Your skincare routine is really important to make your skin glow and to prevent signs of tiredness and aging. Our skin is porous and absorbs what we put on it so it’s important to be mindful of which products we use.
I never really had any guidance on what to do, and with all the things we can read online today it’s difficult to know where to start sometimes.
There are multiple things that help me have a natural glow, or simply look refreshed and ready to take on the world: skincare routine, sleep and food. Here I detail what I started doing for me and that can work for you too.
Skincare Routine
I used to splash my face with water – I was told it was good for the skin and postpone the wrinkles’ grand entrance – and put on a moisturising cream in the morning and that’s it.
Now I have evolved and moved away from cheap supermarkets creams to find more natural products that my skin loves. And just one word on that, good skincare does not mean you have to break the bank to get the best products for you.
Wash my hands – it might sound silly but there’s no point in washing your face with dirty hands – or drying it on a dirty towel.
Wash my face – I use a facial soap with shea butter which has changed my life. My skin is incredibly smooth now, and even little spots I had had in the recent years are starting to disappear.
My favourite brand currently is Friendly and I will keep buying from them. They’re so affordable and completely natural, as well as being plastic-free packaged. I tend to buy soap and shampoo bars here now to avoid the excess packaging, and to get more for my money !
Moisturise – I use a cream or lotion, depending on whether it’s summer or winter. The difference between the two comes from the water content; for both there is an emulsion of water and oil in varying quantities. For winter, you want a product whose oil content is higher to help in the cold and drying months: cream. For summer, you want a product whose water content is higher to hydrate intensely when it is hot: lotion.
Apply make-up – optional of course. I sometimes apply a BB cream once my face has absorbed the moisturiser. Back in my teenage days, I used it to hide acne more that anything else, but I know foundations can be heavy on the skin and even create more problems, so I only use my BB cream occasionally now.
The evening routine is so important because you might have been out in a polluted environment or just need to let your skin breathe before you go to bed. The night is when our bodily functions repair, and that includes our face.
I follow the same steps again after I’ve removed any make-up with a micellar water, then I wash my face. I later apply a night blend with essential oils. It’s a bit more pricey than the rest but I love the scent and I massage it into my face before bed, and I feel so relaxed.
You can also exfoliate once or twice weekly to help rejuvenate your skin. It takes between 28 and 40 days for your skin to renew so you might as well help the process by getting rid of dead cells. It’s recommended to exfoliate once a week before your thirties, and twice a week for the next couple of decades or so, and after your fifties you can increase it, if it doesn’t hut your skin. You should observe how it feels on your skin, if it needs more or less often than that.
Sleep
I don’t think I need to write pages on that but your sleep will also greatly impact your skin in the morning so I try and get as close to 7-8h of sleep every night as possible. It has great other benefits of course but as far as our skin is concerned, as I mentioned earlier the repairing functions of our body are hard at work while we sleep. Our grandmothers were right, we need our beauty sleep !
Another thing worth mentioning is pillow cases. We should wash them at least once a week because our hair can absorb pollution as well and other things we don’t want to see end up on our face. We sleep on it every night so we should build the habit of washing them as regularly as possible.
Food
You could have guessed, our diet will also impact and can improve our natural glow. Foods with antioxidants – like berries – are great to reduce the apparition of wrinkles, and vitamin C is fantastic to help get that glow – any bright coloured veg. Healthy fats and protein will promote collagen production and reduce the aging process, so fill up on avocados and nuts.
Last but not least, water is our best friend. It helps flush out toxins that are not welcome in the body so drink at least 8 glasses of water a day. You can add lemon to your water or cucumber to flavour it and add a detoxifying element to your water.
And of course, cut out sugar when you can because it makes the skin break and dehydrated.
I hope these tips help you understand why your skincare routine is really important to make your skin glow, let me know in the comments what works best for you and what your routine is like.
