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Your lifestyle can have a big impact on your skin’s health. If you want to keep your skin looking smooth and rosy long into old age, try taking some of these measures!

Moisturize

As we get older, our skin naturally loses its ability to create sebum (our skin’s oil). Without this sebum, the skin dries out and wrinkles more easily. Moisturizing daily can help to replace this oil in our skin as we age. While it may not be necessary when you’re young, it’s worth starting early just to set up a routine and supplement your skin’s health. If you have naturally oily skin and are prone to spots, regular moisturizer could make this worse and you may be better of using a specialist non-comedogenic moisturizer.

Exfoliate

Exfoliation is a method of removing the outmost layers of skin, which are often just dead skin cells, allowing the freshest layers to shine through. This can stop pores getting blocked, helping to prevent spots and acne. It can also prevent calluses from developing and prevent dry skin. The most common way to exfoliate is to simply scrub the skin with a sponge or loofah. There are also exfoliation rubs with a gritty texture that is perfect for rubbing off dead skin, as well as exfoliation face peels that take off the entire top layer.

Stay Hydrated

Drinking a lot of water is also good for your skin. When you’re well hydrated, your skin is likely to have more elasticity – making it less prone to wrinkles. Staying well hydrated also improves the flow of blood around the body, including under the surface of the skin, helping to maintain a rosier appearance. All in all, make sure you’re drinking enough liquids (coffee and alcoholics drinks don’t count as both of these can further dehydrate you).

Get More Sleep

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We all need our beauty sleep. Getting a minimum of 7 hours per night allows the body to go through its full healing and rejuvenation cycle. If this cycle isn’t completed, you could find that wounds, rashes, and acne don’t seem to heal. On top of this, the body may not have a chance to flush out toxins, resulting in the skin taking on a pale appearance. You can get more sleep by going to bed earlier and cutting out bad evening habits such as snacking heavily and looking at bright screens. You can also find ways to improve your sleep quality so that you’re not waking up as often – this could include upgrading your bedding and blocking out the early morning sunlight with blackout curtains.

Stay Active

Exercise is good for your entire body, including your skin. By increasing blood flow, exercise allows nutrients and water to get around the body faster, helping to nourish the skin more quickly. Any type of physical activity that gets your heart rate up will achieve this.

Protect Yourself in the Sun

Sunburn doesn’t just temporarily make you look like a lobster – it can also permanently dry out and scar the skin, resulting in excess wrinkles. Not only that, sunburn is the leading cause of skin cancer. By protecting your skin while in the sun, you can reduce the risk of sunburn. One way to do this is to wear sunscreen – ideally anything over SPF 20. Another option could be to simply cover up with clothing, or shelter in the shade. It’s also worth wearing sunglasses to protect your eyes – this will protect the actually eyes themselves and prevent facial wrinkles cause by squinting.

Stop Smoking

Smoking is terrible for the skin in a number of ways. The heat from cigarettes often helps to speed up facial wrinkling, while carbon monoxide and nicotine restrict the flow of oxygen and nutrients to the skin, making healing more difficult and causing skin discoloration. By quitting smoking, you could stop this damage from taking place (& giving yourself lung cancer). Vaping is a much healthier habit for the skin – with so many weird vape flavors to choose form, it can be an exciting alternative. You could also try nicotine patches and hypnosis. 

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Cut Down on Cosmetics

If you cake your face in make-up every day, this could be having an impact on your skin. Excessively using cosmetics like foundation, mascara, and lipstick can lead to clogged up pores and permanent skin discoloration. You should try not to wear make-up every day and you should always remove your make-up at the end of the day before going to bed. If you like to wear makeup, invest in good quality, oil-free products!

Consume Less Sugar

Too much sugar can also be bad for your skin. When we consume sugar, our insulin levels spike. This in turn can lead to greater skin inflammation – it could help to aggravate acne or make conditions, like eczema, worse. Soft drinks are some of the worst contenders when it comes to sugar, and by cutting down on these, you could find that you make a big positive difference.  

Get More Vitamins

Any good dermatologist will tell you that a number of vitamins are required to keep your skin healthy. Vitamin A is one of these – this vitamin is efficient at treating wrinkles and is found in foods ranging from sweet potatoes to eggs. Vitamin C is an essential nutrient in the production of collagen, while also serving as an antioxidant – it’s most commonly found in citric fruit, broccoli, and bell peppers. Other vitamins that are good for the skin include vitamin D, vitamin K, and vitamin B5. You can take these as supplements in many cases, and they could improve your general health, as well as your skin health.

I’ve been working hard on improving my skin (thanks acne & my 30s). It takes work, but it’s worth it! Let me know what tips and tricks you have for good skin- comment below!

Thank you for reading!