Sunday, March 1, 2009

Personal Skin Care And Your Daily Routine

By Frell Johnson

Splashing on lotion and applying a little cream every now and then is not the correct way to take care of your skin. It is far more important than going once a month to a skin care clinic. It is something that should be taken care of with a daily routine. Considering the benefits of a daily routine, it is really not that expensive either. There are some basic procedures that should be followed when getting started in your personal skin care routine.

Before you begin with any skin care routine you need to make sure you choose the correct products. There are many of them on the market and it is a wise choice to test them and be positive that they will not harm your skin. Everyone?s skin is different so each of you may have different needs. Some may have oily, others may have dry. There are also many people that have very sensitive skin. So testing is something that is highly recommended. For those of you that have normal skin, here are a few routine tips that you can follow.

First of all, you will need to clean your skin; this process is also called cleansing. Cleansers are made up of three main ingredients, oil, water, and surfactants or wetting agents. The oil and the surfactants extract all the dirt from your skin and the water flushes it away, leaving your skin feeling cleaner than with other methods. You may have to try a few different cleansers to find the one that is right for you. Always use soap-free cleansers and luke warm water. Cold or hot water along with soap can really harm your skin. Over cleansing can harm it as well so make sure you do not over do it.

Exfoliation is the second step. Exfoliation is the removal of dead skin cells from your skin. Your skin is always producing new skin cells to repair itself but the old cells are left on your skin. So it is important to remove these. For normal skin, this process should be done four to five times per week, for dry skin try just a couple times a week. Exfoliation clears the path for moisturizes. Without this process the dead skin cells will absorb most of the moisturizer leaving your new skin cells unprotected.

The next and one of the most important processes in the routine is applying moisturizers to your skin. Not only do moisturizers add and seal in moisture to your skin, it attracts moisture also. You should be able to notice how much moisturizer your skin needs in about a week. Be careful not to over moisturize your skin. By doing this it can clog your pores and damage your skin instead of helping it.

Last but not least is sunscreen. Many moisturizers come with sunscreen already in them. So check them out and see what is right for you. Always use sunscreen whether the sun is out or not.

This 4 step process is again recommended for typical skin types (oily, normal, combination and dry). Severe skin disorders may require a visit to a Dermatologist to determine what is a correct routine and what products will work best for you. However, for those with typical skin it is recommended that you experiment with a few products until you find the ones that work best for you. Tip: use the same brand for all your products if you can, they were made to work well with one another. - 15683

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