You likely know which moisturizers or cleansers are best for your skin, but do your habits align? Staying hydrated and protected can take a lot of work, but plenty of things make the process easier. Here are 15 ways to maintain glowing, youthful skin.
1. Change Your Diet
Changes in diet impact your appearance. For example, consuming flaxseed oil for a few months improves hydration and smoothness overall. You can switch up what you eat for foods and additives proven to help your skin. Every person is different, so you may have to experiment to find a diet that works best for you.
2. Wash Gently
Washing your body is a great way to keep your skin healthy and clean, but you want to ensure you’re gentle to get the best effects. Using soaps that are too harsh or scrubbing too aggressively will damage your skin barrier, making it age faster than natural. Use mild soaps and gentle brushes and loofahs.
3. Get Your Beauty Sleep
People joke about beauty sleep, but there’s science behind sleeping to improve your appearance. Not getting enough will affect your skin’s elasticity and lead to dullness and wrinkles.
Poor-quality sleep increases signs of aging and prevents your skin from bouncing back from inflammation or dullness. Ensure you go to bed at a reasonable time and avoid anything that may affect how you sleep.
4. Regularly Apply Sunscreen
Sunscreen is one of the cornerstones of maintaining glowing, youthful skin. You should apply it even if you aren’t in the sun for an extended period since UV rays cause premature aging in small amounts. Check the UV index before you head outside and ensure you’re protected. You should even wear some when driving, as the sun’s rays can penetrate windows.
5. Try Preventive Botox
Since signs of aging will appear no matter what you do to delay them, preventive Botox might be the best way to maintain a youthful appearance. It’s a procedure where a professional treats fine lines before they form, preventing wrinkles and tightening your skin. Unlike regular Botox — a fix for aging after it’s happened — it is proactive and works to retain your natural youthful appearance longer.
6. Use Micellar Water
Micellar water is essentially an improved version of a regular toner, as it’s a mixture of purified water and gentle surfactants meant to hydrate and cleanse your skin. The ingredients give it anti-aging properties as well, so you can remove your makeup and improve your skin elasticity at the same time. It’s incredibly efficient at extracting everything in your pores, including any makeup left over after you wash your face.
7. Always Cleanse Your Face
It’s tempting to come home from a long day or a fun night out and fall asleep without cleansing, but it’s easier to maintain a youthful appearance if you don’t give in to the temptation. Oil and dead skin cells build up on the surface of your face daily, which means you’ll eventually clog your pores. Wash your face every time you go outside, wear makeup or sweat.
8. Stick to a Routine
Building a skin care routine helps you stay involved and reminds you to take care of yourself, but it also has hidden benefits. It can improve overall elasticity and reduce wrinkle size. Your skin gets used to how you treat it over time, so it’s easier to maintain a youthful glow when you use the same products, methods and schedules.
9. Gently Exfoliate
Typically, it takes around 28 days for a younger person to completely replace every skin cell, while someone older takes up to 45 days. That being said, your cells are constantly shedding and being replaced, leaving a lot of dead particles behind.
Exfoliating is a great way to remove it all and bring out your glossy, new layer of skin. While it might seem better to use a very abrasive exfoliant to speed up the process, you must be careful to keep the new cells intact. Use mild and gentle products to protect them.
10. Drink Lots of Water
Drinking water for your general health is good, but you might be more motivated after learning it’s better for your appearance. Increasing the amount of water you drink daily hydrates your skin and improves its overall appearance. Fill up your favorite water bottle and up your intake to maintain glowing skin.
11. Take Cold Showers
A cold shower isn’t all that relaxing, but your skin will thank you for one because it’ll help you look young and glowing. Your blood vessels constrict in reaction to cold water, leading to a process that makes your blood nutrient and oxygen-rich.
Once you step out of the shower and warm up, the improved blood reduces inflammation. This leads to decreased puffiness and discoloration, which helps you retain your glowing skin.
12. Use Apple Cider Vinegar
You might have seen people drinking diluted apple cider vinegar for health reasons, but have you ever heard about using it on your skin? Since it is antimicrobial, you can apply a diluted mixture onto your face to reduce inflammation, acne scarring and discoloration.
13. Cut Out Indulging Habits
You’ve likely heard about all the adverse effects of tobacco and alcohol use, but they’re challenging habits to kick. It’s fun to indulge yourself, but doing either increases wrinkles and face puffiness and can even damage blood vessels — making it difficult to reverse the effects. Putting down the cigarette or glass of wine can positively affect your appearance and help you maintain your skin’s elasticity and firmness.
14. Wash Your Sheets
Your sheets will slowly collect dead skin cells, dirt and other things you don’t want getting stuck in your pores. Washing your sheets is a crucial part of keeping your skin clean and glowing because it removes all the buildup.
You should do it at least once a week, but it varies depending if you sweat at night or have oily skin. It’s also important to consider what detergent you use because mild types are typically easier on you.
15. Be Delicate
Since most of your skin is thin, you should be delicate with it. For example, you should be mindful not to pull or press too hard when applying moisturizer. Wrinkles and fine lines usually appear from your facial movements, so you can prevent them to an extent by being gentle when touching your face.
How to Get Youthful Skin
Preventive care and small changes — like turning the faucet to cool when showering — can do wonders for your natural, youthful appearance. These tips can fit into any lifestyle and skin type, so it’ll be easy to incorporate them into your routine and maintain your glowing skin.
Writer Bio
Beth is the Managing Editor and content manager at Body+Mind. She shares knowledge on a variety of topics related to nutrition, healthy living, and anything food-related. In her spare time, Beth enjoys trying out new fitness trends and recipes.
