The 4 Skin Care Basics

The most important thing you can do to protect your skin is to develop a beauty regimen and stick to it. The regimen should include what I call the 4 Skin Care Basics:

1. Cleansing

As with most things, there is a right way and a wrong way to cleanse your skin. You don't want to irritate or trigger an inflammatory response in your skin when cleansing. Here's what I suggest:

• Always use a non-soap cleanser that is pH-balanced to rid your skin of any impurities without stripping your skin of its delicate acid mantle.
• Use your fingers rather than an abrasive cloth to wash your face. Aggressively washing your face can irritate skin or cause an inflammatory response; this is one of the leading contributors to blotchy, uneven skin.
• Use slightly warm water and massage the cleanser into a lather with your fingertips.

2. Moisturizing

A good moisturizer should be used daily to help counter dryness caused by cold weather, hot showers or baths, or even soaps and cleansers we use. Moisturizers trap water in the skin and, as a result, help with the role of the natural barriers.

Moisturizers are generally of two types:

• Oil-like substances: these moisturizers include ingredients like petrolatum, mineral oil, paraffin, silicone, fatty acids and vegetable waxes, and hold moisture in by preventing evaporation.
• Humectants: these moisturizers draw water from the skin's inner layer to the surface, holding it there. Naturally occurring humectants in the skin include hyaluronic acid. Other humectant moisturizing agents include glycerin, urea, honey, sorbitol, gelatin and some vitamins and proteins.

3. Sunscreen

Sunscreens represent the number one anti-aging treatment available. A good sunscreen contains agents, such as zinc oxide or parsol 1789, that absorb, reflect or scatter the sun's light to prevent it from penetrating the skin and causing injury. Look for an SPF (sun protection factor) of at least 30.

4. Nutrition

It is important to realize that skin comes from the inside out - this means you need to give your body the precursors it needs to manufacture healthy skin. These precursors are found in a balanced diet, and include vitamins A and C, amino acids and collagen.