To help sort through the millions of skincare products on the market today, read about the four basic tips for a great complexion to help you define your skincare needs.
Today there are many products on the market to keep skin looking young, fresh and healthy. The reality is that some people are not going to spend the money or take the time to use all these products on their skin every day. However, there are four basic steps one can follow to maintain healthy skin and prevent premature aging. The four steps include cleansing, exfoliating moisturizing and applying sunscreen. These four steps must however include ingredients that will suite your skin type. Very dry skin types will not benefit from using a cleanser and moisturizer that are formulated for acne or oily skin types and vice versa. In order for these four basic steps to work the products must be detailed for your skin type.
Step 1: Cleanse
Buy a cleanser formulated for your skin type. For dry to normal to dry skin types try a natural product with rosemary and chamomile Cleanser. There is no need to spend a lot of money on a cleanser. There are many great cleansers that can be found at the drug store if you are on a budget. Avoid bar cleansers and anything with fragrances as they can be drying and strip the skin of important oils. Be careful not to cleanse too often. Washing at night if skin is dry should do, if oily morning and night is fine. Use warm water, (overly hot or cold water can damage the skin and cause broken capillaries) to loosen dirt and clogged pores. Use a dime-sized bit of cleanser, and then rinse with cool or lukewarm water and repeat. It is important especially at night to wash twice, the first cleanse will remove make up and surface oils while the second cleanse will cleanse deeper. One cleanse in the morning should be fine. Also be aware of removing make-up properly with a make-up remover, this will ensure that no excessive rubbing at the eye area is needed when cleansing the skin.
Step 2: Exfoliate
Exfoliation is the step most people skip in their weekly skincare routine. If you start properly exfoliating your skin, you will notice an almost immediate difference. Exfoliating the skin aids in overall skin tone and texture and keeps pores free of built up debris and sloughs dead skin cells so the following steps can work more effectively. There are several ways to exfoliate skin: Microdermabrasion, chemical peels, scrubs and retinoid. Scrubs work by removing the top layer of dead skin cells that tend to dull your complexion. Make sure you use a gentle scrub with tiny grains. Some herbal facial masks and cleansers are the perfect texture to exfoliate dead skin. Big grains in cheap scrubs can tear skin and cause more harm than good. Retinoid (such as Retin-A) also work by removing the top layer of dead skin cells, this type of exfoliation can be found in the product form as a serum. Chemical peels can be pricey and sometimes dangerous; however there are many product lines that make at home kits with a les
ser chemical percentage that can be used safely by following direction.
Step 3: Moisturize
No matter your skin type, skin needs to be moisturized. Even if your skin is oily, it will benefit from moisturizers. Moisturizers seal moisture into skin, and carry other important ingredients to skin cells. Just like cleansers and exfoliates it is important to use a moisturizer that is formulated for your skin type. There are moisturizers that have ingredients like Vitamin A, E and C for anti aging. And others that have ingredients that inhibit and control oil production for oily skin types. It is important to moisturize daily morning and night after steps 1 and 2. Eye moisturizer is another moisturizer you may want to add to step 3. Eyes moisturizers are formulated differently than daily face moisturizers to treat and target the more delicate fatty tissue around the eye.
Step 4: Apply Sunscreen
