Thursday, February 26, 2009

What Every Person Should Know About Personal Skin Care

By Frell Johnson

Whether you realize it or not, personal skin care should be very important to you. It is something that we all should take pride in achieving. People look at skin care in different ways. Some may take the time to go to beauty parlors or a skin care specialist, others may think that splashing on some lotion or cream will satisfy the need. There are also those that think skin care is a monthly or yearly thing. Then you have the ones that go through a daily routine to make sure their skin is as healthy as possible. Considering the benefits of personal skin care, it is not that expensive. You just have to make sure that you choose the right products for your skin, and get yourself into a routine that you can work with. Basically that is the definition of skin care, consistently taking care of your skin to keep it healthy.

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.

The second process in the personal skin care routine is exfoliation. Your skin follows a natural maintenance process in order to remove dead skin cells and replace them with new ones. Exfoliation is just a way to assist your skin in this process. Dead skin cells are not capable of responding to personal skin care products but will absorb these products, hence preventing them from reaching the new skin underneath. Thus removing dead skin cells is important in order to increase the effectiveness of all personal skin care products. Generally, exfoliation takes its place just after cleansing. As with any personal skin care procedure, it?s important that you understand how much exfoliation you need. Exfoliate 4-5 times per week for oily/normal skin and 1-2 times per week for dry/sensitive skin. Exfoliate a couple of times more in hot and humid weather.

The third process in the personal skin care routine is moisturizing. This is one of the most important steps. Even people with oily skin need moisturizer. Moisturizers not only seal the moisture into your skin cells, but also help attract moisture from the air whenever needed. However, using too much moisturizer can clog your skin pores and end up harming your skin. The amount of moisturizer needed by your skin will become apparent to you within one week of using the moisturizer. Hint: Applying the moisturizer is best when your skin is still damp.

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.

Ask a Dermatologist if you feel that you have any dilemmas with your skin. They may be able to advise you on what is best for you. Remember to test your products and the amount that you are using until you find what is right for you. You always want to do what is necessary to get the right results. - 16083

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