Skin Care Articles

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

Optimize for Your Skin

The steps of the general routine should be adjusted to fit your skin type. You should keep in mind that your skin type can change with the season, diet and age. For example, the skin can be be oilier in the summer and drier in the cold months. Menopause often brings about a change from oily or normal to dry skin. Conversely, a shift from a low-fat diet to one rich in certain fats (particularly essential fatty acids) may change dry skin to normal. Skin pigmentation can change the degree to which you need sun protection. While the sun damages any skin, the damage is minimal in dark-skinned people. Conversely, light skinned people need to be particularly meticulous about sun protection, i.e. minimizing sun exposure, choosing an the right sunscreen and applying it the correct way.

Fighting acne with Radical Medicines

For maximum skin care results, the basic system is usually insufficient, especially for people over thirty. The addition of a well-selected product or 2 with wisely chosen, proven active ingredients will further improve the outcome. However, the results from secondary skin care treatments partly depend on whether you properly integrate them with your basic routine. In particular, if you apply products to skin that has not been cleansed, the penetration of active ingredients is decreased. If you cleanse, moisturize and then apply advanced products, the penetration of active ingredients can still be reduced because the moisturizer has blocked some the entryways.

Normal Systems

The perfect day to day routine for skin care would consist of washing, toning, moisturizing, sun protection.

Protection from UV rays (both UVA and UVB) is important for any skin care regimen. A good UNA+UVB sunscreen can be put on top of your moisturizer and other products as the last step of the routine if sun exposure is possible. Some people use skin care products with added UV blockers. It is always better than no sun protection at all and a time saver too. However, using a single, specially formulated sunscreen appears to be more effective.

For most people, executing the routine two times daily is optimal. Some patients with dry and/or sensitive skin may have better luck with once a day washing/cleansing but moisturizing 2 or more times a day. Some dermatologists think that exfoliation should also be part of a basic routine. However, daily exfoliation may be unreasonable and may lead to chronic irritation in some people. Exfoliation once or twice a week is usually sufficient. People with fast natural epidermal turnover may need less or none at all.

The best time to apply secondary 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. Since many of the active treatments have moisturizing ingredients, you can usually skip a separate product whenever you apply such a product. If you feel that you need more moisturizing, wait a few minutes for the active product to finish, and then apply any moisturizer over it.