Aging Skin

My first tip: Consistency! You must keep a regular beauty routine. This means using the right products for your skin every day. I recommend a separate morning and evening routine. Some of your products, like cleanser, will be great for both, but some, like sunscreen, only need to be used in the morning (but reapply it all day!). Night creams are often too heavy for day wear, and some eye treatments work wonders at reducing wrinkles, but might cause your eye makeup to run. So make sure you use the right products at the right time. Some products might work just as well for day and night, but you also want to limit how many irritating products you put on your face at once. For example, if you use a manual exfoliator (the kind that's grainy) one morning, don't use a product with AHAs until that night. Otherwise, you risk irritating your skin. Red skin isn't a good look for most people!

Tip #2: Water! A lot of anit aging skin care products work by keeping your skin hydrated. This means the product helps keep the water in your skin, which helps skin to look younger and fresher. It also "plumps up" skin, reducing wrinkles temporarily. Well, help these products along a little by applying them when your skin is already holding a lot of water. Then the product doesn't have to work as hard! My favorite way to do this is to apply my facial skin care products after a shower. Now, I'm not talking about trying to apply an anti-aging serum to a dripping wet face. As you can imagine, the product will just slide off, which is wasteful. I like to towel-dry my hair and do a few other things in the bathroom while I let my face air dry. I NEVER use a towel to scrub my face dry. I think of my skin like delicate silk fabric: no harsh temperatures, no agitation, air dry. A few minutes out of the shower and my face feels nice and plumped with water, slightly damp, but no drips. This is my favorite time to put on serum and moisturizer. I find it keeps my face from drying too much throughout the day.

My final tip today is to take care of the products you buy. Many aging skin products have sensitive ingredients, like fruit and plant extracts, that break down faster in warm or moist environments. Too bad the place you use them the most (the bathroom) might be the worst place to store your products! I like to keep items like anti-aging serum and eye gel in the fridge to preserve the volatile ingredients. I also keep a distilled water spritzer in the fridge to spray on my skin. This is a great trick (remember what we said about water?) that feels great on a hot day!

To Ageless Beauty,
LoriOnMaui