Beautiful skin is one of the most sought after features. Is there anything more attractive than a flawless complexion? While full lips and dazzling eyes are coveted, smooth skin tops the list for most of us. It’s an indication of several things, including youthfulness, health and good hygiene – even though you can still have gorgeous skin in your latter years or when you’re sick (it’s just what we normally automatically assume).
In our quest for smooth skin, we arm ourselves with an arsenal of skincare and makeup products: moisturizer, cleanser, foundation, powders, bronzer, and much more. But if you really want skin that’s as smooth as a baby’s bottom, you need to target 3 things.
1. Pimples and milia: Clogged pores are more prone to turning into milia. When they become inflamed, pimples result. Pimples and milia breakouts are both texturally and visually unattractive.
Solution: Keep your pores clean by dutifully removing makeup every night, cleansing with lukewarm water, and using toners or astringents. You should also exfoliate up to 2 times a week to remove trapped gunk. If you need serious exfoliation to really get deeper into the pores, chemical peels help.
2. Wrinkles and lines: As you age, our skin starts to weaken and pesky wrinkles appear. Where our skin was once smooth and flawless, now it is lined and crepey. You can’t stop wrinkles from appearing, but you can delay their development and make them less prevalent.
Solution: To prevent the formation of wrinkles and creases, you need to do the following:
• Use skincare products that are designed for your skin.
• Stay out of the sun and when you do go out, be vigilant about applying sun protection – excessive UV exposure destroys collagen and elastin, protein fibres that are essential in smooth and elastic skin. It also depletes moisture levels, and these all contribute to wrinkles.
• Get 7-8 hours of sleep a night, which also prevents dullness and undereye bags.
• Eat healthy foods, particularly those rich in healthy fats, like avocado and salmon. Good nutrition helps keep skin vibrant and elastic.
3. Ingrown hairs: Ingrown hairs make your skin bumpy, resembling pimples. When you shave, they get worse.
Solution: Once the hairs are trapped underneath the skin, there isn’t much you can do except either pick them out (which can seriously damage the skin) or wait it out until the overlying skin sheds, finally releasing the hair. Or you can get laser hair removal.
As the most effective treatment for ingrown hairs, laser hair removal impairs growth so that not only do you eliminate the ingrown hair, you also eradicate its presence!
You deserve smooth skin, don’t you?