Common Mistakes With Complexion: These Errors Give Faulty Skin Care Routine Away

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Do you have a friend or col­league whose skin pos­i­tive­ly glows? And deep down, it makes you a tad bit envi­ous because you’ve strug­gled over the years to find just the right skin­care routine? Don’t feel bad; plen­ty of peo­ple make some com­mon mis­takes when car­ing for their com­plex­ion, so you are not alone. It begins when we are young, in those teenage years when we take our smooth, clear skin for grant­ed, long before break­outs are a reg­u­lar occur­rence and wrin­kles began to set in around the cor­ner of the eyes and lips. It’s not fair; we get it! But you can cor­rect some of the mis­takes you’re mak­ing and get on the road to com­plex­ion care, the kind that’s right for your age, skin tone, trou­ble­some flaws and even those pesky wrinkles. Here are some of the most com­mon mis­takes peo­ple make with their skin and sug­ges­tions for rem­e­dy­ing them with­out break­ing the bank!

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1- Cleanse Thoroughly at Night, and that includes using a Facial Scrub

After a long day out in an urban envi­ron­ment with air pol­lu­tants, your skin needs to be com­plete­ly washed, gen­tly scrubbed and moisturized. Many peo­ple think wash­ing is enough and that using a scrub is cav­ing in to a cos­met­ic com­pa­ny’s mon­ey grab. Not so! Using a gen­tle cleanser is impor­tant – not soap, which can have strong deter­gents. But a facial scrub helps lift away dead cells and uncov­er a new, fresh lay­er of them. If you think your com­plex­ion has a rather dull look to it, using a scrub will soon rem­e­dy that. But take note: don’t rub it in harsh­ly; sim­ply apply it in small cir­cles, gen­tly scrub your face with a wash­cloth, and rinse. Voila! With­in about three or four weeks, your skin will start look­ing smoother, younger and cleaner!

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2- Don’t Pass on the Foundation

There is a com­mon mis­con­cep­tion that foun­da­tion does­n’t let your skin breathe, which we must clar­i­fy is absolute nonsense! Using a base tint on your face evens out your skin tone, helps to cam­ou­flage minor imper­fec­tions and can mois­tur­ize, too. It even helps pro­vide a lay­er of pro­tec­tion against the rav­ages of sunshine. Pro­vid­ing that you don’t go to sleep wear­ing make­up (and you don’t, right?), there is no rea­son what­so­ev­er to avoid foundation.

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3- Mishandling Breakouts, or Not at all treatment, Causes Problems

Even grown-ups get acne and oth­er blem­ish­es some­times – isn’t that unfair? But it can be a minor prob­lem if you han­dle it correctly. A white­head is sim­ply a lit­tle infec­tion, and your body will either reab­sorb it into your sys­tem or, once it’s on the sur­face, you can gen­tly squeeze it with a tis­sue between your fin­gers and remove the infec­tion that way. Then, dab on a spot treat­ment to dry out the white­head. How­ev­er, it’s vital that you not squeeze it too soon, or you’ll dam­age your skin and per­haps even cre­ate a small scar. Just clean it thor­ough­ly, and dur­ing the day, wear a lit­tle con­ceal­er over it if you’re self-con­scious about it. Remem­ber – it’s a lot more notice­able to you than it is to any­one else.  

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4- Extend Sunscreen all the Way Down your Neck

For some rea­son, many peo­ple treat sun­screen like make­up and stop apply­ing it where the face ends, and the throat begins. That’s a mis­take because your neck is very vul­ner­a­ble to sun dam­age and needs pro­tec­tion, just like your face does. When you’re apply­ing it, rub the prod­uct all the way down to your clav­i­cle and all over your throat. If you’re con­cerned about stain­ing your clothes, wait five min­utes before get­ting dressed, so it has a chance to real­ly soak in.

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5- Moisturize, Moisturize, Moisturize!

Are we mak­ing the point? It’s vital, par­tic­u­lar­ly at night and first thing in the morn­ing, that you put qual­i­ty mois­tur­iz­er on your face and neck. Even if you haven’t begun see­ing wrin­kles yet, you will take one of these days, and although you can’t ward them off entire­ly, you can min­i­mize them with a good mois­tur­iz­er used twice daily. Don’t for­get the “frown lines” that run ver­ti­cal­ly between your eyes – once those are embed­ded in your face, get­ting rid of them is impos­si­ble with­out cos­met­ic surgery or Botox. And since the very idea of that like­ly leaves a lump in your throat, it’s best to head those wrin­kles off by let­ting your skin drink up mois­tur­iz­er constantly.

6- Choose the Correct Anti-Acne Product

Unfor­tu­nate­ly, some acne treat­ment prod­ucts con­tain alco­hol and leave your skin feel­ing tight and dry – and you def­i­nite­ly don’t want that. On the oth­er hand, you don’t want a heavy mois­tur­iz­er that clogs up your pores, aggra­vates the acne prob­lem and leaves your skin feel­ing greasy. What to do if you need to treat “grown-up acne” and want to keep your face smooth and creamy? Here’s a rou­tine you should adopt three or four nights a week:

• Use a cleanser with no sul­phates, (preser­v­a­tives) and alco­hol-free toner.
• Use a gen­tle exfo­liant that con­tains sal­i­cylic acid as your next step.
• Use a light mois­tur­iz­er and no-oil serums for any crow’s feet around your eyes and laugh lines around your mouth.

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Wrapping Up

Fol­low­ing these steps, par­tic­u­lar­ly when you’re expe­ri­enc­ing a break­out or have just a few blem­ish­es, is the best way to baby your skin and get it back into top-notch condition. Experts agree that the three best things you can do for your skin are: clean it thor­ough­ly, mois­tur­ize it, and pro­tect it from the sun’s dam­ag­ing UV rays. Remem­ber that friend or col­league we men­tioned at the begin­ning of this arti­cle? If she has skin that glows, a com­plex­ion that makes her the envy of every­one, chances are she has nev­er exposed her face to sun­light, at least not with­out wear­ing strong sunscreen. It’s nev­er too late to adopt a prop­er skin­care reg­i­men, and it does­n’t have to mean putting a big dent in your sav­ings account. Qual­i­ty prod­ucts are avail­able at your favourite retail store or online, but you should research what you’re con­sid­er­ing pur­chas­ing before buying. Anoth­er impor­tant thing to remem­ber is this: the staff at make­up stores and cos­met­ic coun­ters are more than hap­py to help you decide what you should use. They’ll exam­ine your skin tone, lis­ten to your com­plex­ion woes and offer informed advice on what to pur­chase and – just as impor­tant­ly – what prod­ucts to avoid. They are experts in skin­care prod­ucts, and heed­ing their advice is the best solu­tion for fix­ing the most com­mon prob­lems peo­ple make with their complexions. After all, if you had a heart prob­lem, you’d go to the doc­tor, right? Why should you treat your skin any dif­fer­ent­ly? It is the largest organ in the human body, after all, and it deserves all the love, atten­tion and respect we can give it!