It can feel overwhelming to start a new routine or know which products and ingredients are best for your skin. In our latest installment of Ask Athena, formulator and esthetician Athena answers our most frequently asked questions when someone is new to the brand or just looking to switch up their routine.
Q: I’m new to Monastery. Where to start?
A: Start with Rose. This universal cleansing oil will reset and rebalance the microbiome which will make the most positive changes to your skin in the shortest amount of time. Once the skin is rebalanced any skin issues you may have had are resolved and you can start working on targeted areas of concern.
I also recommend trying out our Discovery Kit. It’s a great way to experience the line without committing to a full size bottle. Inside are instructions on how to create the Monastery facial at home and it’s really a lovely way to experience the line.
Q: How do I determine my skin type?
A: Honestly, it doesn’t really matter what your skin type is. We all need to be applying lipid moisture to our skin, keeping our microbiome balanced, and avoiding topical chemicals regardless of our differing skin types. Your skin type might change your preference to your finishing moisturizer and it may allow you to be a little more heavy handed with actives but this is about the only real difference. This big misconception that skin type is so important to specific routines is not something that I have found to be true. If you find yourself to be oily again in the middle of the day, you are lucky and may not need to apply as heavy of a moisture.
Q: I’m confused about which order to use my products. Are there general guidelines on how to apply skincare?
A: A general guideline when applying moisture is thinnest to thickest, but I think everyone already knows this. At Monastery we tend to believe more in night cleansing than AM cleansing as the skin doesn’t get dirty throughout the night. This allows you to go right into your serum and moisturizer routine in the morning. Monastery is also a very mixable product line because it doesn’t contain traditional emulsifiers and preservatives, these ingredients typically disallow product combining. This means that you can mix your AHA or your hyaluronic right into your face oil and combine two or three steps into 1.
Q: How is Monastery different from other skincare products?
A: Firstly, we are still made by hand in our small lab in San Francisco and our products don’t contain any “filler” ingredients. Filler ingredients tend to make up the majority of a product and are often less expensive. We are super nuts about efficacy and quality as this is what I found actually healed the skin. Every ingredient that we use is the highest quality and most nutrient dense ingredient that we can find. As I mentioned before we also don’t contain traditional emulsifiers or preservatives because these ingredients tend to be disruptive to the balance of the skin. As a result our products only have about a one year shelf life, and are meant to be use quickly.
