Skin Care Articles

Dermatologists recommend using the same skin care routine daily. These routines don't need to be elaborate or expensive, and can be used alone or in conjunction with a more serious skin care product.

The Regimen for Your Face

Everyone has a different skin type, so the standard regimen needs to be fit to work better with your skin. Skin can change from a wide variety of factors such as weather, diet, or age. For example, the skin tends to be oilier in the summer and drier in the winter. Menopause can bring about a change from oily or normal to dry skin. Also, a shift from a low-fat diet to that rich in certain fats (particularly essential fatty acids) can change dry skin to normal. people don't need to be as careful when in the sun.

Progressive Treatments

For maximum skin care results, the basic system is usually insufficient, especially for people over thirty. The addition of a well-selected product or two with wisely chosen, proven active ingredients will further improve your results. For secondary products to work well with your routine you must use them properly. In particular, if you apply products to skin that has not been cleansed, the penetration of active ingredients is reduced. If you cleanse, moisturize and then apply advanced products, the penetration of active ingredients may still be diminished because the moisturizer has occluded some the pores.

Usual Programs

A normal skin care system would contain the following steps: washing/cleansing, toning (optional depending on skin type), moisturizing and protection from the sun light.

The bulk of people have the best luck with twice daily skin care, however for people with sensitive or dry skin it is better to use the treatment only once and moisturizing more often. Most doctors think that the routine should incorporate exfoliation, but not in excess. A few times a week is sufficient for exfoliation, however some can go without any exfoliation.

Protection from UV rays (both UVA and UVB) is critical for any skin care routine. A good UNA+UVB sun block can be applied on top of your moisturizer and other products as the last part of the regimen whenever sun exposure is expected. Some people use cosmetics with added UV blockers. It is definitely better than no sun protection at all and it can save time. However, using a single, specially formulated sunblock appears to be more effective.

A good time to use active products is right after you washed/cleansed, rinsed and slightly patted your skin with a towel, when the skin is clean, warm and still moist. Most of the secondary products contain some kind of moisturizing ingredients so the need for additional moisturizer is minimal. If it is needed wait for the other treatments to work before applying anything.