Sticking to Your Skincare Routine: How Cues Shape Consistent Habits

If you’ve ever found yourself committing to a new skincare routine, sticking to it for a week and then slowly stopping it – you’re not alone. Many people struggle to stay consistent with their skincare routine, despite strong intentions. Whilst motivation is important, especially in the beginning, long-term automated behaviour is more about habit formation than it is about willpower.

When it comes to building a habit, like doing your skincare routine, many people underestimate the power of cues. This article will explore the psychology of habit formation, focusing on how contextual cues and related strategies (such as reducing friction, the if-then approach, habit stacking and rewards) can help you build consistency. Based on this research, we will offer some practical, evidence-based techniques to help you implement and stick to your skincare routine.

There is not one “correct” definition of habit, but within psychology, many definitions acknowledge the importance of cues. Gardner et al. (2012) proposed that habits are actions triggered automatically in response to contextual cues (which could relate to features of our environment, time of day, or a specific action). For instance, automatically putting on a seatbelt after getting into a car – here, putting on a seatbelt is the action or habit itself, and being in a car is the contextual cue. This definition enforces the idea of associative learning – repeated behaviour in a consistent context leads to habit formation.

In other words, we learn to associate an action with specific contextual cues and over time, this behaviour becomes automatic, thus forming a habit.

Once an association has been made between an action and its contextual cues, behaviour becomes less reliant on conscious attention or motivation (Lally et al., 2011). If we take the car example, chances are, you’re not thinking about why you’re putting on a seatbelt. You’re probably not paying too much attention to the action nor deeply considering your motivation for it. This is because over time you’ve built up an association between the action and the environment, so your behaviour is automatic – a habit. This means that even if your conscious motivation or interest dissipates, the behaviour is likely to stick (Gardner et al., 2011).

This is good news when it comes to skincare routines – it means that if you successfully establish an association between your routine and specific contextual cues, you can make it a habit. More importantly, once this becomes an automated behaviour it is more likely to stick, even if further down the line you begin to lack motivation or lose interest in skincare.

So how can we utilise research on cues and habits to make skincare routines stick? Below, we’ll discuss practical ways to embed cues into your routine and show how related psychological strategies can help reinforce them.

As we’ve discussed, habits are highly context-dependent and more likely to occur in stable environments with consistent cues (Wood & Neal, 2007). This means it is a good idea to carry out your skincare routine in the same room and location every day – for instance, at your dressing room table or in front of the bathroom mirror. Having consistent contextual cues around you will help your brain to establish an association between the environment and your skincare routine.

The skincare products themselves can also act as visual cues and more explicit reminders of carrying out your routine. Therefore, it is a good idea to keep your products visible and store them in a place where you’ll see them daily, such as next to your toothbrush or mirror. Another reason this is useful is because it reduces “friction”. One of the four laws of habit formation proposed by Clear (2018), is “make it easy”. This law involves taking small steps to reduce friction, such as priming your environment to make the desired habit easier to start. In this case, keeping your products visible and accessible reduces the amount of effort it takes to actually begin the routine. The less effort or friction a habit takes, the more likely you are to start and stick to it.

Time of day is also a type of contextual cue i.e. having a set time to do your skincare. This type of cue is particularly useful when paired with implementation intentions. Gollwitzer (1999) showed that forming specific “if–then” plans (e.g., If it’s 9pm, then I’ll do my skincare routine) dramatically increases the likelihood of following through with a habit. These implementation intentions help to automate behaviour. Therefore, having a specific time set aside dedicated to doing your routine is useful, especially when you intentionally use the if-then approach.

The if-then approach can also be applied to an event – for example, “if I finish brushing my teeth, then I’ll do my skincare”. This ties in very closely with the idea of habit stacking which refers to “stacking” a new habit onto an old, consistent one (Scott, 2014). Habit stacking is a simple and convenient way to implement your skincare routine as it simply adds-on to your existing routines rather than feeling like a separate, tenuous event. Consider the location and time you do your skincare and think about existing habits you may have which could act as “anchor habits” e.g. “after I shower, I’ll do my skincare”. With this technique, the existing habit becomes a cue for the new one.

Cues are even more effective when paired with a reward. Duhigg (2012) popularised the idea of The Habit Loop, with the components being the cue, routine (habit) and reward. The theory suggests that having the habit rewarded in some way reinforces the association between the cue and the action; over time, the brain starts anticipating the reward as soon as the cue appears. This anticipatory response is down to the reward molecule dopamine (Schultz, 2015), which may make you feel a burst of joy or satisfaction. Overall, the anticipation strengthens the habit loop because your brain “craves” the positive feeling associated with the routine.

You may not need to actively do anything to insight feelings of reward, just the ritual of self-care can feel rewarding - the soothing textures on your skin, the post-skincare glow, or simply feelings of relaxation. All of these things can act as mini rewards that reinforce the habit loop. However, if you feel like going the extra mile, you can always implement a small reward or treat after doing your skincare routine. This could be lighting some candles, playing a favourite song or TV show, or just having some scheduled downtime. 

Bonus Tips: Consider using habit tracking apps/checklists as well as documenting skin progress (e.g. symptom diary or skin transformation pictures). These methods can provide small dopamine bursts that reinforce the habit loop.

Sticking to your skincare routine is not always easy, but using cues and simple habit strategies can help you build consistency. Whilst these strategies may seem small, over time they can significantly aid habit formation, making your routine feel more natural and automatic. Remember, tiny changes today can transform your skincare tomorrow!

Clear, J. (2018). Atomic habits: An easy & proven way to build good habits and break bad ones. Avery.

Duhigg, C. (2012). The power of habit: Why we do what we do in life and business. Random House.

Gardner, B., de Bruijn, G. J., & Lally, P. (2011). A systematic review and meta-analysis of applications of the Self-Report Habit Index to nutrition and physical activity behaviours. Annals of behavioral medicine : a publication of the Society of Behavioral Medicine, 42(2), 174–187. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12160-011-9282-0

Gardner, B., Lally, P., & Wardle, J. (2012). Making health habitual: the psychology of 'habit-formation' and general practice. The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, 62(605), 664–666. https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp12X659466 

Gollwitzer, P. M. (1999). Implementation intentions: Strong effects of simple plans. American Psychologist, 54(7), 493–503. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.54.7.493

Lally, P., Wardle, J., & Gardner, B. (2011). Experiences of habit formation: a qualitative study. Psychology, health & medicine, 16(4), 484–489. https://doi.org/10.1080/13548506.2011.555774

Schultz W. (2015). Neuronal Reward and Decision Signals: From Theories to Data. Physiological reviews, 95(3), 853–951. https://doi.org/10.1152/physrev.00023.2014

Scott, S. J. (2014). Habit stacking: 97 small life changes that take five minutes or less. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.

Wood, W., & Neal, D. T. (2007). A new look at habits and the habit-goal interface. Psychological review, 114(4), 843–863. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.114.4.843