This summer is all about glowing, glazed skin, and celebrity aesthetician Kate Somerville is helping us all get there. And according to her, there’s one step you absolutely cannot skip.
“Number one: Great exfoliation—physical and chemical,” Somerville explains to E! News. “You want to lift the dead layers because you can’t have a glow with dead layers of skin.”
Her three-step process to beautiful skin always begins with this step, though she encourages clients to listen to their skin to help determine what kind of skincare schedule they should keep.
“I find that people are over-irritated,” she says. “I don’t put a lot on in one sitting. I look at my skin that day and go, ‘OK, I feel I need a little more brightening, I’m going to do vitamin C today.’ Or, ‘I’m dry, I’m going to exfoliate and hydrate or do a mask.’ I don’t put everything on at once.”
For her second step, Somerville recommends hydrating regularly with ingredients like hyaluronic acid that work by drawing moisture in from the surrounding environment. The result is skin that looks luminous and plump.
“The third thing is sealing it in with a moisturizer,” she explains. “If you do those three steps, your skin is going to look so much better.”
In addition to this regular routine, Somerville tunes her recommendations based on the client. For younger skin, she suggests ingredients like ceramides to enhance your skin barrier and protect your skin long-term. “They don’t need harsh things to turn over skin cells yet,” Somerville says, “because their skin is full of yummy collagen.”
For those of us who aren’t full of yummy collagen anymore, she suggests turning to serums with active ingredients like retinol and antioxidant creams to address fine lines and dark spots.
