Save Your Skin: 10 Ways To Improve Your Skincare

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Our skin naturally begins to wrinkle as we get older. However, there are ways to slow the wrinkling process and preserve one’s youth into old age (without turning to surgery!). Here are just a few methods to keep your skin looking young and smooth.

Drink more water

Our skin needs to stay hydrated to stop it from drying out. Wrinkles are more likely to form when skin in dry and rough. Water also flushes out toxins from our skin, preserving that natural glow. It’s recommended that women consume 2.7 litres of water a day. Some of this we ingest in the food we eat, but we should still be drinking a lot of liquid to complement this – ideally 8 glasses of water a day. Sticking to this rule alone could have a big impact of the quality of your skin as well as helping to hydrate other organs in the body and flush out toxins, keeping everything working more efficiently from our digestion to our concentration.

Moisturise

On top of water, our skin needs natural oils to keep its elasticity. When we’re young, our skin secretes an oil called sebum which helps to keep it smooth. Our ability to produce this oil is reduced as we get older, which is where the need to supplement our skin with moisturiser comes in. There are lots of products out there such as these 7 hydrating creams for mature skin. On top of giving our skin the natural oils it needs, some products may contain minerals and nutrients such as retinol and vitamin C that help to boost our skin’s health. Those with very oily skin may want to be careful of moisturising as it could help to bring on blocked pores causing spots and acne.

Exfoliate

Exfoliation is a means of removing the layers of dead skin on top so that the fresh skin underneath shows. This can help to bring that youthful glow to one’s skin. To exfoliate your skin, simply scrub lightly all over your body with a sponge. There are lots of products that can help with exfoliation such as these 10 affordable face scrubs. You don’t want to exfoliate your skin too often – a thorough scrub is only needed twice a week at maximum.

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Eat the right food

Certain foods are great for our skin, whilst others are best avoided when looking after one’s skin. Vitamins are great for our skin’s health, particularly vitamin C, D and E. These nutrients can be found in many fresh fruit and vegetables (strawberries, tomatoes and bananas are some of the best foods for our skin). Omega-3 as found in fish and nuts is also great for our skin, improving our ability to combat inflammation including sunburn, acne and rashes. Cooking these foods too long or freezing them for too long can get rid of some of their nutrients so bear this in mind when incorporating them into your diet.

Various foods should be eaten in moderation to protect our skin. The likes of white bread and cakes are full of refined carbs and sugar which can break down collagen and our skin’s ability to fight bacteria. Sugary drinks should also be limited.

Get enough sleep

We all need our beauty sleep. There are many reasons why sleep is good for the skin. A lack of sleep firstly results in puffy eyes – our eyes haven’t had enough time to rest and so the blood vessels increase in size. A constant lack of sleep can cause these bags to turn into constant wrinkles under the eyes. Sleep is also important for our skin as it’s the period when our bodies do the most healing. When asleep, our body focuses on flushing toxins out of the skin and fighting any inflammation. On top of this, a lack of sleep causes us to produce more cortisol – the stress hormone. When stressed, our bodies produce more blood giving our skin a duller appearance, as well as making our skin more reactive to rashes.

There are lots of ways to increase sleep quality if you can’t spare more hours for sleep such as getting a better mattress or taking time away from bright screens before you sleep (these can trick our brains into thinking it’s still daytime).

De-stress

As just mentioned, stress can make the skin appear duller and make it more reactive to rashes due to the production of the hormone cortisol. This hormone also speeds up the wrinkling process. Stress can be caused by all manner of factors. Finding time each day to yourself to unwind could help to counter stress. Popular and effective ways of destressing include taking a bath, exercise, meditation, listening to music or reading a book. All of these activities will lower your cortisol levels resulting in healthier skin.

Be active

Exercise is good for your whole body. As well as helping to combat stress and reduce cortisol levels, exercise is great for increasing blood flow helping to flush out toxins in the body. When it comes to the skin, exercise can help to bring a fresh supply of oxygen to blood cells in the skin. This can help to give your skin that warm glow and your cheeks a rosier appearance. There are all kinds of ways to exercise – anything that raises your heart rate is good for your skin. You should however be careful of physical activity in the sun as too many UV rays could have contrary effects.

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Quit smoking

Smoking has many negative health effects, one being the damage it causes to our skin. Smokers can often develop facial wrinkles as a result of the smoke from cigarettes, whilst the drawing motion can cause characteristic wrinkles to develop around the lips. Tobacco in cigarettes meanwhile destroys collagen in our bodies and can reduce the flow of oxygen to our skin. Alternatives such as vaping are safer for the skin, although nicotine can still accelerate aging of the skin, prevent wound healing and cause discoloration. Reducing the amount of nicotine you take in could help to make this habit more healthy.

Stay safe in the sun

Our skin needs vitamin D from the sun to help with wound healing. However, too much sun exposure can cause sunburn. On top of drying out the skin and speeding up the wrinkling process, sunburn can increase the risk of skin cancer. Wearing sun lotion or staying in the shade can help to prevent sunburn. Make sure to also wear shades when in the sun as squinting can cause wrinkles around the eyes known as crow’s feet.

Take care with cosmetics

The makeup you wear can also have an effect on your skin. Too much foundation or concealer can cause pores to get blocked and cause outbreaks of spots. Cleanliness when applying cosmetics can make a big difference – make sure that you’re wiping off makeup every night before going to bed and make sure that make-up brushes are washed twice a month. Also be careful of using cosmetics that cause skin allergies. Rashing may turn into permanent scarring if you continue to use cosmetics that you are allergic to. There are plenty of hypoallergenic cosmetics out there that can help to prevent rashes.