When is the best time to start taking care of your skin? The best time is really start from 6 months old! Yes, 6 months old babies should start wearing sunscreen. Sun damages are accumulative so start early! Of course a baby can not BUY a sunscreen themselves, thus you as a reader/parent can help to make it happen. This blog post will be more specific on 20’s and above that you can take the control of your skin’s destiny!
In general, all skin care products should really do three things- protect, comfort, moisturize. No matter if you purchase your skin care in drug store or in premium beauty retail. What differentiate the pricing lays in the packaging, the active ingredient used, and the clinical promises that how it will make your skin looking more smart and beautiful.
In your 20’s– all you really need is a basic hydrator and a sunscreen. At this time, your skin should be either oily or oily-combination. Chances are you are active and may lose hydration due to active exercise and moving around. Make sure not only you are drinking 8 glasses of water, you should also do the same to quench your skin thirst. Look for ingredients such as glycerin, hyaluronic acid, watermelon or honey to keep your skin hydrated. Wear SPF 50 if you are outdoor a lot. Prevention is easier than treatment. If you take care of your skin early, you have less issues down the road.
In your 30’s– You may start experience early signs of aging. It’s time to use a more sophisticated moisturizer with good lipid replenishers and an eye product. Products contains squalane, triglycerides, argan oil, coconut oil, avocado oil are all good choices to help moisturize skin. A light weight eye cream or balm or gel should be added to the daily regimen especially if you tend to have dark circles due to lack of sleep. Ingredients to look for in eye products are buckwheat, or caffeine to help reduce puffiness, licorice, vitamin C, or algae to help with dark circles. It’s also a great time to add in skin perfecting polisher to help exfoliate the skin so your moisturizers can penetrate better. Once a week skin perfecting mask is also suggested for the extra smart move!
In your 40’s– It’s serious skin game time! Not only you have preventative work to do like when you were at 20’s and 30’s, you may have some corrective work if you haven’t been so diligent doing your skin care work. So what does it entail? Amp up your exfoliation game- you may want to increase exfoliation to 2-3 times a week as skin cell turn over can be sluggish if you don’t help it going. Pay extra attention to the eye area– that crows’feet, that hallowing under the eye may start to show. You will need a powerhouse eye cream packed with peptides, retinol-like actives, algaes, lentil extracts, green banana extracts for extra firming and moisturization. Since the skin underneath the eyes is similar to our lips, yes, go ahead massage in the leftover eyecream on our fingertips to your lips. It’s also time to add in a skin serum treatment under your moisturizer as serum is packed with the highest level of actives possible. When you use a serum, do not just slap it on. Try to PRESS the serum on to the skin with outward motion to enhance penetration and follow with a moisturizer to seal in all the greatness of the serum. Oh, and don’t forget to treat your neck as well! Neck is the area even cosmetic surgery will have a hard time to correct once you have that Turkey neck. Protect NOW. Of course, a weekly skin perfecting mask will also help to keep your complexion glowing.
In your 50’s & beyond– Are you hopeless at this stage? Absolutely not! The skin care work at this stage will involve intensive night time skin repair and continue to avoid sun exposure with great sunscreen during the day. My absolute love sun product is Clarins UV plus 50- best invention ever. It’s non-greasy, non-whitening, and smells absolutely fabulous (so you WANT to put it on). At 50 and above, for women, it’s menopausal stage and you will experience hot flash, loss of collagen and elastin so this is the last opportunity to really turn back time. This is also the stage age spots tend to pop up on your cheeks or even hands, so take absolute care with vitamin C or licorice infused products along with gentle physical exfoliation such as cellulose beads or fruit peels from Alpha hydroxy acids or Beta Hydroxy acids. The Skin Perfecting Polisher by Grand Central Beauty is a great combination of both physical exfoliation and fruit acid peel. Just like when you are at 40’s, use your eye creams, serum, and anti-aging moisturizer. You may upgrade your moisturizer at this stage for intensified anti-aging results. You may find ingredients that sooths hot flashes or calming desirable such as alpha bisabolo or chamomile. Multi-peptides, multi-antioxidants, multi-collagen and elastin inducers are much needed at this stage. Check to see if the products have any clinical support on their claims. Again, don’t forget about your neck area, and even hands at this time.
Bottom line for skin care is exfoliation + moisturization + sunscreen and you should have a glowing complexion no matter the age!
Smart & Beautiful Skin To YOU!
Ginger