Everyone wants soft, smooth skin. But when the exact opposite result happens, people are often left grasping for answers about why their skincare routine isn’t working. 

If you’ve ever experienced uneven texture, dryness, flakes, bumps, or dullness, then a skin-smoothing skincare regimen may be the answer you’re searching for. Today, we’ll tackle the basics you must know about smoothing skincare and teach you how certain ingredients can kickstart the process of getting soft, uniform skin. Let’s dive in!

The Benefits of Skin Smoothing

Rough skin can happen from a variety of factors. So to get smooth skin, you need to eliminate the causes of rough skin texture. Luckily, skin-smoothing skincare tackles a whole host of skin woes so finding a solution is easy. Here are the main benefits: 

• Even out texture: Rough skin typically has dullness, dryness, bumps, or flakes, with uneven texture being the main complaint. Uneven texture can happen from acne scarring or excess dead skin cells that build up on the surface. Smoothing skincare uses exfoliation and nutrients to help heal the skin and slough off the rough layers. 
• Unclog pores: Clogged pores, excess oil production, and environmental damage (often caused by too much sun exposure) can dehydrate the skin and lead to inflammation which often appears as acne or small bumps on the skin. Smoothing skincare uses anti-inflammatory ingredients such as bentonite, BHAs and more to unclog pores and battle breakouts.
• Hydrate and tighten: Dehydrated skin can lead to less collagen and elastin production, two key elements for firm, plump skin. If you suffer from sagging skin and/or fine lines and wrinkles, skin-smoothing products often combine hydrating and anti-aging ingredients that can help provide that youthful complexion.  

Types of Skin Smoothing Routines

While it’s perfectly normal to covet the physical beauty associated with soft, smooth skin, the benefit of skin smoothing is all about making sure your skin is getting the nutrients and care it needs to be as healthy as possible. 

As we mentioned that rough skin can appear for a variety of reasons (acne, dry skin, sagging skin, etc), following a consistent routine every morning and night — and protecting your skin from environmental stressors — is key to both smooth skin and healthy skin.

While consistency may sound like a no-brainer, many people skimp out or totally skip their routines quite often. Let’s break down the steps to create or find a skin-smoothing regimen that’s perfect for your needs.

Cleansers

Arguably the most important step is, quite fittingly, the first step in the routine. Cleansers pave the way to creating a clean slate for all the other steps, allowing all those lovely ingredients to follow to be properly absorbed and penetrate deeper into the skin.

When you wash your face, you are removing make-up (if applicable), grime and debris from the day, sebum production (which increases overnight, making an AM rinse equally important as a nighttime wash), and dead skin cell build-up. 

In addition, ridding your skin of pollution build-up (especially important for big-city dwellers) helps minimize free radical damage — which is associated with premature aging. So, it’s safe to say that sloughing off the day helps expose healthier, more radiant skin every day. 

 Exfoliation

Much like cleansers, exfoliating encourages the skin renewal process and makes way for new healthy cells to shine through–in fact, that’s its one and only job! There are two main categories of exfoliation 1) mechanical, in which dead cells are buffed away using physical products such as scrubs or dry brushes, and 2) chemical .

Chemical exfoliations are created using a number of ingredients, like acids or enzymes such as glycolic acid, AHAs, and BHAs (more on that later), that assist with pore-clearing and help dissolve the skin cells hanging around on the surface. 

As beads and physical scrubs can be harsh on the skin, we recommend the more gentle experience of chemical exfoliation. However, some physical exfoliators are skin-friendly–like volcanic sand, diatomaceous earth, and dead sea salt.

Moisturizers

Moisture is a key element to smooth, great-looking skin. Healthy skin naturally has moisturizing elements that allow it to hold in moisture and exfoliate on its own. Unfortunately, this is not the case for dry skin. Dry skin can be caused by hot showers, harsh soaps, dry climates, or environmental stressors. 

Thankfully, moisturizers can come to the rescue and help replenish what your skin has lost or what was lacking. Effective moisturizers use humectants to pull in moisture, emollients to smooth the surface, and an occlusive to lock the moisture in–which all leads to smoother, plumper skin.

Serums

Serums are one of the least understood (and therefore, most overlooked!) steps in a skincare routine, but they are actually a key part of any smoothing skincare regimen. Serums are water-based liquids that you simply spread on your skin right after cleansing and exfoliating, right when your skin is primed and ready to absorb the hero ingredients. 

They tend to be formulated with small molecular weights so that they can deliver the ingredients deep into your skin and do their magic. Since serums can deliver such targeted results, you’ll often find their formulations are designed with one solution in mind, such as just ultra hydration or just fading hyperpigmentation. In the case of smoothing skincare, you can look for serums with peptides and growth factors to repair your skin while you sleep and/or a vitamin C serum to protect your skin from free radicals and pollutants during the day. 

Oils

Think of facial oils (and even body oils) as supporting players rather than the leading role in a complete skincare routine. That said, you can combine facial oils with other skincare products to get enhanced effects, such as with your serums (to further treat) or moisturizer (to lock in more hydration). You can also use oils to spot-treat dry areas—rather than applying all over the face—to reduce the appearance of scars.

Oils are best used at night because a) they can increase your skin’s sensitivity to light, and b) thicker oils might leave your complexion with a greasy residue you won’t appreciate during the daytime. 

Tips for Formulating Skin Smoothing Products

When it comes to creating a routine for yourself or from scratch (e.g., formulating your own products), many of these ingredients work well and even complement one another. They all have the aim to create healthy skin that’s bright, clear, well-hydrated, and well-protected.

Finding the root problem of rough, textured skin may be difficult–but thankfully, finding a solution is easy; it just takes some trial and error. 

To recap, we need to:

• Be consistent: A strategic skin smoothing routine leads to healthy skin
• Exfoliate: Removing dead skin cell build-ups reveals smooth skin underneath
• Hydrate: Dry skin is a sneaky cause of rough texture as well as fine lines and wrinkles
• Try new ingredients: Pamper rough, bumpy areas with serums and spot treat with facial oils

Formulate Skin Smoothing Products With Us

For most of us, developing a new skincare product or product line is exciting, scary, and full of blanks in our knowledge bank. Few of us know everything about bringing a skincare product to market and working with all the suppliers, vendors, and partners you need to be successful. That’s where BeautyIngredients.com  comes in. Whether you want to create a gentle salicylic acid cleanser, a peptide-packed serum, or an eco-friendly, ethical facial oil, Beauty Ingredients is here for you. 

Shop Ingredients for Skin Smoothing Products

Our ingredients deliver an array of textures, aesthetics, and formulation chassis possibilities so you can create the perfect skin smoothing regimen from scratch. Shop our selection of skincare ingredients to elevate your current range or jump-start a new idea.

Contact Us for Formulation Support

Our brand’s concierge team is here to help provide the latest in innovative and sustainable ingredient solutions to help indie brands grow. Whether you’re looking for specific specialty ingredients, have a formulation or technical challenge, or need application testing, we can help.