At first glance, a 20-step skincare routine sounds absolutely ridiculous to the average person. Most of us keep our skin routines as simple and minimalistic as possible. Recently, I stumbled upon a video posted on Jackie Aina’s YouTube channel titled, “Hot Guy Does My Full 20 Step Skincare Routine.” Jackie and her now fiancé, Denis, complete her nightly skincare routine together step-by-step. I decided that I would try Jackie’s 20-step routine with products I already use in my regular skincare routine plus products in her routine that I thought I might like.
Jackie’s Skincare Routine
After a day of wearing makeup, Jackie begins her skincare routine by cleansing three times. She’ll do a pre-cleanse with a cleansing oil, then follow that up with a micellar water to remove any last traces of makeup. Finally, she will go in with a gentle, soap-free cleansing gel. Each step in her cleansing routine lasts about 60 seconds.
Following her three-step cleansing routine, she uses a face mask. While her face mask is sitting, Jackie applies a lip scrub to remove any dead skin flakes to leave her lips nice and soft. The mask is allowed to sit for what seems like 5-10 minutes within the video.
After the triple cleansing and the face mask, Aina follows it up with a toner and a series of serums and essences. First a toner is applied and gently patted into the skin. The essence and the serums follow the toner. With each one that is applied, Jackie gently pats them into her skin or rubs them in an upward motion.
Finally, in the last steps of her skincare routine, Jackie applies an eye cream. She then puts on a moisturizer to add excess moisture back into her skin. She finishes off her routine by applying a facial mist and lip balm.
My Typical Skincare Routine
My daily skincare routine is significantly fewer steps than Jackie Aina’s, but it’s still more involved than the average person’s. My routine consists of about 7-8 steps that I complete both day and night.
First, I begin with cleansing my skin using a Clarisonic facial brush and a soap-free gel cleanser. My skin is super sensitive, so it’s important that my cleanser is gentle as well. The face brush helps me get a deeper cleanse than just using my hands alone.
I follow up my cleansing step with a calming aloe-based toner. I’ll typically pat it into my skin and allow it to sit for about 30 seconds before I apply my next product. If it’s morning time, I follow my toner with a vitamin C serum meant for brightening. If it’s night, I use a retinol serum to repair skin damage.
After my toner and serums are applied, I like to add an eye cream and do a quick lip treatment. My lip treatment consists of a scrub, a treatment and then a lip balm. After that, I apply my moisturizer and my skincare routine is complete.
Thoughts Before
Before trying Jackie Aina’s routine, I was skeptical about the triple cleanse. Our skin types are very different, and I also am not a heavy makeup wearer. I maybe do my makeup twice a month. Jackie has oily to combination type skin, which can be acne-prone. However, my skin is dry to combination, extremely sensitive and not acne-prone at all. So, I worried that her triple cleanse would leave my skin drier than the Sahara.
Going off our skin type differences, I thought the number of serums she uses would be excessive for my skin — especially, the salicylic acid serum she used. Salicylic acid is good if your skin is acne-prone, but can wreak havoc if it is not.
Twenty steps at first sounded like it would take forever to complete, so I was concerned with the amount of time. My regular routine takes maybe 10 minutes at most, so I thought it would take about 30 minutes to complete hers.
Thoughts Afterwards
If I were to adopt a 20-step skincare routine, I would definitely have to modify it to fit me. Jackie Aina’s routine definitely would work for the oily-skinned girl, but for me it was mediocre.
I was correct in predicting that the triple cleanse would leave my skin extremely dry. I ended up skipping the oil cleanse because I didn’t have any makeup to remove. I started on step two of her cleansing routine, which was using a micellar water. Then I went on to wash my face using my regular face wash and facial brush. After the double cleanse my skin was parched, so I can only imagine if I would’ve done a triple cleanse.
Besides the cleansing, Jackie Aina’s skincare routine worked pretty well for my skin type. I did make some slight modifications to it because my skin is different than hers. I left out the salicylic acid serum because I rarely suffer from acne. I also used my face brush to wash my face instead of my hands. For me, my face typically doesn’t feel as clean as it should when I use my hands alone.
Overall, it made my skin feel just okay. I feel like with a few more adjustments to make the routine cater to my skin type and issues, I would love it.
Would I do this regularly?
My typical skincare routine already works for me, so I most likely would not do a 20-step skincare routine often. The routine was more time-consuming than I would’ve liked, so that was a deterring factor. The routine took me about 15-20 minutes, which is double the time of my regular skincare routine.
So, when would I do a 20-step skincare routine? The answer is only when my skin needs a little extra TLC. Any other time I will stick with my normal everyday routine.
Jackie Aina’s skincare routine was fun to try out and more involved than my typical everyday one. Overall, her routine had steps that I already incorporate; everything after the triple cleanse minus the face mask and the salicylic acid serum are already integral parts of my skincare routine.
Check out Jackie Aina’s video to learn more about her 20-step skincare routine. If you do decide to try it, definitely modify the routine to cater to your skin type and ailments. Also, try it out using your everyday products. For this experiment, the only things I had to go out and buy were the cleansing oil and the micellar water. So, would you consider trying a 20-step skincare routine?
