Let's Face It!

I recently had a Skin Consultation and Facial due to a gift. It is quite an experience to have someone staring at your skin through a magnifying glass!
My consultant was my age and had unbelievably gorgeous skin! Like a baby! How does she do it? She follows her own advice:

1. Change your pillowcase often. My consultant never sleeps on the same pillowcase. Ever. It's like brushing her teeth....She can't stand not doing it. But if this is too much, try this: Put a fresh pillow case on. The next night turn it upside down. So you get two sleeps per pillowcase. She keeps pillow cases in her night stand. She just buys cheap ones at wal mart. She says it's vital for healthy skin. Otherwise you get oils, dead skin cells, hair product, and bacteria smashed into your skin for 8 hours. Very hard on your face.

2. Do not touch your face ever. Period. They tell me you have to truly train yourself but you can do it. I have been paying attention to how often I touch my face and it is all the time. I had no idea I was doing that. I know I can improve, but completely stopping? She says anyone with flawless skin does not touch their face. She said to notice. I have been watching, and they don't touch their faces! I guess our fingers work havoc on our skin.

3. This is how to wash your face: massage in the cleanser, then get a fresh wash cloth, get it wet with warm, almost hot water, and wipe off the cleanser. Do not do the splash thing. Wipe it off. Then rinse the washcloth in warm/hot water and wipe your face again. Do this 3 times then pat your face dry with another clean wash cloth. Again, she says she just bought a bunch of cheap ones at WalMart and keeps a stash of clean wash cloths in her bathroom. (she also told me to use white wash cloths. I didn't ask why, but I remember she specifically said use white.)

4. Water! Vital for healthy skin. It does not do good to all of the sudden drink a bunch of water and think it will help your skin. It will just run out of you. So you need to build up. First, figure out how much water you drink in a day. Then add just one more glass, not 2 or 3. Build up slowly while your body adjusts. She claims she can tell how much water anyone drinks by looking at their skin, and she guessed mine exactly. Other liquids do not count....it's water.

5. Skin care products need to be changed up. She says that our skin loves it when we start a new product and that our skin responds. Because it responds, we keep using that same product.....for years. In less than 6 months or so, our skin will stop responding and yearn for something new. That's because our skin will have gotten what it needs from that product. So we need to switch it up when our skin seems to have stopped showing the benefits of a product. We can go back to it later.

6. Wash your makeup brushes often. The rule of every 6 months is really wrong. She suggests once a week or every other week. She said she has seen make up brushes under microscopes and the thought of rubbing that on our face day after day is disgusting. Use Antibacterial soap to clean them.

7. Don't forget your neck and décolletage! (Yes, i learned a fancy new word). Whatever you do to your face, do to your neck and upper chest, too! This part of our skin is often the first to show age.

8. Do not sleep with make up on, except on rare occasions. She suggests washing your face early at say 7, 8, or 9 PM because everyone is too tired to do it at bedtime. If you know you'll be staying home, wash your face early. That way you're sure to do it.

9. Sun screen. Vital. Make sure your make up has it. Stay out of the sun.

10. There are endless products! Toners, serums, eye cream, on and on. But truly only use what your routine will accommodate. It doesn't do any good sitting in a drawer. The bare minimum is morning and evening cleansing and moisturizing. Your entire routine should take 5 minutes or less, including make up.

11. Almost everyone wears a base make up that is too dark for them. Buy a shade or two lighter than you think. It may look pale to you at first, but it truly is the right color for you and will make you look beautiful; you just have to get used to it. Always use powder.

12. People can be divided into two groups. Thick skin and thin skin. People with thick skin age slower. (and by thick she doesn't mean thick skinned. :), although maybe they age slower, too!

13. Face products are not expensive because they last soooo long. They're not like toothpaste. They keep going and going. People have a false idea that skin care is for the rich.

14. The look right now is shiny/radiant, not the matte look. I have a hard time with the shiny look because I feel it makes me look like I have oily skin! But shine is in. It goes back and forth every 10 years or so. Healthy skin should shine! At least in 2012!

So here's to fresh pillowcases, washcloths, sunscreen, water, and radiant skin!