Daily Skin Care Regime - Why is a
Daily Skin Care Regime Important?
By Danny Siegenthaler
A professional skin care regime is one of
the most important parts of maintaining your
skin's health. Your skin is not a smooth surface
like a sheet of glass. On the contrary, your
skin is more like a riverbed, full of little
lumps, bumps, crevasses and holes. You can
give these dermatological names such as fine
lines, pores, sebaceous glands, etc., but
at the end of the day the fact remains your
skin is far from a flat, smooth surface.
Because of this and because your
skin is a living, breathing part of your
body and fulfils several major functions
including temperature regulation, immune
defence, protection from the external
environment, etc., you will need to look
after it if you wish to have it work at
its optimal level and hope to have good,
healthy skin into your late 70's and beyond.
What about the type of products I should
use for my skin care regime?
You should always choose natural skin
care products as many commercially mass-produced
skin care products utilise potentially
toxic chemicals and highly modified 'natural'
ingredients.
Wildcrafted Herbal Products hand makes
a range of holistically-natural skin care
products suitable for your particular
skin type. These products are based on
traditional naturopathic principles and
utilize herbal extracts and essential
oils to produce lasting effects.
Their products are designed to benefit
your skin's health for the long term and
include only the best ingredients suitable
for your specific skin type.
Daily Skin Care Regime
Cleansing your skin
Cleansing your skin is one of the most
important steps if you want to maintain
a healthy, vibrant and youthful looking
skin.
As well as providing the basis for an
advanced skin care regime, effective cleansing
can actually improve the quality of our
skin, enhancing its radiance and keeping
it looking younger for longer.
Thorough cleansing is one of the most
important steps of a complete skin care
regime. Cleansing of your skin should
be done morning and night to ensure the
removal of surface impurities, make-up,
and stale skin oils. When regularly performed
cleansing will enhance the skin's ability
to breathe and maintain its other important
functions.
One of the best ways to do this is to
make cleansing your skin part of your
daily skin care regime.
This is how you do it:
First, moisten your face with lukewarm
water. Then apply a small amount of facial
cleanser. Gently spread the product over
your skin, using light, circular movements.
At this stage, spend an extra minute massaging
the product into your face to boost your
skin's circulation and help decongestion.
Secondly, be sure to be gentle, your
skin is a delicate organ and needs to
be treated with care and respect.
Lastly, rinse off the cleanser, using
lukewarm water and pat your face dry.
If you are still using ordinary soap,
STOP. You are seriously compromising the
health of your skin. Throw it away and
start using a quality cleanser.
Toning your skin
Toning is the second step in your daily
skin care regime. These days, women often
leave this step out and yet it is just
as important as the cleansing of your
skin or the moisturizing. It is a must
include step. The one or two minutes it
takes are worth every second if you desire
to have healthy, vibrant skin with a minimum
of lines and wrinkles. Don't leave this
step out.
You have just spent time cleaning your
skin, ridding it of stale oils, makeup,
dead skin cells and other impurities,
now you have to tone your skin.
A quality cleanser may contain such ingredients
as clay. This helps to remove dead skin
cells and other impurities, but may not
rinse off totally. This is why you need
to use a quality toner.
Firstly, it removes every last bit of
the cleanser such as the fine clay particles
and other residues from the cleansing
process.
Secondly it will close the skin's pores
to protect it from further loss of moisture,
which invariably happens when cleansing
your face.
Thirdly it provides nutrients and restores
the pH balance of your skin.
Now that is worth spending a minute or
two, isn't it?
Moisturising your skin
This is the third part of your daily skin
care regime and should also be done morning
and night using a day crème in the morning
and a night crème before retiring.
A quality moisturiser protects your facial
skin from environmental damage, provides
nutrients for the skin and prevents loss
of moisture, thereby slowing down the
aging process.
In addition, a moisturiser should help
to maintain the acid mantle of your skin,
which is part of your immune system and
if the pH of your skin becomes too acidic
or alkaline, the acid mantel is compromised.
Weekly Regime
To complete your skin care regime, you
should set aside a few minutes once a
week, preferably at the weekend to deeply
cleanse and nourish your skin. Your weekly
treats should include, the use of a Facial
Mask and Exfoliation.
These treatments encourage cellular repair,
step up collagen production and help strengthen,
tone and firm up your skin.
Facial Clay Mask:
Using a clay mask will help to draw toxins
from your skin, whilst moisturising and
nourishing the skin at the same time.
There are different clays that will work
for specific skin types and choosing the
right products containing the clay that
is most suitable to your skin type is
important. There are 3 basic clays: Green,
Yellow and Red.
Exfoliation
Think of Exfoliation from this perspective.
Exfoliation removes dead skin cells, soothes
the skin and improves its tone. Dead skin
cells are the very top layer of your skin.
Applying moisturiser to dead skin cells
does not make sense, does it? So exfoliation,
removes the dead skin cells, promotes
blood circulation and helps to invigorate
and prepare the skin to more easily absorb
any moisturising product you apply.
Exfoliation also helps speed up the rate
of cell turn over. Another word for exfoliation
is scrubbing. Using a facial scrub at
least once a week, makes your skin more
receptive to creams and treatments. However
care must be taken not to over exfoliate.
The aim is to remove any dead cells from
the skins surface without disturbing the
healthy cells beneath.
In conclusion, to follow a skin care regime
is like taking out an insurance policy
on the health and vitality of your skin.
Can you afford not to follow a complete,
daily skin care regime?
Danny Siegenthaler is a doctor of traditional
Chinese medicine and together with his
wife Susan, a medical herbalist and Aromatherapist,
they have created Natural Skin Care Products
by Wildcrafted
Herbal Products to share their 40
years of combined expertise with you.
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