7 Skin Method | Beating Dehydrated Skin

“I guess for my skin, I clean it and moisturise and try to drink water. How boring is this though? I’m convinced that it comes from within. If you’re happy and healthy, it shows.”

— Olivia Wilde

So if you’re into Asian skin care then you may have come across the term 7 skin method. Essentially one is applying their toner to their skin 7 times in a row. You just pat pat, pat it in. You can use a single toner or rotate it. Initially when I came across this method I thought it was foolish and a waste of my time, just another fad. Some Instagram type thing people do to get noticed. For some reason one day, I thought I would give it a try. The focus of the 7 skin method is hydration, I didn’t think that this was an issue for me, but I would soon be proven wrong.

I’m so glad that I did, I had been dealing with textured skin on the apple of my cheeks for a while, I thought that my only recourse was to use chemical exfoliants to try and smooth it out. However after using this method for several days I started to see improvement in how my skin felt and how it looked.

Apparently for all my moisturizing my skin was a bit dehydrated.

How I do The Method

I do the method both in the morning and the evening, though I change up the toners that I use. In the morning, I tend to use my spray toners because they feel lighter. First is my NIOD Saccharine spray, followed by the Hylamide toner and then I use LGH Tea Tree Toner. Then for my last layers I use the Guerisson oil toner, it’s lightweight but very moisturizing.

In the evening I used my NIOD spray, then I move on to my Dear Enprani Moistfull Booskin toner and then my Goodal First Essence toner rounded out by my Guerisson toner again.

After applying my layers of toner, I then move on to my serums, emulsions and creams. Lately I’ve been using a tiny bit of argon oil to seal it all in. This leaves my skin with a slight glow, soft to the touch, bouncy and not tacky.

I recently wrote a post about my skin care guilty pleasures where I mentioned that toner’s weren’t really my thing, however after using this method for a bit I have a feeling that I’m going to be looking at more toners to add to my arsenal. The first one on the docket is the oft mentioned Whamisa Deep Rich Essence Toner, which is aimed at boosting hydration and nourishment in the skin. I’ve been looking at a few other ones, specifically toners that are in a spray bottle, or focusing on more targeted concerns such as brightening or calming.

When it gets hotter outside, having lighter weight toners to apply would serve me better, as my skin is prone to oiliness.

A thought occurred to me, even though it’s called the 7 skin method, I’m certain that depending on your skin needs you could increase or decrease the amount of layers you use for this method. As far as I know there is no great significance regarding the number 7, I think that it was chosen because it’s a nice median, not too little and not too much.

Toners to Use

Although this method is used with toners, there are certain ones or types rather that I wouldn’t recommend you use. Acid toners or exfoliating toners such as the Pixi Glow toner aren’t a great choice because there main point is exfoliation. With the 7 skin method hydration is the focus, so if you use something that has hydrating components but is meant for another purpose the ultimate goal of the method won’t be reached. As over time the exfoliating toner is more likely to dry out your skin or irritate it, which is the opposite of what you want.

Likewise I wouldn’t use a toner that contains high amounts of alcohol or that are toted as being astringent, again that is not what we’re aiming for when we employ the 7 skin method.

Caveats

Now I mentioned above some toners that you wouldn’t want to use for this method, this does not mean that you can’t use these types of toners as a first step or first layer. You could start with your exfoliating toner and then apply a toner that is more hydrating on top. This way you’re able to reap the benefits of your exfoliating toner as well as the moisturizing benefits of the method.

Sometimes as my first layer I use my Son & Park toner to remove any makeup remnants that might still being hanging around, because it does have some hydrating components and can be used as a stand alone toner I don’t have any issues, I then move onto applying my other toners.

Final Thoughts

So you can obviously tell that I’m a fan of the method, it is a bit more time consuming, but I think that it’s a great component to add to anyones skin care routine. Because of the nature of the method it’s very easy to tailor it to your specific skin needs, without going overboard. I also think that it’s a great way to incorporate toners that you may not use that often. With this method you could use one toner for each layer or you could use a different toner. For my routine I use a few different toners and I find that this works for me, simply because each toner has a specific purpose. I’ll go into that in another post.

So what do you think of the method? Is is something that you would try?