When making New Year’s resolutions, don’t forget to include taking better care of your skin! As your body’s largest organ, your skin will benefit from you keeping it healthy and looking and feeling its best. Skincare begins inside your body and ultimately ends up outside, so go ahead and use the following tactics to care for your skin inside and out and prevent breakouts, wrinkles and sun damage.
Diet, Exercise and Sleep
January is the perfect time to implement healthier, skin-friendly habits that will help your skin glow all year round. Eat nutrient-dense foods like whole grains, berries, eggs, salmon, dark leafy greens, avocados and kiwis. Combining this with your favorite daily exercise and getting your nightly beauty sleep all promote more radiant, youthful skin. Boost your healthy habits with anti-aging products to tone, nourish and stimulate your skin’s suppleness and use specially formulated spot removers to lessen freckles and dark spots.
New Year, New Goals
Use daily sunscreen.
This step is essential! Apply generous amounts of sunscreen with at least SPF 30 to your face and body, even on cloudy days. This protects your skin from premature aging, sun damage and skin cancer (especially melanoma) by up to 73%.
Clean your face before bedtime.
Washing your face gets rid of sweat, grime and other impurities your skin attracts throughout the day. This is particularly vital if you wear makeup that can clog your pores and cause irritation and acne. A clean face, while you sleep, helps lessen unsightly breakouts and wrinkles while promoting healthier skin.
Use daily moisturizer.
Moisturized skin creates healthy skin and helps prevent dryness and unsightly wrinkles. Moisturize your skin right after your shower or bathe, as the warm water and steam work together to open your pores. Doing this helps the moisturizer absorb more quickly and effectively. Don’t worry if you have oily skin, it can still benefit from moisturizing even if it is a thinner gel or water-based moisturizer that won’t clog your pores.
Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate.
Drinking lots of water daily benefits your body and skin so it doesn’t become dry or lose its elasticity. In fact, dehydration can make you susceptible to irritation and contaminants leading to acne and itchy skin. Dry desert climates are hard on your skin, so keep up with daily hydration throughout your busy day.
Don’t touch your face unnecessarily.
Your hands are often germy from bacteria you pick up. This happens even if you wash your hands a lot because you can pick up germs anywhere. Pore-clogging bacteria, dirt and oil can all be transferred when you touch your face.
Routinely exfoliate.
You want to remove those dead skin cells and debris to reveal a new layer of skin and stimulate new cell regeneration. The benefits include having a more even skin tone, firmer and smoother skin, more hydration and fewer lines and wrinkles. Start by gently exfoliating if you have sensitive skin or are new to exfoliating so you can build up your skin’s tolerance.
Never pop a pimple.
No matter how tempting, don’t do it. It can lead to scarring and boosts your odds of a breakout from releasing the bacteria in the pimple. An easy way to keep your hands off of a pimple is to cover it with a hydrocolloid-based bandage and speed up your pimple’s healing process by applying topical acne medication.
See a dermatologist once a year.
Don’t wait until you notice a suspicious mole or acne as part of your annual health and wellness routine. Spotting problems early, from rashes, growths or skin changes can reveal underlying conditions like psoriasis.
Cosmetic Consultation
You deserve supple, healthy-looking skin that you can be proud of. This winter, give yourself the gift of healthier skin combined with skin-enhancing resolutions to carry you throughout the new year. If you need cosmetic work done on your face or body, we are here to help! We welcome you to reach out to our team to learn more or schedule a consultation.