1).
Jackson, D. (2022, August 26). "Skin cycling" is the only TikTok trend worth trying right now. Women's Health. Retrieved September 25, 2022, from https://www.womenshealthmag.com/beauty/a40920099/skin-cycling-tiktok-trend/
Mukherjee, S., Date, A., Patravale, V., Korting, H. C., Roeder, A., & Weindl, G. (2006). Retinoids in the treatment of Skin aging: An overview of clinical efficacy and safety. Clinical Interventions in Aging, 1(4), 327–348. https://doi.org/10.2147/ciia.2006.1.4.327
Purnamawati, S., Indrastuti, N., Danarti, R., & Saefudin, T. (2017). The role of moisturizers in addressing various kinds of dermatitis: A review. Clinical Medicine & Research, 15(3-4), 75–87. https://doi.org/10.3121/cmr.2017.1363
Tran, D., Townley, J., Barnes, T., & Greive, K. (2014). An antiaging skin care system containing alpha hydroxy acids and vitamins improves the biomechanical parameters of facial skin. Clinical, Cosmetic and Investigational Dermatology, 9. https://doi.org/10.2147/ccid.s75439
Zasada, M., & Budzisz, E. (2019). Retinoids: Active molecules influencing skin structure formation in cosmetic and dermatological treatments. Advances in Dermatology and Allergology, 36(4), 392–397. https://doi.org/10.5114/ada.2019.87443