10 Tips for Better Skin

20:07:00

I don’t have the best skin in the world however I’ve picked up some tips over the years on how to improve my skin and when I stick to these tips I definitely see an improvement in my skins overall condition - although its quite hard to follow all of these steps all of the time. Whether you have dry skin, oily skin, blemish prone, dehydrated or any other skin type, following these steps will improve your skins condition.

Stay well hydrated | For your skin to be well hydrated it is suggested that you drink eight cups of water a day. Quite often people who think they have dry skin in fact just have dehydrated skin which is a different kettle of fish. Whether your skin is dry depends upon your skin natural oil production - dry skinned people have a less active oil production and oily skinned people have an overactive oil production - but you can have oily skin and dehydrated skin as dehydration correlates to the amount of water in your body. Staying well hydrated helps all aspects of your health so its worth drinking plenty of water for more reasons than the appearance of your skin. Aoiding alcohol and caffeine also helps to improve your bodies hydration levels as alcohol and caffeine dehydrate your body. You can tell if your skin is dehydrated as it will look slightly dull and lifeless.


Use the correct skincare | One of the biggest mistakes that people make is using the wrong kind of skincare for their skin type. People with dehydrated skin will often opt for something for dry skin thinking it will help but in fact it won’t. As I said before there is a difference between dry skin and dehydrated skin as dry skin relates to the oil production of your skin whereas dehydrated skin refers to the amount of water in your body. An oily skinned person using skincare aimed at dry skin will promote oil production and therefore make them even more oily which most likely isn’t desirable. The same goes for a dry skinned person using skin care aimed at oily skin people, this will stunt oil production therefore making their skin even more dry. If you have dehydrated skin look for a moisturiser that says ‘nourishing’ instead as this will refer to ingredients adding moisture to the skin rather than promoting or stunting oil production.

Eat well | Its true what they say, you are what you eat. If you’re constantly eating fatty, unhealthy foods your skin is going to become dehydrated, dull, lifeless, incredibly blemish prone etc but if you eat healthily then your skin will thank you for it as it will receive far more important nutrients. I’m not saying that you have to eat a vegan diet to have good skin but making sure you eat lots of fruit and vegetables will help - I love to make smoothies to make sure I get the nutrients I need - but having a chocolate biscuit or piece of cake every now and again isn’t going to hurt. 

Exfoliate/Face masks | Every so often its always good to give your skin a bit of extra help. Just like you do with your hair giving it a deep conditioning treatment your skin needs it to. Exfoliating your skin first of all removes dead skin cells from the surface. This will mean that you skin will look a lot more radiant and you’ll find that your makeup will go on a lot better as your skin will be so much smoother - I like to exfoliate about three times a week but if you have sensitive skin I wouldn’t exfoliate more than once or twice a week to avoid irritating the skin. Having exfoliated skin also means your skincare can penetrate the living skin cells more easily rather than sitting on top of dead skin having no effect. Exfoliating the skin also promotes collagen production. Collagen is a structural protein which makes up around 30% of our bodies. In the beauty industry its most well known for preventing wrinkles as it keeps the skin plump. Face masks are also important. Moisturising face masks will give your skin an extra boost of hydration, mud masks will deeply cleanse pores to remove sebum - the stuff that creates black heads - build up and help to minimise pore size.

Get plenty of sleep | The phrase “I need my beauty sleep” isn’t just a gimmick or an excuse for us all to get a good eight hours of sleep a night, its true, sleep does improve our skins quality. Not getting enough sleep worsens things like breakouts, sensitivity and dermatitis. This is because there are more inflammatory cells left in the body as these are usually destroyed during sleep. Not getting enough sleep also contributes to dehydrated skin as your bodies hydration rebalances whilst you sleep and the ageing process is accelerated if you don’t get enough sleep as deep sleep allows damaged cells to be repaired, if these cells don’t get repaired over night small breakdowns of cells will occur which will increase the signs of ageing.

Don’t touch your face | Your hands carry a lot of bacteria by touching your face your then transferring that bacteria to your face which can cause blemishes. Before you apply your makeup always wash your hands first and attempt to keep your hands away from your face throughout the day, the biggest way we fail at this is by leaning our chins on our hands and I can always tell when I have been as a few small blemishes begin to appear.

Regularly wash your makeup brushes | Makeup brushes overtime collect a lot of bacteria which you then spread across your face the next time you use them - makeup sponges are even worse. Eye brushes aren’t so much of a concern - unless you have an eye infection in which case don’t use the same brush on both eyes and never reuse it, wash after every use - its more your base brushes you need to worry about. I aim to wash my foundation brushes once a week - if you have lots of foundation brushes then you can rotate them and you’ll probably only need to wash them every couple of weeks - but I only every use a foundation sponge once before washing it. Make sure you wash your brushes with something antibacterial and in warm water. Using a non-antibacterial soap will just wash out the build up of product but won’t kill the bacteria. 

Avoid artificial’s | Try to avoid synthetics, parabens (a type of preservative), mineral oil,  anything that isn’t natural, in your skincare. Although none of these are necessarily ‘bad’ for your skin - if they were their use wouldn’t be allowed in cosmetics - they tend to be cheap fillers for products when there are natural alternatives which are much better for your skin and your skin will actually benefit from. Brands such as The Body Shop, Balance Me and Decléor are all natural skincare brands and their products are great.

Properly remove your makeup | Using a makeup wipe at night isn’t enough to properly remove your makeup and cleanse your skin. A makeup wipe or any makeup remover will only remove surface makeup, to properly remove your makeup at night after removing the surface makeup with a wipe or remover you need to cleanse your skin - either with a face wash, balm or cream cleanser. This will remove the makeup from deep in your skin which will prevent blackheads and congested skin.

Avoid direct sunlight | Direct sunlight is just all around bad for your skin. Yes it gives you a tan but it also dries out your skin, creates age and sun spots and causes premature ageing. If you are going out in the sun don’t forget to apply an SPF beforehand.

Do you have any tips for better skin?

~ Jade xx

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