Although your skin type is basically constant throughout your life, some lifestyle choices and environmental factors can affect how your skin behaves.
- Sleep. Get 7-8 hours a night. Benefit: Your skin renews itself by building new cells while you sleep.
- Vitamin C. Eat vitamin C-rich foods and take a supplement for extra insurance. Benefit: Vitamin C is a potent free-radical scavenger that’s known for its corrective and preventative benefits for sun- and environmentally-damaged skin.
- Water. Drink 6-8 glasses of filtered water per day. Benefit: improved circulation and accelerated cell growth.
- Exercise. Regularly. Benefit: moving around helps revive circulation and speeds blood flow to the surface of your skin. Added benefit: Exercise can help alleviate stress. See #5.
- Stress. Relax your mind by exercising your body. Especially unclench your facial muscles.
Benefit: Relieving stress can mean avoiding blemishes, hives, colour loss and under-eye circles. One more thing – your mother was right: Habitually tense facial expressions can create permanent lines. - The “no-no’s.” Avoid them. Your skin hates alcohol, tobacco and caffeine, and will show you by losing moisture or forming wrinkles that make you look older sooner. Avoid the no-no’s and get this benefit: You’ll look younger longer. (Be aware that some medications can make skin more sensitive.)
- Natural aging. As we age our skin becomes drier and loses elasticity, which can cause wrinkles and fine lines. How to manage: Use a specially formulated age-defying moisturizer at night to nourish and renew your skin and reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles.
- Sun is the most damaging of all environmental factors. Continued exposure damages and wrinkles your skin. Sun exposure is also a major cause of skin cancer. How to manage: Avoid long exposure and use a facial moisturizer with sunscreen – every day. At night use a renewal moisturizer to repair damage.
- Low/high humidity. Low humidity robs your skin of essential moisture, while high humidity can make skin feel oily. How to manage: Nourish your skin with a good moisturizer to fight low humidity. In high humidity, that oily feeling isn't moisture – you still need a moisturizer that will help protect skin from dryness.
- Extreme temperatures. Both cold and hot temperatures with low humidity deplete moisture from your skin and leave it tight and dry. How to manage: Nourish skin with a good moisturizer. Another hint: Use lukewarm, not hot or cold water to rinse your face.
- Wind. Strong wind, especially with extreme temperatures and low humidity, can cause dry, flaky skin. How to manage: Re-hydrate with a good moisturizer.
- Air pollution. Windborne dust, dirt, and smog can clog pores and choke your skin. How to manage: Protect your skin with a good moisturizer that forms a “barrier” between you and that nasty stuff floating around you. Carefully cleanse and condition every night.
