Perfect Skin Probably isn’t Possible; Take Tips for Prettier Skin

I have been doing some very frequent research on simple things every day, regular women can do to help keep skin looking healthy and happy. I know as much as anyone out there who has ever scoffed at a commercial or advertisement from some beauty product or another claiming to give you flawless skin that perfect skin is probably not possible, especially when you don’t have an exuberant amount of money to toss at beauty experts. So I have come across a few tips that may help all of my fellow women out there who do all they can to keep themselves together every day and know that while we can’t strive and expect perfection in the way we look, we can aim for skin that looks healthy and keeps us happy.

I am told that I have to drink more water very frequently. With my skin that is very prone to eczema breakouts and my bouts with adult acne, every time someone feels the need to comment on any of this, they always tell me that I need to drink more water. Low and behold, the first rule of getting healthier skin is to drink two to three liters of water a day.

Yoga is already known to help stress, trauma and illnesses that affect the body and mind, but yoga can aid the skin in many different ways and it has been said that some beauty courses even use yoga exercises. While some experts will say that exercise helps acne, a lot of people found that this claim cannot be further from the truth for them because exercise obviously produces sweat and sweat often irritates the skin, which causes acne to become inflamed and makes it look even worse. Yoga, on the other hand, keeps you relaxed, fit, healthy and healthy looking and gives the people who perform yoga a glowing complexion, very much like that “after sex glow” we women (hopefully) know so well.

Switching from product to product is incredibly dangerous to your skin and when you’re trying to find that perfect product, the worst place to take that gamble is on your face. Once you get into a stable routine, from what you apply to your face after washing and before going to bed at night and what you apply to protect your skin throughout the day, you shouldn’t have surprise breakouts or bad reactions to products out of the blue. It’s best to apply a gentle face wash and moisturizing cream every morning and night and if you don’t know what products are best for you, try the greatly-rated Olay Gentle Foaming Face Wash ($4.86) or consult a dermatologist.

Frequent pimples, sudden breakouts and premature aging can all be attributed to one thing in a lot of cases–not removing your makeup every night. It is so simple to fall asleep at night after a very long day without removing your makeup, especially your eye makeup that can take a little while to get off completely. There are a ton of eye makeup removers on the market, including a formula developed by Lancome ($19.99).

What causes acne in the first place? Waste and toxins built up in your system. Your bowels and kidneys are the primary ways to get that waste out of your body, so the best way to make sure your kidneys and bowels are working the best they can is to maintain a diet high in fiber. Foods with the highest amount of fiber are apples, bananas, oranges, raspberries, strawberries, broccoli, brussel sprouts, spinach, parsnips and potatoes. If you cannot keep these foods in your diet daily, it’s also important to take fiber supplements, like Benefiber.

Who has the money and the time to get a professional facial? Yeah, not many people in the least, but facial masks do wonders for your skin and a lot of women with some pretty awesome skin have long relied on weekly DIY facial masks to suck out impurities and refresh the skin. One of the best ingredients used in a facial mask is clay–try the Lather White Clay Mask ($22).

What You Can Do Daily to Stay Fit

It is not always in our best interest to start a complete exercise program or diet program if we are not already used to working out. I went to a huge fair last weekend, walked around for over eight hours and for the next three days could barely move because my legs were so sore from walking so much; so if you’re like me, starting a diet/exercise program could possibly end up hurting you and that is something we definitely don’t want. However, there are very small, simple things we can do to take care of our bodies and keep them healthy; ‘healthy’ and ‘fit’ do not necessarily mean you have to be or get down to a size 4; you can be a size 12 to 16 and still be in great shape.

Firstly, do not be afraid of the stairs. Stairs can be your friend–Just look at the people buying portable steps to exercise on; if you have them in your house, don’t be afraid of making an extra trip up or down stairs and to top it off, it will give you some great calorie burning and muscle strengthening.

Go for a walk around the block, walk the dog or the kids to school or to the bus stop; again, the operative thing here is that you are simply just moving. It is important to take a walk, especially if it’s nice outside so you can enjoy the fresh air and your surroundings at least once, preferably twice a day, every day.

Plan activities. Activities can mean anything where you are again, moving. Plan a trip to the park, play softball, basketball, soccer; any type of sport where you can have fun with you friends and family and make it not seem so much as exercise, but just having a good time with the people you care about.

Yes, these tips sound painfully obvious, but the next time you look at the clock and realize you’ve been sitting at your compute for eight straight hours, perhaps you can recall reading this and get out and take a quick walk or jog around the block.

The ‘Healthy’ Glow

It’s spring, which means summer is just around the corner and women are getting ready to get their bikini bodies. But what if women, with their exercise schedule and healthy diets, are backtracking and while they think they are being healthy in their efforts to maintain that perfect beach body, are really just harming their health more?

If you go to a gym, you most likely utilize most of the facilities and activities that they have to offer. Work out equipment, maybe some private classes with a personal trainer or being part of a weekly class, if they have a nutritionist on staff, you most likely consulted with them about maintaining some healthy eating habits or have gotten a quick snack from them. Just before taking your shower, getting back into your street clothes and going home, how many women hop into the tanning bed for that healthy summer glow; because lets face it, who wants to be a color just a few pigments darker than chalk? But what you don’t know is that tanning beds, a $5 billion a year industry, are harming you more than you may think.

Personally, I used to frequent tanning salons because I suffered from chronic insomnia and I found that while accompanying a friend of mine on her tanning trip and deciding to try it out for myself, that a tanning bed was the only place where I could fall asleep. While I didn’t strive for the perfect tan, I do know women who became absolutely obsessed with tanning, making appointments at two or three different tanning facilities just so no one told them that they were tanning too much because they would go to a variety of different places. It looked as if they were going once a week, but they were really visiting these facilities three times a week or more!

Tanning, while incredibly bad for your skin to begin with, as the ultraviolet radiation can cause wrinkles, dark spots and premature aging; indoor tanning can also put you at a 55% higher risk for Melanoma.

Dermatologist Louis Barich, MD, has reported that “Essentially, 20 minutes in a tanning bed can do as much damage as five hours of natural sunlight.”

So before hopping into that tanning bed for that healthy glow, go outside and get some fresh air instead–but be sure to put the sunblock on! While being pasty white may not seem very attractive to you, think about how you would feel about wrinkles, dark spots and ultimately, skin cancer.