Things you can do now, for better skin tomorrow.

Iasked my mom once what she did to keep her skin soft and pretty-much wrinkle free. This was when she was in her late 60’s and the internet was maybe 10, back when getting online was still Netscape icons and five minutes of awful dial-up noises. My mom told me she did three things every day.

1. She washed her face in the morning and at night.
2. Applied her favorite moisturizer twice a day.
3. Stayed out of the sun.

That may have been the best advice she ever gave me, but at the time it didn’t sound anything like a secret formula to wrinkle free skin. I listened to her then about as much as my daughter listens to me now.

Basically, mom had it right.

Washing your face is essentially a minor form of exfoliation and exfoliation is essential to the turnover of dead skin cells. When we turnover dead skin cells, we improve blood flow, allow new, healthy skin cells to rise to the surface, and soften the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. That’s one for mom.

Daily application of moisturizer is also, as it turns out, one of the best things for youthful looking skin. Moisturized skin appears plumper and healthier and slows the formation of fine lines and wrinkles. A little advice from the aged, old future? Don’t skip your neck and décolleté area. Those areas won’t matter until they matter, but then they really matter. I say that’s half a point for mom. She did say moisturize, but never mentioned my neck, and it retains the other half point in protest.

Sunscreen. Oh yes did she have it right with sunscreen. Even one sunburn can raise your risk for melanoma. Prolonged exposure damages skin cells, producing premature aging. Sunscreen is the best anti-aging product on the market, bar none. I recommend buying a moisturizer for day use that has at least SPF 30 or higher. Oh and sunglasses. They don’t just make you look cool on the Gram, sunglasses are in fact one of the easiest ways to stop the squint lines. I’ll give her a point and a half for this one.

One thing she missed? Water. Keeping your body hydrated can help prevent swelling from water retention. The eyes and around the contours of our faces are key places that it shows.

The wrap up.

There’s a few more common sense things like sleeping well and eating right but the biggest thing, the most important thing, by far the most impactful thing is maintaining a routine.

Sunscreen, moisturizer, exfoliation and hydration.

Even if you do a bad job at them some days, even if you do a terrible job at them some weeks, just keep going. Habits, good or bad, are why you are where you are with your skin right now. With skin, you have to think of the long term.

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