3 Minute Skincare Routine For Men: Fast & Effective Tips

Bad Skin is like an annoying website popup ad that won’t go away no matter what you try. It’s distracting and it takes away from what really matters, what’s underneath the hood. When you go online and search for a good skincare routine for men, you get these beauty gurus telling you that you need to spend an insane amount of money on a 10-step routine that takes 30 minutes. It’s just not realistic.

Sure, we want clear, smooth, nice skin, but we also have to do that. That’s why today I want to give you a skincare routine that anyone can implement in their daily lives. because it only takes 3 minutes and it provides great results, but here’s a trade-off: you’re just not going to see those results if you’re inconsistent, so if you do this quick and easy 3-minute skincare routine for men once a week and then complain that you’re not seeing results, well, that’s on you. You have to be consistent, so try your best to do it every single day.

What's Your Skin Type?

All right, first things first, when you touch your forehead, your nose, and your cheeks, what do you feel? Is it sticky and a little oily, or is it dry? It can be both. For example, I have an oily T-zone, which means my forehead and my nose are oily. Maybe you have oily skin throughout or dry skin.

The reason why this is so important to know is because it will have an impact on the kind of product that you use. You don’t need heavy serums and oils when you already have oily skin. because that’s only going to make it look extra oily and it could clog your pores, but if you have dry skin, that changes things right, and you can then be applying those heavier creamy moisturizers or thick serums to rehydrate that dry skin.

So before you even start your skincare routine, just take a moment to understand your skin type, because knowing that is the best place to start now that you know your skin type.

Cleanse With A Face Wash

Let’s move on to the first step of our 3-minute skincare routine for men. Let me ask you a question: Do you think fish can see water when they’re swimming? Their eyes are adapted to being underwater, so no, they don’t see the water in the same way that we do think of the air and atmosphere around us as water to fish. We don’t see it, but we know there are molecules traveling around; we can breathe them in, we can breathe them out, and we can smell coffee because it’s dispersing tiny particles into the air and it travels through the air and into your nose.

All of that to say, there are things around us that we cannot see, like dirt particles, air pollution, or even chemical compounds from the burning of gas and tobacco.

All right, that’s the scientific as we’re getting today. I just wanted to make a point: just because you can’t see the skin on your face is dirty doesn’t mean that it isn’t all those tiny particles and bacteria; they can cause clogged pores, breakouts, pimples, and making your skin look bad. So how do we fix that? It’s simple: you need to cleanse your face with a face wash.

Start by getting your face wet with lukewarm water, then apply a gentle cleanser to your face and massage it into your skin in a circular motion for about 30 seconds, focusing on areas that are prone to oiliness or breakouts. That’s why it’s good to understand your own skin and your skin type after you wash it for 30 seconds. Rinse well with lukewarm water.

Wash Your Towels

Now one big mistake a lot of people make—I’d say the majority of men do this—is forgetting to wash their towels. If you’re washing your face, then rubbing a dirty towel onto your clean face. Guess what? That’s making it worse, so pat your face dry with a clean towel. Just wash your towel with your laundry every week or whenever it gets dirty, okay?

So cleansing your face took literally 30 seconds. It’s so easy. Make sure to do it at least once a day, ideally twice, once in the morning and once at night before you lay down. And if you’ve ever had pimples, which, by the way, the majority of us have gone through a period of Our Lives where pimples covered our entire faces, some of you might be going through that moment right now. I know I did when I was a teenager, and my hormones were literally all over the place, and those pimples usually go away. Sometimes they don’t, but they can also cause some nasty scarring on your face.

Sometimes it’s just a little bit of scarring; it’s still there but barely noticeable, but sometimes they can completely change your face. It’s frustrating, demotivating, and crushes your confidence, especially for men. Well, I know it’s 2024, but typically men don’t wear makeup, so you can really see those scars on your face because we don’t really cover it up. I wish people knew this. There are ways to minimize those scars over time, and it’s not that difficult; you can even do it at home.

Moisturizer

After cleansing, you’re going to notice that your skin’s just not going to feel as nice; it will probably feel dry. That’s because the cleanser pulls away those natural oils from your skin. So you need to bring back hydration to your skin, and you do that by using a good moisturizer. Moisturizing helps to lock in hydration, it repairs the skin barrier, and it keeps the skin soft and smooth, which is all we want, right? All you have to do is apply a small amount of moisturizer to your face and then just gently massage it into your skin.

A pro tip here, especially for my older guys. This goes for my younger ones too. If you want to keep looking young, make sure that when you massage the moisturizer into your skin. You’re using upwards and outwards words and motions. What does that do? Right? Why is there a difference?

Well, that prevents your skin from sagging and creating new wrinkles, so don’t pull your skin down when you’re going through your skincare routine. So why does our skin even sag well because gravity is pulling down your skin every single day, so you’re adding even more wrinkles by pulling it down further, and not only that, another tip is for my guys with a beard or a stubble, make sure that you get the moisturizer in there to moisturize not only the hair but also the skin underneath it.

Something I completely overlooked when I was younger is my neck. You can tell someone’s age by looking at their neck because typically people forget to moisturize it, so don’t forget to also apply a generous amount of moisturizer. Apply it to your neck twice a day. whenever you can to avoid those deep wrinkles that age you and avoid those thick greasy creams. If you have oily or acne-prone skin, do it twice a day after you cleanse in the mornings and then after you cleanse at night before you go to bed. This should take no more than 30 to 45 seconds to apply this moisturizer.

Apply Sunscreen

On to the next step, which dermatologists say is the most important one but also the most overlooked, and I was one of the guys that completely missed the mark on the step, and honestly, I paid the price all right, and I’m going to show you in a second what happened to me. Look, the biggest enemy, the most powerful villain in the battle for great skin, is also the only reason you’re alive right now, the sun.

Those UV rays cause premature aging, they cause hyperpigmentation, and even skin cancer. We’ve known that for years, but still some men choose to not protect their skin with a simple SPF sunscreen. Applying SPF 30 or more to your face daily is going to help block or absorb some of those UV rays and then keep them from harming and damaging your skin. This is especially important.

If you’re outdoors during the day if you’re driving under the beating sun, but even when you’re not, I still recommend that you apply sunscreen daily. It’s all about creating this habit. How do I create a habit? I have to do it every day, so create this habit so that your skin is protected. Just in case you do decide to go outside, make sure that you do have that sunscreen protection on and just the same as the moisturizer.

You’re probably forgetting to apply sunscreen to your neck, so remember to apply it to all exposed areas of the face and neck to keep those areas looking young, and I’ll tell you why I regret not doing this so much. I have spots on my face that literally showed up after exposing my face to the sun for a couple of days without sunscreen, and I did this honestly for years, but two years ago specifically, I went to an event, and I put this like serum vitamin C serum on my face, which was like an oil serum, and the sun literally cooked my face with that oil.

Right, those UV rays burned my face, causing sun damage here and here. It gave me sunspots that are permanent, by the way, and after that, I decided, you know, enough is enough. I don’t want any more sun damage on my face. I talk about this on here. Why did I mess up like that? So I started wearing sunscreen every single day, 30 or more.

I don’t budge when it comes to this rule, and I’ve been applying all sorts of expensive creams and serums to slowly fade these spots away, and they’ve gotten better, but they’re still not fully gone, so I really regret not protecting my skin in the first place. Prevention is the way to go. It’s your face.

Trust me when I say you don’t want any sun damage on your face because it’s really hard to fix, so make sure to prevent it. Apply SPF 30 or more every single day, and your face will thank you for it. Your skin is going to look younger and healthier with no sun damage and, most importantly, no skin cancer.

Use A Scrub Or Exfoliant

Now my favorite part of a good skincare routine for men is this next one, and I like it so much because I can literally see and feel the results immediately, and you only have to do it twice a week instead of cleansing your face with normal face wash. I want you to twice a week use a scrub or an exfoliant to brush away the dead skin cells and reveal the brand-new smooth skin underneath.

You can keep the scrub in your shower. That’s when I like to use mine. It’s like a nice little spa situation, and use circular motions to lightly exfoliate your skin. Your skin will immediately feel soft; it’s going to look clean because of those brand-new skin cells right there, and it’s cool because you get those results immediately after you see them.