Why Developing a Skincare Routine is Important
Most people think that washing their face every night is enough to remove all the dirt, toxins, and build-up in their skin. But that’s not the case. There are still a lot of impurities lodging in your face, waiting for the right time to cause the skin to break out. This is what skin care routines are for. It makes sure to wipe away all traces of dirt while keeping your skin extra hydrated. Here are a few more reasons on why you should ditch your old skin care habit and create a new skin care regimen right for you:
Your Skin Sheds itself Everyday
Your skin constantly changes and regenerates. It sheds 30,000 to 40,000 dead skin cells every hour. Over a 24-hour period, you lose almost a million skin cells. But where do all the dead skin cells go? The dust on your bedside table, carpet, windowsills, and even at your television, those are your dead skin cells.
In other words, you may have healthy skin today, but what about tomorrow? How about the day after? A skin care routine can help in maintaining a healthy and glowing skin.
All Skin Types are Different
You know that one friend who never ever had a breakout or even a trace of blemish spot on her face? She is definitely blessed but what works for her may not work for you. Each skin type has different needs. For instance, oily skin type is more prone to acne breakout compared to normal skin. Whether you have oily skin, dry skin, combination skin, or normal skin, there is a right skin care regimen to keep your skin youthful and glowing.
Keeps your Skin Youthful and Glowing
Have you spotted the first line of wrinkles in your forehead? Does your skin look dull and dry because of stress? As you age, your skin also ages. It loses its elasticity and firmness. As people get older, their skin gets thinner, drier, and less elastic. It slowly loses the ability to protect itself from damage. Having beautiful skin is a lifelong process. Nourish your skin with the nutrients it needs. Start by creating a daily skin care routine today to help you keep your glowing skin in the future.
Prevents Potential Skin Care Problems
An ounce of prevention is always better than cure. Dealing with skin issues like acne, wrinkles, skin discoloration, and other skin care woes can be expensive. From facial treatments to fight acne up to laser resurfacing sessions for wrinkles, treating skin issues involves a lot of costs. If you take care of your skin health, you avoid issues down the line that can be costly. Invest in the right products and create a skin routine for your skin type.
When you Look Good, You Feel Good
When taken in its literal sense, the saying: “look good, feel good” can mean having an appealing face or beautiful skin can boost your self-esteem. While beauty and confidence may come hand in hand, developing a good skin care regimen isn’t just for its aesthetic reason. Looking good is also a sign of good health.
Remember, your skin is a reflection of you, which includes everything from the food you are eating to the emotions that you are feeling. Along with keeping your skin healthy from within, maintain a skin care regimen that will take care of your skin from outside elements.
Proper skin care is not only about looking good – it’s about staying healthy. Bad skin care habits may cause rashes, sores, acne, and wrinkles. Unhealthy skin is more susceptible to skin disease, infection and is more likely to scar after an injury.
Do you want to have a head start on what products you should add to your skin care routine? Learn more about the best skin care products for your skin below:
Tips in Choosing the Right Skin Care Routine for You
Know your skin type
You might have come across these terms before but more than anything, knowing your skin type is the starting point to your holistic skin care. Your skin type may be normal, combination, oily, or dry. Each has unique characteristics and needs of their own. Knowing your skin’s specific needs is your guide in choosing which products you need to add to your shopping list.
Review your previous skin care products and their effects
Take the trip down memory lane and think back to the previous beauty products have used before. This is essential because you wouldn’t want to repeat past mistakes and invest in products that did not work for you. Take note of hits and misses, and the product’s effect on your skin. Did you get the intended outcome? Were the products gentle enough for your sensitive skin? Did it contain harsh chemicals that irritated your skin? To prevent your past skin care mistakes, read reviews from trusted beauty gurus and online influencers about their top picks, product hits and misses, skin care routine, and more.
Study the product’s packaging
Studying the product’s whole package doesn’t necessarily mean that it should come in cute and colorful packaging. The products should contain all the necessary tamper-proof seal and the certification. There are many fake products and imitations plaguing the beauty market today. It may be hard to tell whether which of the products is authentic or not. But checking its packaging, which includes its seal, label, and authentication, you can avoid buying a rip-off. Remember to buy from reputable sources only.
How much time do you have?
Determine how much time you usually spend for your skin care routine. How much time are you willing to allot for your day to day regimen. Some products and treatments like mud masks and peel off masks take longer to apply than usual. Find products and routines that will not sacrifice your time.
Be sensitive
If you have a sensitive skin, hypoallergenic products are essential to your skin care routine. For many years, companies have been producing products, which they claim “hypoallergenic”, “safe for sensitive skin”, or “allergy tested.” These statements imply that the products making the claims are less likely to cause allergic reactions than competing products. Even though a product claims to be free of fragrances or chemical preservatives, it’s still advisable to double-check first before you make the purchase. It is also essential to perform an allergy test before buying certain skin care products. Apply a small amount of the product in your forearm and wait if there’s any itching or tingling reaction.
Always remember that choosing the right skin care routine for you definitely works best if you are confident with your body. Read more about that below:
Essential Elements of Skin Care Routine
Developing a skin care routine is a life-long commitment. It involves dealing with changes in your skin type and skin need due to varying factors like aging, environment, your diet, and such. From facial washes, toners, eye creams, serums, moisturizers, and the list goes on. How do you know which products are most important for you? Although your skin needs to be treated with special skin care products on occasion, below is a short list of four products that you should never be without in your quest to a clean and healthy skin:
A cleanser is one of the basic building blocks of a healthy skin care routine. It helps remove excess oils and impurities from the skin. It improves skin health and provides you a youthful radiance. Cleansers also prep your face for applying other beauty products.
All throughout your day, the skin on your face is vulnerable to bacteria, pollutants, viruses, dirt, and accumulation of dead skin cells. Washing your face daily removes these impurities and gives the skin a fresh and clean look. Cleansers prevent impurities from clogging the pores. Clogged pores are one of the most common culprits of acne breakout.
Using bar soaps as a facial wash is not recommended unless it has a pH balance that is suitable to the pH balance of your face. Bar soaps have the tendency to be harsh and can strip off the skin’s natural oils and moisture.
Exfoliating is an essential factor of skincare routine but it shouldn’t be done on a daily basis as it might dry the skin. Exfoliating is the process of removing the outer layer of dead skin cells that build up over time. The skin naturally gets rid of dead skin cells on a daily basis. As time goes by, skin’s shedding ability slows down which results in an accumulation of dead skin cells and skin dullness. Exfoliation accelerates the process and ensures that newer, fresher skin is always shining through.
Protection needs to be a priority in everyone’s skincare routine. The sun’s harmful rays are the leading cause of skin damage. UV exposure release harmful free radicals that contribute to a long list of skin issues like premature aging, uneven skin tone, and even skin cancer. Even if it’s dark, cloudy, or raining, lather on sunscreen with at least an SPF of 30. A word of warning, sunscreen might leave white marks on your skin. To avoid this, choose a sunscreen that’s right for your skin type.
As you age, your skin loses its ability to retain moisture. This makes the skin look saggy, dry, and dull. This is why you need to moisturize. You have to help your skin hydrate and retain its elastin and collagen. Elastin and collagen help your skin to remain firm and supple.
Choose a moisturizer that is applicable to your skin type. A suitable moisturizer can help prevent and treat dry skin. It can protect sensitive skin, improve skin tone and texture, and mask imperfections.
Common Skincare Mistakes You Might be doing
Do you wash off your make up before going to bed? Do you wash your face, at most, two times a day? If your answer is no, you’re violating a few of the basic skin care routine commandments!
Most of the time, you unknowingly do things that may cause your skin to breakout or become irritated. Check out these lists of common unforgivable beauty mistakes and habits–and how to fix them:
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Using products not suitable for your skin type
Does your skin care product leave noticeable improvement in your skin? If not, it may not be suitable for your skin type. Skin care varies from person to person because of skin type differences. What works on a dry skin type may not show the same results when applied to a combination skin type. While there are products that promise to be “tailor fit” in all types of skin, it is best to pick products formulated specifically for your skin type. Use skin care products exclusively formulated for the unique needs of your skin.
Beauty Fix: Know your skin type. You can’t find the right products and skin care regimen for you unless you know what type of skin you are in.
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Skipping Sunscreen Application
The sun is the most common culprit of skin care damage. Its harmful UVA and UVB rays cause the skin to sag. It is the number one reason why your skin ages prematurely. There are times when you don’t think you’re getting the damaging rays. Times like when you are driving in your car, sitting in your home or office that’s near windows, or walking outside on a cloudy winter day. These are common instances when people don’t feel like they need sun protection. But that shouldn’t be the case. If you want to prevent wrinkles, you must wear sunscreen every day, rain or shine, inside or out.
Beauty Fix: Always carry a travel-sized sunscreen with you. The sun’s UV rays are the strongest between 10 am and 4 pm. This is a time when the sun is at its highest in the sky. It is less damaging in the early morning and late afternoon.
Exfoliation involves the removal of the oldest dead skin cells on the skin’s outermost surface. But nowadays, in order to achieve younger and smoother skin, some people resort to harsh exfoliators and aggressive skincare routine. If your skin feels squeaky clean and very tight after cleansing, it means you are exfoliating too much. Too much exfoliation leads to stripping off the natural moisture of the skin. This leads to a dry, flaky and dehydrated skin.
Beauty Fix: How often should you exfoliate depends on your skin type. Exfoliate a normal and combination skin two to three times a week. If you have a sensitive skin, only exfoliate once a week.
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Using too much moisturizer
If too much exfoliation causes too much dryness, moisturizers may come at hand. But when you use it too much, it may lead to a breakout. It’s a common misconception that the more moisturizer you use, the more effective it will be.
Using thicker coats of moisturizer will only cause your skin to breakout because of clogged pores. It is also a waste of product because your skin cannot absorb too much.
Beauty Fix: How can you tell if you’re over-moisturizing? If it takes a long time for your moisturizer to be absorbed into the skin or if you are consuming your moisturizer to quick, say, every few weeks, there is a high chance you’re overusing your moisturizer.
Exfoliating your face before applying moisturizer helps the skin to absorb it quickly. This is because the dirt and build-ups are removed. You may also spritz a spray toner to your face before applying moisturizer to spread it evenly.
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Hoarding too many beauty products
The colorful world of skin care comes with varieties of beauty products. From peel-off makeups to snail serums, there are plenty of options for you and your skin. Some people tend to buy all the talk-of-the-town products until it piles up and bursts in their glam bags. Not only is hoarding beauty products expensive, but your skin also does not need all of them. Applying too many beauty products in your face raise its risk of being irritated.
Beauty Fix: Keep your skin care routine simple by using only three to four beauty products daily. It usually comes with a cleanser, daily sunscreen, and a treatment-oriented product like a moisturizer, acne treatment, or anti-aging product.
Does your previous skin care regimen contain one of these red flags? Step up your skin care routine with these healthy skin tips you can try, now!
Busted Misconceptions on Skin Care Routine
Everyone has their own fair share of tips and opinions about beauty and skin care, thanks to this age of social media influencers and even old wives’ tales. A long list of beauty tips and tittle-tattles about skin care are roaming around to and from different mouths.
There’s a thin line between fact and fiction. Do these skin hacks do more good than harm on your skin? Learn more about the most common misconceptions and skin myths and what you should be doing instead:
Myth 1: Not washing your face can cause acne
Surprise! Not washing your face is certainly a poor skin care practice but you cannot get acne breakout just by not washing your face frequently. Having an acne breakout entails many factors, like the following: clogged pores from skin cell build-up, sebum, bacteria, and inflammation. So for the record, not washing your face can make your acne worse, but it is not the sole cause of acne.
Myth 2: Washing your face with warm water will open up your pores
If you are a big fan of Korean skin care regimen, the last thing you want in your face is huge and visible pores. Pores tend to be visible if sebum and dirt build-up clogs it. So the best option to remove this clog is by opening the pores through warm water, except, that practice is just a myth.
Pores are just tiny openings in your skin that allows your skin to sweat, be hydrated. They do not have any muscles. This means they cannot open and they cannot close either. In other words, there’s nothing you can do to change the size of your pores, but you can make them appear smaller.
Hot water and steam can’t change the size of your pores but it might help loosen all of the dark spots that are clogging up them up. But it’s important to realize, that this has nothing to do with changing the size of your pores. To put it simply, hot water and steam is just an effective way of cleaning the pores out. It can actually make pores look smaller by getting rid of getting excess debris and makeup.
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Myth 3: You don’t need sunscreen when it’s raining or cloudy outside
People think that they can skip applying sunscreen when it’s raining or cloudy outside. Just because you don’t see the sun, doesn’t mean it isn’t there. UVB and UVA rays are still present even when it rains or snows. You might not get sunburn when you are outside for a long time. However, both UVB and UVA can still cause damage or trigger skin aging.
There are two types of sunscreen you can use. There is chemical sunscreen and physical sunscreen. Chemical sunscreen creates a protective layer on the outermost layer of your skin. This sunscreen absorbs the UV rays and prevents them from penetrating your skin’s deeper layers. The active ingredients of chemical sunscreen include Oxybenzone, Avobenzone, Octisalate, Octocrylene, Homosalate, and Octinoxate.
On the other hand, physical sunscreen works like a shield that reflects UV rays. It creates a barrier on the surface of your skin that makes UV rays bounce back. The most common ingredients used in physical sunscreen are zinc oxide and titanium oxide.
Myth 4: Adults can’t get acne
Gone are the days of your acne filled teenager self in her awkward puberty phase. Now is just a world of soaring career, adult drinks, and acne-cleared face, except, you’re wrong. Hormonal changes, stress, and poor diet and lifestyle can cause acne. Surveys have found out that significant numbers of adults are still getting acne into their 30s, 40s, and even 50s. Acne may look different during puberty and in your 30s. It’s more likely to be reddish lumps around your mouth and jaw, rather than whiteheads and blackheads scattered all over your forehead, nose, and cheeks.
Did you get a head start and “how to’s” in redefining your skin care routine? Finding the right regimen for you may seem like a never-ending quest for beauty. It takes time, resources, and effort. But one thing’s for sure – it’s definitely worth it!
