OK lets talk product, shall we ladies?
First of all you must know your skin type. Are you a dry or oily or are you a composition (mixed) type - meaning are you dry in some areas and oily on others? Applying a moisturizer to oily skin could lead to zits - yes it can, tiny pockets of greasy material in pours can lead to a collection of dirt (black heads) which can lead to pockets of puss. So it is possible that you do not need a moisturizer at all, all you need is a cleanser which will leave behind some of the natural oils of the skin.
Once you figure out that then we have to address what you wash your face with - not just plain bath soap, dear, that is horrible and dries out the skin.
What you need is a nice soap like a glycerin soaps. Used to be these were the amber colored, see through bars - now days they are mixed with a lot of things. I prefer to use the old stuff, but they have it with lavender, aloe Vera, vitamin e - lots of nice pretty smelly things. I prefer the old fashion pure glycerin soap because it lacks a lingering perfume scent.
Now why glycerin?
1. It will draw moisture to the skin, not suck it up and pull it away. It leaves no soap scum on your skin
2. Glycerin should come from vegetable products, not animal products. Tallow (tallowate, sodium tallowate) is from animals and comes from the fat of animals - meaning its grease. Grease is not god for applying to the skin every day. And lets face it the idea of rubbing animal fat all over your body just isn't appealing at all now is it?
3. Glycerin is the gentlest soap you can get, many allergy sensitive people can use the non-scented kinds, also if you have asthma or skin conditions like eczema.
You can use glycerin soap on your whole body, forget getting your water softener, glycerin soap will take care of any hard water and dry skin condition if you use it consistently.
That is for your basic wash. If you are wearing makeup on a regular basis, then start looking hard at how you apply that makeup and with what you apply it with. Trust me if you have used the same makeup for a year with the same makeup brush its time to throw it away. In realty the ideal method of applying makeup is to use a disposable brush or applicator, especially with things like foundations, blushes and mascara - why? Because the brush picks up human body oils and the germs that reside on the surface of the skin, you swipe a bit of makeup out of the makeup container onto the brush, apply and pull back body oil and germs and stick it into the makeup again. This causes the makeup to undergo chemical changes and could breed colonies of germs, bacterias, viruses - yucky stuff that you just do not want.
Ideally you should toss the makeup after 6 months tops - sooner if possible. Makeup is composed of various ingredients which break down over time. Older makeups can cause minor irritations which can lead to more serious issues.
Noxema is the one and only product you will ever need to remove makeup from your face. Trust me on that. The cold Cream has been around since heck was a pup and it is the preferred method to remove makeup and cleanse the skin after wearing makeup. Forget all of those other products that promise to reduce wrinkles and make you look 16 when you are 46.
If you do wear makeup every day, go for products that come with sunblock AND use a sunblock underneath as well. Why doubling up, because makeup come off rather easily and depending on how you apply it or what you plan on using you could leave territories of your face wide open for exposure to the harmful UV radiation.
If you don't wear makeup then by all means do use sunscreen, even in the winter especially if you spend a lot of time out of doors.
If your young you shouldn't be wearing too much makeup anyway. Maybe a little bit of eyeshadow, a touch of lipstick and maybe blush - maybe. That should be used sparingly in most circumstances and events you will be attending through the day. Getting made up for a special day is something you should not do daily. There are plenty of drag queens who are suffering the consequences of too much make up all of the time. If you are young then by all means let your skin breathe.
Depending on your natural eyelashes you may, or may not need that mascara - and eyebrow pencil.
Plucking: Don't do it unless its absolutely necessary. If you pluck do not turn around and apply makeup right after. The act of removing a hair leaves behind a huge crater which needs at least an hour to "scab" over. When I say huge I mean in the microscope it is huge - most likely you will see nothing, but there will be a hole which will fill up with makeup, which can turn into a nasty infection or form a black head or block the hair follicle causing a ingrown hair which turns white and ***** and painful. Ideally pluck in the evening before going to bed to allow your skin time to recover before smearing makeup over it.
Moisturizers: Ah such a plethora of them to pick and choose from. Well between you and me they really do not work on living skin. In order to moisturize the skin you have to do it from the inside out. Meaning what you eat and drink will affect your skin.
Remember the top layer of skin you see and feel is dead - all dead. Beneath that protective dead scale is the first layer of living skin cells. Most moisturizers barely reach that layer, they usually just soften up the scales (dead cells) on top. When you shave you remove that protective layer of dead skin - AKA razor burn as you expose the living cells to the air. If you use glycerin soap, and clean up make up with noxema and drink plenty of water and get all of those nutrients your body needs, then you skin will have that healthy soft appearance you are looking for.
MASKS: good thing, they harden and suck up the dead debris in the pours - but not a good idea every night before going to bed, that can actually be counter productive to the health of your skin. Why?
Skin gets oxygen from the blood and directly from the air. So do nails - wearing nail polish all the time leads to yellowish nails - this is caused by lack of air. Thus at night you need to let your skin breath - a full eight hours of sleep and fresh air is far, far better than a nightly mask or nightly application of moisturizers or anything else.
Strike out vanishing creams, wrinkle removers and all of that "anti-aging" gels, creams, sprays and crap - because they do nothing to truly affect the skin, they either tighten it by drying it out, or they cover the fine lines.
To maintain good skin requires you to eat right and eat smart. Eat foods with some fats and oils in them, like nuts. Water is the primary makeup of all your skin cells - thus drink lots of liquids - not coffee and cola and teas, those tend to dry one out by causing you to urinate more. Drink fruit juices, water, things which will help replenish the fluid in your body.
Aging is a matter of time, loss of water, loss of body fat, irreparable cellular damage caused by pollutants and UV radiation and the fact that over time the body's cells fail to reproduce without errors.
So lets tick off the basics one more time:
Glycerin Soap
Noxema Cold cream for washing off make up
Less make up, no or little plucking
Moisturize from the inside out.
Water, air and nutrition.
David
