Your Indagare Starter Guide: Getting the Most From Your Skin, Hair and Body Care
Your order has arrived. Now what?
If you have just switched to Indagare from something you have used for years, the first week can feel a bit unfamiliar. The textures are different. The amounts are different. And there is no shortage of conflicting advice online about what goes on first.
So here is everything in one place – how much to use, what order to apply it in, what to expect, and what to do if something is not quite sitting right. It is the same advice I give when someone emails me directly, which happens more often than you might think.
Bookmark it. You will probably want it again in a fortnight.
The 60-second version
If you read nothing else:
Use less than you think. Four to six drops of face oil. Not a palmful.
Apply to slightly damp skin, not bone dry.
Press it in. Do not rub.
Wait a minute between layers.
Give it six weeks before you decide.
How much to use
This is the single most common thing new customers get wrong, and it is the reason a first bottle sometimes disappears in three weeks.
Our formulas are waterless. Most conventional moisturisers are largely water, which is why you need a generous scoop to cover your face. Ours are not, so a little goes a very long way. Four to six drops of Illumino Youth Serum or Signature Night Recovery Face Oil is enough for your face, neck and decolletage.
Warm the drops between your fingertips first, then press them gently into the skin rather than rubbing. Pressing helps the oil settle in evenly and stops it sitting on the surface.
Used this way, a 30ml bottle should last you around three months of daily use. Which is worth knowing when you are comparing the price against something you get through in four weeks.
Relax & Nourish Organic Body Oil is the exception – be generous with that one. It is designed for a proper application over arms, legs and shoulders, ideally straight out of the shower.
Start with slightly damp skin
While our waterless formulas mean that we can skip adding preservatives and focus purely on ingredients that feed and nurture the skin, culminating in nutrient-dense formulas, our skin still needs water, so it helps to ensure your skin is damp when you apply your face oils. Tap water is perfectly fine, so our favourite method is to apply oils directly after a shower or bath when freshly cleansed, slightly steamed skin will drink up the benefits. Bonus points? This saves you from having to buy an extra product!
However, if you can't resist an uplifting spritz, another option is to use a face mist or hydrosol before applying your oils. Haven't discovered hydrosols yet? Often called 'floral waters', they're the aromatic water retained after distilling plants such as lavender. These magical mists deliver a dose of dewy hydration that can set the scene for the rest of your routine (look out for ours, launching soon!).
The order to apply things
We get asked this constantly, and it does matter – not because there is a beauty rulebook, but because applying things out of order is the fastest way to end up with product sitting on top of your skin instead of sinking into it.
The rule of thumb: thinnest to thickest. Whatever is heaviest goes last, because its job is to hold everything underneath it in place.
A simple morning routine
Cleanse first using Luminesq Dust Face Cleanser.
Illumino Youth Face Serum – four to six drops, pressed in.
Prickly Pear Eye Roller around the orbital bone, if you use it.
Sunscreen. Always, and especially in this country.
A simple evening routine
Luminesq Dust Face Cleanser.
Apply the Prickly Pear Eye Serum to the delicate under-eye skin.
Signature Night Recovery Face Oil – four to six drops, pressed in.
A face cream over the top if your skin is feeling particularly thirsty.
Once or twice a week, add Atonement Superfood Clay Face Mask before your evening oil. It leaves skin looking smoother and brighter, and everything you apply afterwards sits more comfortably on freshly cleansed skin.
At night you can also layer both face oils together. Illumino first, Night Recovery over the top. A number of customers do this through winter and drop back to one in summer.
Using Indagare alongside what you already own
You do not have to throw out your entire bathroom cabinet to start. Plenty of customers tell us they ended up skipping their old serums and moisturisers altogether once they settled into the oils – but that is a decision to make in month two, not on day one.
In the meantime:
For drier skin, apply your Indagare oil first and your usual moisturiser over the top.
For a lighter moisturiser, apply the moisturiser first and the oil last.
A few drops can also be added straight into your existing face cream in the palm of your hand.
Leave a minute between layers. If the previous layer still feels wet, wait.
That last point does more work than it sounds like it should. It is the difference between a routine that feels seamless and one that feels sticky.
Your hair
Organic Hair Renewal Oil is designed as a treatment, more than a leave-in styling product (although it does well to smooth frizzy flyaway hairs and as a heat-protectant when blow drying too!)
Our best tips for the Hair Renewal Oil are:
Apply to dry hair, about 30 minutes before washing.
Section the hair and work the oil into the scalp with your fingertips, then draw what is left through the mid-lengths and ends.
Leave it in for 30 minutes to an hour, or overnight if you want a deep treatment. A pillowcase you do not mind, or an old t-shirt over the pillow, solves the obvious problem.
Shampoo out the following morning. You may need two rounds of shampoo the first few times while you calibrate how much to use.
Once or twice a week is plenty.
Between washes, a single drop warmed between the palms and smoothed over the ends is enough to take the edge off dryness without weighing anything down.
If your hair felt heavy the first time you tried it, you almost certainly used too much at the roots. Halve it and try again.
Your body
Relax & Nourish Organic Body Oil is at its best applied to damp skin, straight out of the shower, before you towel off properly. Warm it between your palms and work it in with long strokes towards the heart. Give it a minute before you dress.
It also works well as a massage oil, and it is the one product in the range where you can be genuinely generous.
If you have the Rose & Neroli Luxury Organic Body Scrub, use it once a week before the oil rather than on the same night as any other exfoliation.
If something is not quite right
Most of what people write to us about in the first month falls into one of these five categories, and all five are fixable.
| What is happening | Why | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| It balls up under my sunscreen or makeup | Too much product, or not enough time between layers. This is the most common one by a distance. | Halve the amount. Press rather than rub. Wait a full minute before the next layer. |
| My skin feels greasy an hour later | Too many drops, or applying to fully dry skin. | Drop to three or four drops on slightly damp skin. Most people need less than they started with. |
| It feels heavier than what I am used to | Switching from a water-based moisturiser to a waterless oil is a genuine adjustment. | Give it two weeks. If it still feels like too much in the morning, move the oil to nights only. |
| My skin looks a bit congested at first | Any change of routine can take a couple of weeks to settle. | Simplify back to cleanser and one oil for a fortnight, then reintroduce the rest one product at a time. |
| I cannot tell if it is doing anything | Two weeks is not long enough to judge. | Take a photo in natural light on day one and again at week six. Memory is unreliable; photographs are not. |
What to expect and when
Skincare marketing has trained all of us to expect overnight results, which sets everyone up for disappointment. Here is a more honest version of the timeline, based on what customers tell us.
| Timeframe | What customers commonly report |
|---|---|
| First few days | Skin feels softer and less tight. Make-up sits better. Mostly a difference in comfort rather than appearance. |
| Two to four weeks | Skin looks more even and less dull. Dry patches are less noticeable. |
| Six to twelve weeks | The changes people actually comment on – a smoother look, a brighter and more rested appearance. |
| Hair, first month | Less breakage through the mid-lengths, and hair that looks and feels less brittle. |
| Hair, two to three months | The point at which most people say they noticed a real difference in how their hair looks. |
The short version: give it six weeks before you form a view, and three months before you make a final one. Consistency matters more here than any single product does.
Looking after your products
Light, heat and air will gradually reduce how well natural oils perform, which is why our packaging is designed the way it is. A few habits will keep yours in good condition:
Store them somewhere cool, dry and out of direct sunlight. A drawer or cupboard is better than a windowsill or the edge of the vanity.
Replace the pipette and close the lid firmly every time.
Refrigeration is not necessary unless you are putting something aside for a few months.
Avoid the bathroom shelf that gets steamed twice a day. The temperature swings do the damage, not the humidity itself.
It is also a reasonable way to stop a heavy-handed household member working through your Night Recovery Oil.
Adjusting through the year
Our environment and weather conditions vary enough that your routine probably should too.
Winter, or anywhere with the heating running: layer both face oils at night, and add the clay mask weekly.
Summer, or humid climates: one oil at night is usually enough. Reduce to three or four drops.
Air conditioning and long flights: skin gets thirstier than the season suggests. Go back up a layer.
After sun exposure: be generous with the body oil on damp skin.
If it's not for you
Every Indagare product is covered by a 30-day money-back guarantee. If you have given it a fair go and it is not working for you, we will sort it out.
But before you get to that point, please email us. Nine times out of ten it is an adjustment to how much you are using or when you are applying it, and that is a two-minute conversation rather than a return.
Cath x
Chief Formulator, Indagare Natural Beauty