Installment #3 of Know Your Face. We’ve touched on serums and eye creams; today, we discuss the importance of a good moisturizer.

Despite my well-known obsession with skincare products, I was really quite late to the game with my own system. I was 28 years old before I decided to be intentional about washing, treating, and moisturizing my face every morning and every evening. Prior to that, I was too busy being in my 20s – staying out late, sleeping until the last possible moment, and being far enough away from wrinkles and gray hair that skincare didn’t really cross my path.

Also, as someone with oily-combination skin, I was never quite convinced I needed moisturizer. This is because almost every magazine and article pays attention to anti-aging moisturizers, most of which are loaded with oils and other comedogenic products. What moisturizers I could find that were “oil free” weren’t moisturizing enough, and my skin would overproduce oil to compensate for it. Not pretty. At the end of the day, I didn’t believe there was a moisturizer that wouldn’t break me out.

The truth is, of course, that everyone’s skin needs moisturizer. Badly. When you wash and exfoliate your face, you’re stripping your skin of its oils – great, in theory, right? But in practice, your skin reacts by replacing those oils exponentially. Moisturizer is basically your skincare closer: it locks in all the nutrients you’ve loaded on, and it levels out your skin’s oil production. Plus, it turns out that there are a ton of great oil-free and noncomedogenic products out there for ladies like me, who need the quench without the drench. Here are my favorites:

DayWear | Estee Lauder

DayWear is my morning moisture source; it’s lightweight and packed with antioxidants, so I feel nourished and protected heading into my day. It also has a light SPF (you guys, seriously, wear sunscreen) but doesn’t give me that chalky tint that most sun protective moisturizers do. It comes in a few variations, including one with more SPF  and one with a sheer tint, but I prefer the classic formula.

Sheer Moisture | Renee Rouleau

Y’all, if you aren’t sure where to start with your skincare system but are interested in learning to cull your own smattering, you can’t do better than Renee Rouleau’s selection of products. Where most systems are broken into four skin types (oily, combination, dry, and aging) Ms. Rouleau divides her products into nine skin types (nine!) with a comprehensive explanation of ingredients and their purpose. I’d guess that my experience with the Skin Prescription (I’m a #2 with occasional #3 tendencies) was the kickoff for my larger obsession with skincare ingredients.

The above moisturizer, Sheer Moisture, is the recommended nighttime moisturizer for my skin type. It’s glorious – oil free, with vitamins A, C, and E to exfoliate, brighten, and repair my skin while I sleep.

Greek Yoghurt Advanced Nourishing Sleeping Facial | Korres

This guy is my work horse. As the weather turns colder, my face dries out much more quickly than in the summer, which in turn results in painful breakouts. This glorious product is lightweight (described as a “soufflé” on Sephora.com) but is packed with proteins to do serious repair work while you sleep. I haven’t yet tried it during the summertime (when my skin tends more on the oily side) but thus far, in tandem with my Advanced Night Repair, it is nothing short of magic.

How to use: Pretty self-explanatory. After washing, toning, serum, and your eye cream, load this on top. Let the previous layer absorb completely before doing it – it’ll maximize the effect. Then, let your moisturizer absorb completely before starting your makeup.

Next time on Know Your Face: toners!