From The Straits Times    |

Call this the lazy-girl hack to beefing up the beauty benefits of your essences and emulsions. Oh, one more thing: It’ll go a long way towards streamlining your skincare regime, too – and that means an entirely welcome extra hour of snoozing in the mornings.

Intrigued? Okay, so here’s the secret. Drumroll, please: Just add water to your serum or moisturiser. Okay, minor addendum: Maybe try a water-based toner instead.

The rationale? The watery toner acts as a vehicle to drive the good stuff from your other potent products deep into the dermis. “Your skin soaks up water easily, so dissolving your creams in a liquid carrier enables easier absorption,” notes Nicolas Ian Travis, founder of homegrown grooming label Allies of Skin. Incredibly intuitive, right?

Raring to give it a go? Here’s the “recipe” for this embarrassingly easy trick. Start by massaging your mien with a mild cleanser to rid your skin of grease and grime. Splash off with warm water, then pat dry.

The latest trove of toners have been cleverly rejigged and remodelled as skin-softening treatments in their own right, with the ability to comfort, contour and condition.

Next, decant the tiniest bit of toner into your serum or moisturiser – I’d say approximately one to five, proportions-wise – and mix well to create a smooth slurry. Use this custom concoction to caress the contours of your face for 15 seconds or so. (Pay special heed to the cheek and jowl areas, where most of the sagging and bagging of ageing occurs.) Top up with say, a sunscreen for day and sleeping mask for dusk and you’re good to go.

Applications abound for this trick: Experiment with varying proportions of toner-to-serum to create a lightweight lotion that you can stash in a facial spray dispenser on your desk for use as a makeup-setting and mattifying mist. (Just remember to tissue off any excess from your mists after a couple of minutes; this prevents the evaporation process from wicking precious water off the top layer of your skin.)

So, to recap. Diluting your stickier serum with a watery lotion will amp up absorption of both products. With any luck, you’ll go from lethargic and lacklustre to divine and dewy in seconds. What’s not to love?

You know the drill: Spill the #deets if this works for you, and do me a favour by sharing this story with your fellow beauty buddies. Cheers to more time-saving tweaks and tricks!

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