Is the possibility of younger looking skin a myth? With hundreds, no, thousands of beauty and skin care products on the market, aging skin is a big deal for women all over the world. Aging, however, is a natural process and unfortunately, no amount of anti-aging products can change that fact and stop it from happening. In fact, there are two things that are inevitably brought on by aging — health effects and skin symptoms – kinda like death and taxes.
But although it can’t be completely stopped, it CAN be slowed down with the right skin care regimen. After all when you take care of your skin and body, they will in turn take care of you.
Here are 3 secrets to younger looking skin — are they true or false?
1. Know your skin type – TRUE
The first step is to know what your skin type is. This is your way of determining what products will fit your skin. Unknown to many, anti-aging creams and ointments also take into consideration the type of skin that you have. For instance, using a cream for oily skin when you have dry skin will only make your skin all the more drier.
If you don’t know what your skin type is, try this simple test. About 15 minutes after washing your face and patting it dry, press lens-cleaning paper on different parts of your face.
In those areas where you produce a lot of oil, the paper will stick or pick up oil. If it doesn’t stick anywhere, you have dry skin. If it only sticks on your forehead, nose and chin, you have normal or combination skin. If it sticks everywhere, you have oily skin.
2. Drink lots of water- True and False
We constantly hear about how important it is to drink about 6-8 glasses of water in a day and how it will help our skin but that is only half the story. Taking water into the body by drinking sufficient amounts during the day is important but most dermatologists will tell you that to maintain the skin’s moisture levels you need to keep it there too.
To keep the moisture in, eat fresh fruit and vegetables which add a lot of water to the diet as well as antioxidants and fiber, drink milk and fruit juice as additional sources of water, take essential fatty acid supplements like evening primrose oil or flax-seed, take glucosamine supplements to hold moisture in cells and use a good daily moisturizer.
3. Block the sun – True
Another must when it comes to taking care of your skin is to make sure that you protect it from ultraviolet rays of the sun. Everyone needs sun protection, but with mature skin, it’s even more important.
Because skin damage accumulates with time, you need to be able to stop the process from happening. You can do this by always wearing sun block when going out. Use it even on cold or cloudy days as UV rays are still present and the fog or the clouds can do nothing about it.
Avoid the sun from 11 am to about 3 pm. In addition to darkening the skin, the sun may also develop in your skin sunspots and discolorations that may be hard to get rid of.
Don’t forget to protect your eyes, sunglasses are a great anti-wrinkle accessory – without them you will screw up your eyes and cause additional lines and wrinkles. They also look fantastic and hide any wrinkles you already have taking years off your face effortlessly.
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