We all want great skin. Not just because glowing, clear skin looks amazing, but because it feels amazing as well. Who doesn’t love the feeling of super soft skin beneath their fingertips?
It is often thought that great skin is down to your genes. Perhaps your mother or grandmother had fabulous skin, so you are hoping – and assuming – that you are going to be blessed with the same.
While it does have some impact, you have much more control than you think over your skin. Your daily habits have a significant effect on how your skin looks and feels. From moisturizing daily and protecting it from the harmful rays of the sun, there is plenty that you can do. Here, we look at how to get your skincare sussed, so yours looks and feels great.
A basic skincare routine involves three steps: cleansing, toning, and moisturizing. By making these a ritual – something you do every day without fail – you will begin to see an improvement in the condition of your skin.
However, it is important to remember that when it comes to all things skincare, there is no immediate miracle effect. It takes time for your skin to adjust and to show the improvements, so do not be disheartened if you do not see things happening straight away, and keep going with it. On average, it takes six weeks of using products twice daily to see an effect. Of course, you may find that certain products do not work for you, and it may take some trial and error to find the right ones for you, but a bit of perseverance and reading more will help.
One tip that you may want to bear in mind is that it is always a good idea to use the most viscose product first – so cleanser, toners, serums, and finishing off with a moisturizer.
Cleanse
Before you do anything, wash your face. It is the most basic and most important step of the whole skincare process, and if you do not do this, you might as well forget doing everything else. Every day, our skin is exposed to all sorts of dirt and grime – pollutants from being outside, dirt, bacteria, and everything else. If you do not remove these, you run the risk of ending up with clogged up pores, which leads to dull skin and acne – and no one wants that. Wash your face twice a day.
Find a cleanser that is suited to your skin type. Which one you should go for is entirely dependent on whether you have dry skin, combination skin, oily skin, or maybe even blessed with normal skin. As mentioned above, it may take a few different ones before you find one that you get on with.
Once a week, gently exfoliate to remove any dead skin. Make sure you are gentle – you do not want to leave your skin feeling tender and sore. Try to avoid ones that have particularly abrasive ingredients in them. You can even make your own – there are plenty of recipes available online.
Tone
Once you have done the cleansing step of your skincare routine, it is time to move onto toning. This went out of fashion for a while – the astringent, harsh toners of the 80s and 90s put many people off. However, formulas have come along a lot since then, and these days, rather than being alcohol-based to dry up oils and remove any leftover dirt, they are much kinder and gentler to the skin. Many contain additional nutrients to help to nourish your skin and give it an extra shot of moisture and help other products be absorbed better.
There are some specific ingredients that do certain things for your skin. For example, toners that contain Hyaluronic acid to help improve skin hydration, increase the firmness of the skin, and reduce the appearance of fine lines. Toners containing rose water or green tea help to calm and soothe irritation and redness, and those with vitamin E or C as an ingredient help to prevent signs of ageing.
Moisturize
The whole idea of moisturizing is to, well, add moisture and hydrate your skin. In it’s most fundamental state, a moisturizer will help to create a barrier to prevent moisture loss from the outer layers of your skin. They also work with the other products that you use as well as the natural oils and ceramides in your skin to retain this hydration and keep your skin feeling soft and smooth and nourished.
Again, which one you choose will be dependent on your skin type, but most people will benefit from using a different one for the day and night.
A day moisturizer is generally a lot more lightweight. It will protect your skin from the environmental pollutants and aggressors that you face in your everyday life – vehicle pollution, weather, sun, and so on. Ones designed for use at night tend to be heavier and richer in consistency and are there to help to repair any damage from the daytime, speed up the turnover and production of skin cells, and replenish hydration levels, which dry up more in the evening naturally.
So, that is the basics of a good skincare routine. However, they are not the only things that you can do to get perfect skin. Others include:
Getting plenty of sleep: when you are asleep, your body is repairing itself, so getting a good sleep every night can only benefit your skin
Wearing sunscreen: not only will this stop you from ending up with dry, damaged skin, but it will reduce your chances of skin cancer
Drink plenty of water: by increasing the amount of water in your body, you will hugely improve the way your skin looks and feels.
