Everybody's got a skin care tip. I thought I would put in my two cents worth. Here are my favorite skin care tips.
I get my skin care tips from dermatologist recommendations. Who better to consult about the skin's heath than a person that specializes in treating skin diseases?
Let's start with cleansing and exfoliation. Daily cleansing should be gentle. Exfoliation is damaging.
The idea that you can improve your appearance by rubbing off a layer of dead cells is silly. The epidermis (the outermost layer) is completely composed of dead cells. There are five sub-layers and if you rub off one, what you are left with would look like a burn.
What exfoliation actually does is increase your sensitivity to the sun and the free radical damage that it causes.
The dermatologist's skin care tip concerning sun exposure; Wear a hat and sunglasses. Avoid the use of sunscreen on a daily basis. Avoid spending more than 15 minutes in direct sunlight. When necessary, use a zinc oxide sun-block with a 30+ SPF rating.
Those skin care tips will help you avoid free radical damage from the sun, but free radicals come from other sources, as well. You probably already know this, but free radical damage causes wrinkles, age spots and cancer, all of the things that we don't want to see on our faces.
What prevents and corrects free radical damage of all kinds? The answer may surprise you.
Good nutrition that includes lots of antioxidants counters free radical damage. But, when it comes to the epidermis, there's a problem. There are no blood vessels in the epidermis. It gets it's nourishment from the dermis (the next layer down) through a process called diffusion.
So, the dermatologist's skin care tip for preventing and correcting free radical damage is to apply nutrients directly, specifically the antioxidants coenzyme Q10 and vitamin E. Vitamin B5 is also important, as it provides some protection from the sun.
How about some anti-aging skin care tips? Other than avoiding the sun, which I already covered, you should also avoid the use of lotions and creams that contain petrolatum. It disrupts the skin's natural rejuvenation process. In other words, it makes you look older.
Another anti-aging skin care tip is to use a cream every day that contains the protein keratin. Keratin is needed for the composition of new cells and fibers. Every day, we lose skin-cells and new ones are formed.
They are bound together with the hyaluronic acid, an amino acid, and we have new fibers. This natural process slows down with age, but if given the right nutrients, we can "speed" it back up again.
Most of the skin care tips that I have seen recommend the use of hyaluronic acid, but a better choice is to look for kelp. Specific varieties of kelp block an enzymatic process that reduces the natural levels of hyaluronic acid. As the levels increase, the skin becomes firmer, moister and more elastic.
One final skin care tip; avoid the major cosmetic companies. They do not have your best interests at heart.
