Clear & Matte — daily routine for oily and blemish-prone skin

Soak a cotton pad with Normalising Tonic and gently sweep it over the entire face, neck and décolleté. Do not apply to the eye area. Use after cleansing, morning and evening.

Tap water is alkaline and leaves the skin with a higher pH than its natural level. Until the pH has returned to around 5.5, the skin’s microflora remains unbalanced and any active ingredients applied afterwards are poorly absorbed. This toner restores the skin’s pH to normal within seconds and prepares it for serum absorption.

Alcohol-free: it does not dry out the skin or cause an excess sebum reaction.

Apply a few drops of Balancing Elixir to clean, toned skin, massaging gently until fully absorbed. Morning and evening, for all skin types.

This product tackles the cause rather than the symptom: it regulates sebaceous gland activity and improves the appearance of pores, whilst the subsequent steps manage visible shine.

Results in terms of sebum production take six to eight weeks to become apparent, not just a few days — letting the client know this from the outset prevents them from abandoning the routine after ten days.

Apply a thin layer of Matifying Fluid to the face, neck and décolletage, morning and evening, after your serum. Suitable for all skin types, including combination skin: for combination skin, focus on the T-zone and apply sparingly to the cheeks.

Oily skin is very often dehydrated: it produces sebum but lacks water. Skipping moisturiser for fear of increasing shine is the most common mistake, and it actually perpetuates the very problem it is intended to solve.

The fluid texture moisturises without leaving an occlusive film and works well under make-up.

Apply the Night Gel Corrector in the evening, as the final step, to the affected areas or all over the face, depending on your skin type:

• Oily skin with excessive perspiration and shine — every evening
• Damaged oily skin — every evening
• Oily skin with shine — twice a week
• Sensitive and irritated oily skin — not recommended
• Combination skin — use only for localised treatment, not as a general application

Night-time is when the skin repairs itself and when make-up does not interfere. This is the only product in the routine where the frequency of use actually varies from one skin type to another: on sensitive skin, daily use causes redness.

Twice a week, as a replacement for your evening serum: mix the Problematic Skin Cocktail with Hyaluronic Acid 3D in a clean container, apply to cleansed and toned skin, allow to absorb, then follow with your moisturiser.

For use only on ‘oily skin with excessive sweating and shine’ and ‘damaged oily skin’. On sensitive or irritated skin, do not use until the irritation has subsided.

Hyaluronic acid is not merely a cosmetic addition: the cocktail is highly concentrated and applying it undiluted to skin that is already compromised is unnecessarily harsh. The moisturising carrier distributes the active ingredient and helps to minimise any reaction.

Apply Eye Tech Serum in small dabs to the orbital bone, working from the inner corner outwards, without stretching the skin. Follow with Meso Eye Lift if required. Morning and evening.

The eye area isn’t one of the concerns addressed by Clear & Matte — none of the products in the range are applied there — but it remains the most delicate area of the face and the routine would be incomplete without it.

It is also the area that shows signs of tiredness first, and is therefore the area by which the client visually judges the effectiveness of her skincare routine.

In the morning, as the final step before applying make-up, apply sun protection to your face, neck and décolletage, and reapply every two hours in the event of prolonged exposure.

Two options to choose from, depending on your skin type and the season:

• SPF 30 — lighter texture, for everyday urban use
• SPF 50 — maximum protection, essential during and after a course of chemical peels or where post-inflammatory marks are present

On blemish-prone skin, the sun does not dry out spots: it thickens the stratum corneum, closes the pores and permanently sets the marks left by the blemishes. Sun protection is what prevents acne marks from becoming permanent blemishes.