8 Ways to Keep Skin Radiant

Maintaining a sensible skin routine is just as vital as keeping a healthy eating lifestyle. Great skin care can lower your risk of skin cancer and other conditions just like healthy eating can help ward off diabetes, obesity, and heart disease. Here are some important guidelines to help fight off harmful skin conditions as well as restore that youthfulness and glow you've been missing.

1. Moisturize Day and Night. When applying moisturizer to your neck and forehead, use upward strokes. For your cheeks, eye area, and between your eyebrows, use outward strokes. Why not inward or downward strokes? Because pulling and pressing hard or pulling down works with gravity, leading to loose and sagging skin. Also, the added benefit to moisturizing at night is that the moisturizer doesn't have to compete against pollution or damaging sun rays to liven up skin. 

2. Facial Cream or Facial Lotion? Consider your skin type. If you have dry skin, a cream will provide more moisture. If you have oily skin, opt for a lotion. If you have combination skin where only an area of your face is oily, skip the moisturizer or simply use a small amount of lotion.

3. Intro to SPF. When shopping for sunscreen, look for one with an SPF of at least 15 and a "broad spectrum" protection against UVA and UVB rays. These rays are the most damaging to the skin and can increase your risk of developing skin cancer. A combination of these ingredients will provide the most protection: Avobenzone, ecamsule (also known as Mexoryl), titanium dioxide, and zinc oxide. If you use any kind of cream, lotion, or moisturizer, make sure they're infused with these sun protective components.

4. When to Exfoliate. Skin experts suggest exfoliating once or twice a week to speed up the natural process in which the cells of the epidermis, the outer layer of your skin, will peel off. But be careful not to do it too often as this can irritate the skin.

5. Firming Masks. Best used once a month, a firming mask can help tighten and minimize pores as well as improve blood circulation in your skin. 

6. Mineral Makeup as Sunscreen. Available in loose or pressed powders, mineral makeup contains naturally occurring inorganic materials such as boron nitride, talc, titanium dioxide, zinc oxide, and more.  These complicated words have a complicated job: They reflect away the sun's UVR rays, minimizing sun damage to your skin. Chemical and organic sunscreens cannot do the job that inorganic mineral makeup can do. Therefore, it's best to use mineral makeup on top of your sunscreen to catch any spots on your face you may have missed or intentionally missed because of oily skin. If you have oily skin, inorganic mineral makeup will not only provide protect from harmful rays, but can smooth away oily spots and leave a matte finish.

7. Wear Aloe Vera Around Your Eyes. Thankfully, that expensive eye cream you might be tempted to buy might not be a temptation anymore. Available in drug stores at a reasonable price, aloe vera gel is rich in vitamins A, C, B12, and E and contains mi nerals such as zinc, calcium, magnesium, proteins, and amino acids. It can help renew the area around your eyes by maintaining collagen. The result? Fewer fine wrinkles.

8. Care for Your Hands.  Your hands are regularly exposed to UV rays and require just as much sun protection as any part of your body. When moisturizing, don't forget your nails. The tissue under them is metabolically active and could be susceptible to skin cancers such as melanoma and squamous cell carcinomas.

Sources:

http://www.healthguide.org

http://www.skincancer.org