Note: Research shows that certain skin care tips can help you look younger than your age! Read on to find out what those tips are.
We all want to age well. But what does that mean, exactly?
According to medical standards, it means that you’re doing better or living longer than average for your age group.
The world’s population as a whole is living longer. Simply hanging around for a few more years isn’t ideal, however, unless you feel strong, healthy, and confident.
Lifestyle habits like eating well, exercising regularly, avoiding smoking, keeping a healthy weight, and maintaining strong relationships have all been found to help you move more successfully through middle age and into older age. Simply following these recommendations could mean the difference between enjoying your senior years or being plagued by modern diseases like heart disease, diabetes, and obesity.
These same sorts of principles hold for your appearance. Just as eating a healthy diet and exercising regularly can protect your heart health as you age, adhering to a certain set of habits day in and day out will help your skin to age well, too.
If you want to defy your age in your senior years, adopt the following habits now, and stick with them for all the years to come.
1. You Are What You Eat! — Eat a Balanced Diet
We don’t often think of food when we think of skin care, but it’s important to remember that your skin is an organ, just like your heart, lungs, and liver. Its condition is dependent upon getting the nutrients it needs from the food you eat. The blood carries those nutrients to your skin, and there they help promote cell turnover, repair, and defense.
Studies have linked fast food, fried food, and high-sugar foods to detrimental effects on the skin, including inflammation and premature aging. Stay away from these as much as you can, and choose whole foods more often. Try to get at least five servings of fruits and vegetables a day; eat healthy fats like those in nuts, seeds, and avocados; choose lean proteins; and limit your intake of highly processed foods like lunchmeats and boxed dinners.
2. One of the Expected Skin Care Tips: Protect Your Skin from Assaults
Because your skin is on the outside of your body, it is the only organ (besides your eyes) that is constantly exposed to assault from UV rays, pollution, free radicals, dust and dander in the air, and more. Over the years, all of these assaults take a toll on your skin, accelerating damage and leading to more fine lines and wrinkles, sagging and bagging, and hyperpigmentation.
Take skin protection seriously. Wear a physical sunscreen (like zinc oxide or titanium dioxide), cover your skin with clothing when exposed to the sun, and always wash all debris off your skin at night before bed, so it doesn’t have all night long while you’re sleeping to do its damage.
Finally, make sure your anti-aging skin care product contains some antioxidants, as these help to neutralize the damage done by these assaulting factors. Some of the best examples are vitamin C, vitamin E (in our CV Skinlabs products), resveratrol, lycopene, retinol (vitamin A), green tea (or EGCG extract), and niacinamide (vitamin B3).
Another powerful antioxidant is turmeric, which is part of our proprietary Tri-Rescue Complex in all of our products.
3. The Most Surprising of Our Skin Care Tips: Get Enough Sleep
We have learned a lot in the past several years about how much sleep can affect aging. Get 7-8 hours of sleep per night and you’re likely to age well. Get less than that on a regular basis and your skin will suffer.
In one study of 60 women between the ages of 30 and 49, the results showed that after five nights of poor sleep, participants had up to double the number of fine lines and wrinkles and up to three-quarters more brown spots.
Sleep is critical to healthy skin because it promotes skin repair, reduces stress and inflammation, and boosts the immune system. Do your best to regularly get the recommended 7-8 hours per night.
4. One of the Skin Care Tips You May Struggle With: Exercise Regularly
No matter what part of your health you’re talking about, exercise helps, and skin care is no exception. Exercise benefits your skin in many ways. First, it promotes healthy circulation, which helps the blood get the nutrients to the skin that it needs.
Second, it promotes collagen production, which helps prevent sagging and bagging. Third, it encourages new cell growth, which helps keep the skin radiant and glowing. Fourth, by increasing blood flow, your workout helps flush cellular debris out of the system, cleansing the skin from the inside out.
Sweating while you exercise can help clear out your pores too, as long as you’re sure to wash your face before you work out to be sure no makeup or grime can clog your pores.
Interestingly, a cross-sectional study published in 2015 compared skin function between active and sedentary people. They found that the skin from older athletes was healthier than that of their sedentary counterparts.
5. The Most Obvious But Neglected of Our Skin Care Tips: Follow a Healthy Skin Care Routine
Practicing a regular skin care routine day and night every day for all of your life is one of the best things you can do to help your skin age well. Sure, you may forget now and then, but if you do your best to stick with it more often than not, you’re likely to notice the results as you age.
The hallmarks of such a routine include the following:
Cleanse Twice Daily with a Gentle Cleanser
Check to see if your skin feels dry or tight after cleansing. If so, your cleanser may be doing more harm than good. You want your skin to feel soft and comfortable. Try to find a gentle cleanser with natural ingredients that will maintain the skin’s healthy condition rather than strip it of its natural oils.
Tone Twice Daily with a Refreshing Toner
Be sure to avoid alcohol-based toners, as these can strip the skin and leave it extra dry. You need a toner that will prepare the skin for your moisturizer, which means it should clarify your pores without drying out your skin.
We recommend our Rescue + Relief Spray as it is hydrating and cooling, but also helps soothe itching and burning, helping you get a jumpstart on skin repair before you apply your moisturizer.
Choose the Best Moisturizer You Can
Whatever daily moisturizer you use can have a huge impact on your skin’s health and appearance years down the road. There are many creams and lotions on the market that smell good and will make your skin soft for a few minutes, but unless they have truly nourishing and moisturizing ingredients, their effects are likely to wear away within an hour or two, leaving your skin parched.
We recommend our Calming Moisture. It immediately calms, hydrates, and nourishes skin, and is lightweight enough to use as a primer or mix with your foundation. Made with our proprietary Tri-Rescue Complex, it encourages the repair and healing of damaged skin, protects it from environmental assaults, and tames inflammation and redness.
Above all, it contains quality ingredients like sunflower seed oil, triglycerides, jojoba seed oil, bisabolol, shea butter, and natural extracts that sink deeply into the skin to hydrate, moisturize, and plump skin so that it stays soft and smooth all day long.
Use this product for years and you’ll see—your skin will defy your age.
Exfoliate Regularly
How often you exfoliate depends on your skin and how sensitive it is. Some people do well exfoliating 2-3 times a week, while others see better results when limiting it to once a week.
However often you do it, make sure to make it part of your routine, as it helps to slough away dead skin cells on the surface of the skin and reveal younger cells underneath. Long-term, it speeds up cell renewal, helping you to look younger and more radiant.
Do take care not to use a harsh, scrubby product. It can create microtears in the skin, increase inflammation, and cause acne and redness. Choose a gentle product with fruit acids that will do the job without damaging your skin.
Mask Regularly
In addition to regular exfoliation, you will help your skin if you pamper it at least once a week. You can choose a hydrating mask or oil-reducing mask, whichever your skin needs. This can give your skin the healthy boost it needs to look its best.
Focus on Anti-Aging
There are many options when it comes to anti-aging serums. It’s best not to overload your skincare routine, but using one anti-aging serum regularly can help delay the appearance of aging. If you’re not sensitive to retinoids, use a serum that includes them, as they can help keep skin looking smooth and lifted.
Other helpful ingredients include vitamin C, glycolic acid, lactic acid, hyaluronic acid, and niacinamide.
What skin care tips do you use to age well?
