Take Care of Your Skin and It Will Take Care of You

I’m not the kind of person who believes in picking up a new beauty regime or dieting or religiously working out to lose weight for something, anything…most of all your wedding.

Don’t get me wrong, of course I want you to look your best, I just think adopting a healthy lifestyle should be something you do always, not just for your wedding.

So, you won’t hear me discussing dieting, exercising or beauty regimes ONLY for your special day. But…every now and then I will promote one of these topics for you to adopt into your daily lifestyle so you can be your best everyday.

Today I want to talk about your face and how important it is take care of it, if you aren’t already.

First of all, if you are within a couple of weeks of your wedding or any kind of special event, please…do NOT start a new skin care routine. Sometimes a negative effect will happen after starting a new regime. Redness, dry or flaky skin or possibly even a breakout can occur.

These effects usually go away after the routine is continued, so be sure to give yourself plenty of time to get used to anything new.

Step One: Cleanse
All of the steps here are essential, but in order to accomplish them you have to first wash your face. I think when you’re young there’s a tendency to overlook this, especially at night. I know I did and I’m regretting it now. You’re tired or out late or you just forget and you end up going to bed without taking your makeup off or washing your face. It happens. I’ve done it. But I’m really wishing I would have made the effort earlier.

You should cleanse your face twice a day, once in the morning to prepare your skin for the day and once at night to remove your makeup and sunscreen, and moisturize for the night. Use a gentle cleanser that works best with your skin type. No bar soaps please! For normal skin my favorites are:

Cetaphil – Daily Facial Cleanser
Origins – Antioxidant cleanser with White Tea
Aveeno – Positively Radiant Brightening Cleanser

Or if you want to use a homemade recipe, try milk or yogurt.

Step Two : Exfoliate (at least once a week)
Exfoliation is another step I think a lot of us neglect. This step is important because it removes dead skin cells which if left in place can leave your complexion appearing dull, and can clog up pores. And we don’t want that! The fun thing about this step is you can exfoliate in several different ways.

The easiest exfoliation method, and the one I use the most, is a weekly facial scrub. Here are some of my favorites:

Facial scrubs
Plantogen – Gentle Facial Scrub
Clinique – 7 Day Scrub Cream
Kiehl’s – Pineapple Papaya Facial Scrub

Believe or not, even a simple wash cloth with your regular cleaner mixed in with some plain white sugar can work as a beautiful exfoliate. I use this method often!

Microdermabrasion
Dr. Denese – Microdermabrasion Cream
Boots No7 – Micro-Dermabrasion
Mary Kay – TimeWise Microdermabrasion

Chemical Peels
A professional chemical peel can do wonders for your skin, like take years off your look. However, they can be expensive to keep up every month. If you’re like me and can’t really justify the expense, try one of these at home peels:

Philosophy – The Oxygen Peel
Juice Beauty – Green Apple Peel Sensitive
Ole Henriksen – POWER|peel

* A word about toners: Toners are used to used to restore your skin’s natural pH levels which were probably altered during cleansing. If you like using a toner, I say add it to your routine. I’m not a toner kind of gal so I skip this step. Like all of these suggestions, it’s really what works for you. So use what helps your skin looks it’s best. *

Step Three: Moisturize
Now we’ve come to the nitty-gritty part of skincare. Moisturizing is a key element in keeping your skin as beautiful as possible, especially when you get older. First things first though, if you’re going to be outside at all, even in winter or on a cloudy day, sunscreen is an absolute must for any age. The number one cause of wrinkles is sun damage, so it’s important to use a broad spectrum sunscreen of at least 30 SPF from your early years on.

There are so many options for day creams, serums, eye creams, anti-aging creams, and night creams, this post would go on forever if I even listed a few.

I think the important steps are to always wear a broad spectrum SPF 30 or higher sunscreen during the day. On top of that you can wear an anti-aging cream, plus eye serums or creams if you want, and at night choose a night cream that works best for you. Retinoids and Alpha-Hydroxy acids are brilliant anti-aging products you should definitely look into if you have wrinkles or loss of collagen.

This book and site, 7 Years Younger, has a great list of all kinds of products to help you achieve what you desire. I highly recommend it. I also like Cameron Diaz’s outlook on healthful and graceful aging as written in her book The Body Book.

Finally, in addition to caring for the outside, what happens on the inside has a great effect on your skin’s appearance as well. Not getting enough sleep or the right nutrients or drinking enough water, smoking, drinking alcohol and drug taking, (even prescription medicines), have substantial affects on the skin from premature aging to discoloration and dryness.

Glowing beautiful skin can be accredited to a good diet, healthy lifestyle and a good skin care routine.

So remember, take care of your skin and it will take care of you for years to come!

Image one by Bryce Covey via Once Wed and images two and three by Bryce Covey via Once Wed with Makeup by Amy Clarke and Hair by Heidi Marie Garrett for all three images

Thanks for stopping by!