We all have our own unique skincare routine and daily habits we abide by. But have you ever stopped to think about whether those habits help your skin stay youthful? Or could it be that they lead to premature aging without knowing it? Here are seven tips for youthful skin.
1. Don’t be rough on your skin
This might sound obvious, but it’s also something that many of us might unconsciously be doing. We’re constantly touching our faces on a daily basis. But the way we interact with the skin by touching it, pulling it, patting, and tugging it can be a determining factor for affecting it and its health.
This is all the more relevant with those who remove makeup. We’re talking mainly about the eye area, where the skin is the thinnest and most delicate. When we overly tug or become aggressive with the skin there, it’s easy to create premature fine lines by repeatedly and harshly touching it all the time.
If you’re using stubborn waterproof makeup, there’s a tip you can use to gently and effectively remove your eye makeup. Take a cotton pad soaked in micellar water or cleansing oil and hold over the eyes for 5-10 seconds. Afterwards, gently use circular upward and outward motions to remove! If you don’t like using cotton pads, you can use light massaging motions with the warmth of your fingers and the cleansing oil to break down the makeup.
You can also use gentle, circular or patting motions to apply products and use firm, but not dragging movements.
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2. Don’t sleep in bad positions
Let’s talk about our pillows… and the way we sleep at night.
Because these two factors can determine whether you wake up looking like a creased puffer fish or with plump skin. Our skin relies on our collagen production to keep it looking bouncy and youthful. But as we age, collagen production naturally starts to slow down. Couple that with sleeping with your cheek squished in one position over a prolonged period of time, you might unintentionally be giving yourself some wrinkles.
Enter silk pillowcases! In the beauty world, silk pillowcases are touted as an effective anti-aging tool because of its ability to retain moisture in the skin. This is important because as we sleep, the moisture from our skin evaporates into the air and into our pillowcases. While there’s no hard evidence that silk actually prevents wrinkles, it might help increase the quality of sleep.
But if you’re not in the mood of spending money on silk pillowcases, you can adjust your sleeping position and be more mindful of how you sleep at night. Since your body’s internal functions are constantly circulating, you want to make sure that waste fluids in your lymphatic system aren’t pooling in one area. To make sure this doesn’t happen, make sure you sleep with your head propped up so that any fluids in your body are moving downwards and draining away from your face.
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3. Don’t under-hydrate and moisturize
For those of you who are new to the skincare game, healthy and youthful skin starts with knowing two things: hydration and moisturizing. When your skin is inadequately hydrated or moisturized, you’re going to notice many unpleasant reactions. These include tightness, dry flakes, excess oil, irritation, dullness, and cracked skin.
But what exactly does it mean to hydrate and moisturize?
Hydration refers to the water content in your skin cells that helps you look plump and youthful. Just as you drink water when you’re thirsty, focus on hydrating your skin with ingredients that quench your skin. Look for hyaluronic acid, glycerin, urea, aloe, honey, AHAs, and marine extracts.
Moisturizing on the other hand, refers to creating a protective barrier that helps to trap and seal in all the moisture in your skin. Look for ingredients such as ceramides, fatty acids, antioxidants, coconut oil, sunflower oil, shea butter, cocoa butter and evening primrose oil. Keep in mind that some oils can be heavy and pore-clogging for oily skin types, so definitely look into lightweight or gel moisturizers!
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4. Don’t think anti-aging products will solve all problems
When it comes to looking for anti-aging products, you really shouldn’t be looking at the labels and assume that the product will help you. The truth is: it boils down to the ingredients.
As we age, our natural production of collagen, elastin, and overall sebum production starts to deplete. So to make up for the depleting natural production, a lot of anti-aging products contain combinations of ceramides, hyaluronic acid, and omega fatty acids. These are particularly beneficial to restore the skin barrier and encourage the skin to lock in moisture and hydration.
Additionally, incorporating active ingredients such as retinol, niacinamide and peptides help to stimulate collagen production and encourage the skin to work their magic in restoring youthful skin. It definitely works to try different ingredients out to see which one works for you! Make sure that you start using active ingredients at a low percentage and gradually work your way up to higher concentrations.
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5. Pack in antioxidants
If there’s one thing you want to get enough of, it’s antioxidants! This group is truly the crème de la crème of ingredients for protecting the skin against UV damage and other environmental stressors. Why does this matter?
It’s because environmental stressors like pollution, free radicals, and UV rays can cause serious damage in our body. They are also mostly responsible for skin irritation, premature aging, and in severe cases: damage in your DNA!
Fortunately the latter is highly unlikely because a good portion of antioxidants are found in the foods we eat. But when you apply antioxidants topically, you can also give your skin an extra boost in protection, especially when applied right before your sunscreen.
Look for ingredients such as vitamins A, B, C, E, CoQ10, berry and algae extracts, and green tea in your skincare products.
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For more detailed information on skincare combinations, check out the full video:
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