Unfortunately, there is no quick-fix or magic bullet for getting, and keeping, beautiful skin. To get great skin that always looks bright and radiant, and ages slowly, you need to put the work in. Luckily that work is not hard. It just consists of following a few sensible rules on a daily basis. You may find that you are already incorporating many of these rules in your life already. If so, great, you are already half way there!
When you take the skincare rules on board, and practice them diligently, results will start to happen gradually and progressively until one day you will realise that you can’t remember the last time you felt fed up or frustrated with your skin.
BUT this is the point where many people fail. They begin to take their problem-free skin for granted and backslide on some or all of their great new habits. Guess what happens then? You got it, back to square one with their skin. Great skin is a commitment. Great skin is a results of great daily habits applied CONSISTENTLY. Then, and only then, your new great skin is for life.
The Skincare Rules
- Never EVER use a skincare product that contains any of the following ingredients:
- Perfume
- Sulphates (sulfates)
- Essential Oils
- Never pick, squeeze or otherwise inflict harm on your skin.
- Drink 8 glasses of water a day.
- Get enough sleep.
- Moderate alcohol, caffeine, dairy and sugar in your diet.
- Avoid strong sun and wear SPF30 daily.
- Cleanse your skin every night.
- Never use wipes of any kind.
- Never use a scrub on your skin.
- Above all, you must stick to your routine to get results!
Never EVER use a skincare product that contains any of the following ingredients:
- Perfume
- Sulphates (sulfates)
- Essential Oils
Reason:
My approach is to remove all irritants from your skincare routine and replace them with ingredients that are essential for your particular skin’s needs and health. It’s truly unbelievable what rubbish goes into mass market skincare that is actually harmful to the skin. These ingredients cause inflammation at cellular level which at the very least will prematurely age the skin, and in some people cause major disruption to the skins defense system, resulting in visibly stressed, problematic skin. The above list are the biggest culprits but by no means the only ones. However, if you banish these three categories from your skincare you will be off to a great start.
Many people are surprised at the inclusion of essential oils in this list because they are so common in skincare. The fact is that skin cannot differentiate between natural and synthetic fragrance and treat them all as irritants. In any case, essential oils are not naturally found in the skin so why would you want to put them there? I am a qualified aromatherapist myself and while I love essentials oils I would never put them on my face. The clue is in the name: “aroma” therapy. Use them in candles!
Any good effects from useful ingredients in products will be destroyed by the inclusion of a fragrance. (Imagine spraying your perfume on your face? You just wouldn’t for any reason. Same effect in all products with artificial fragrances or essentials oils).
You can use fragrant products for a long time before the damage starts to show on the surface. Many people blame their age for their deteriorating skin when it is often in fact just the cumulative damage from years of irritant skincare beginning to show on the surface. This is what has been going on under the skin all the time. Skin cells that have to fight irritants on a constant basis can’t have to abandon their proper job which is keeping your skin healthy and strong.
Take a look at the ingredients listings for your current skincare and check for any of the irritants listed above. If you find them, don’t use it. Dropping all irritants from your skincare will have a great effect on the appearance of your skin.
The same rules apply for makeup and shower products. I recommend mineral makeup for your skin type.
Never pick, squeeze or otherwise inflict harm on your skin.
Reason:
Here is what can happen when you pick or squeeze a spot or blackhead:
- You disturb the healing cycle, which may well begin from the beginning again
depending on how rough you are, prolonging the life of the blemish. - You drive bacteria further down into the blemish, deepening the infection and
potentially worsening the end result to a scar. - You spread bacteria from the lesion to other parts of your face
- You open the spot into a wound that is vulnerable to infection by bacteria or fungi
from the environment.
What can you do instead?
Use an ice cube wrapped in kitchen paper to cool the area where you feel a spot coming up. Do this 2–3 times a day for up to a minute each time. The spot will be less angry and heal more quickly using the icing method.
Drink 8 glasses of water a day.
Reason:
Hydration is the number one must-do for the health and appearance of the skin. The skin is a complex organ that is busy carrying out millions of processes a day to keep itself healthy and intact. These processes protect you from attack by bacteria or allergens, regulate temperature, assist in the sensation of touch, creating an interactive barrier between you and the environment via nerve endings and secretions that form the acid mantle.
Many of these processes need water to carry out their functions, which you can only get by internal consumption. Most of the nutrition needed by the skin can be applied and absorbed from the outside, but the water must come from within.
Without adequate fluid to work in and with, these processes cannot work correctly, leading to breakdown of function, inflammation, cell senescence, compromised barrier defence. In short, your skin will be dry, rough, dull and you will age faster. Now, drink up!
Get enough sleep.
Reason:
This one is self-explanatory really. As with hydration, your body needs rest to carry out its necessary functions. Aim for 7 hours of good sleep per night.
Moderate alcohol, caffeine, dairy and sugar in your diet.
Reason:
Alcohol and caffeine have a diuretic effect on the body, stealing water before it can be utilised in the skin’s processes, leading to dehydration (see rule number 3).
Dairy can be a major factor in triggering breakouts in those prone to acne by thickening mucous membranes and secretions, including natural oils of the skin, leading to blockages.
Sugar ages your skin. Processed sugar is the worst culprit. End products from the breakdown of sugar molecules called Advanced Glycation End products (AGE’s, ironically) attach to skin cells and collagen and elastin fibres, making them stiff, slow and less able to produce energy. Hello premature ageing!
Avoid strong sun and wear SPF30 daily.
Reason:
Again, this one is self-explanatory. You can read more about UV damage in the section on day cream.
Cleanse your skin every night.
Reason:
You need to take off makeup every night if you wear it but even if you don’t you need to cleanse your skin every night to clean away grime and pollution picked up from the environment. Otherwise you are transferring all this to your pillow, squashing it into your face, and returning tomorrow night to add to the mess. Eww.
Never use wipes of any kind.
Reason:
Where to start? Wipes are fine to keep in your car for hand-cleaning emergencies. That’s it. Never, ever use wipes of any kind on your delicate facial skin.
Wipes are impregnated with un-skin-friendly ingredients to keep them wet and prolong their shelf-life. The material they are made from is often abrasive. Even the mildest on the market will leave a film on your face which can irritate, clog pores and block absorption of your skincare products. I am often met with resistance to this rule but there is no flexibility here. Wipes are lazy and bad for your skin. If you can’t be bothered to cleanse properly you won’t have good skin. Ever. As for so-called water-based wipes that claim to have no other ingredients other than water and grapefruit seed extract as a preservative? Well, water won’t cleanse your face anyway and the material can still be abrasive on your skin. No.
Never use a scrub on your skin.
Reason:
Do I really need to explain this? As already noted your skin is a complex organ with many functions and processes. Just like your brain is a complex organ with many functions and processes. If you could see your brain would you scrub it with anything? No? I thought not. Treat your skin the same way. It is a living, breathing, working organ, not just an envelope that we are wrapped up in to keep us together. Respect it, treat it gently and never scrub it. In any case, healthy skin performs as an organ of excretion, meaning that it expels unwanted/un-needed material through the pores and follicles. It does this 24/7. Why would you need to scrub a self-cleaning surface? Perhaps it feels or looks dirty, uneven or rough. This is more likely due to over processing with cleansers and exfoliators which can cause the skin to break down, over/ under produce oil and generally look and feel out of whack. No scrubbing!
Above all, you must stick to your routine to get results!
Reason: As mentioned in the beginning, there is no quick fix or magic bullet for having great skin. Using the right products for you and keeping to the rules daily is the only way. Consistency is key. Small actions performed every day will get you and keep you on the road to great skin. If you stop? Back to square one.
The rules are simple.
The rules are for everybody.
The rules are NON_NEGOTIABLE!
