Morning Skin Care Rituals, Then and Now

Morning skin care rituals vary depending on your skin’s needs and your schedule. They have varied across the years, too. Your mom, grandmother, and great-grandmother probably followed very different beauty and makeup routines than you do — although the basics remain the same.

Just for fun, here’s a classic late 1930s short film featuring glamorous actress Constance Bennett’s skin care ritual. Bennett was the highest paid actress in Hollywood at her peak, and was best known for the Topper films in which she starred as a high-society ghost alongside Cary Grant. In this short film, which is making the rounds again on social media, Bennett takes us through a “simple” routine that includes cleansing cream, “stimulating cream,” a mask, “glow base” makeup, powder, cream rouge, and lipstick — all applied around a morning bath drawn by her maid, on the way to make breakfast for her young son.

Your everyday morning skin care routines probably don’t include a long, luxurious bath (with or without a maid to draw it), and your skin product and makeup choices are more than likely very different from those of the 1930s. But the basics remain the same: cleansing, treating, moisturizing. One important step missing from Bennett’s routine — because no one knew the debilitating effects of UV radiation back then, and tanned skin was just beginning to come into popularity —  was sunscreen, a step no morning skin care ritual of today can do without. Fortunately, there’s a UV protection product for every skin type and lifestyle.

Today’s morning skin care rituals also benefit from combination products like tinted moisturizers, makeup with built-in SPF protection, and all-in-one daily treatment products like SkinMedica’s TNS Essential Serum. You may not have the glamorous luxury of Constance Bennett’s mornings, but with care you’ll have healthy, beautiful skin that lasts a youthful lifetime.

Need recommendations of products tailored just for your morning skin care rituals? Contact us!