Caring For Your Skin : The Fountain of Youth

While it's no secret that high quality makeup will help you achieve a flawless look, did you also know that so will a great skin care regiment? Creating a consistent, daily skincare routine is essential to achieving a runway-ready face and today on the blog, we're going to give you a few of our favorite tips to help you look like you're headed to New York fashion week!

First and foremost: Hydrate! Hydrate! Hydrate! Your skin is the largest organ in your body and when your body isn't being properly hydrated, it will begin to show by getting dry, tight and flaky. If this is something that you struggle with, and even if it's not, there are a few ways you can help to hydrate your skin. The first and easiest way is to increase your water intake. You should be drinking at LEAST 8 cups of water per day. If this is something that you struggle with, consider investing in a 30 ounce thermal water bottle. The thermal bottle will help to keep your water cool longer and it will be easy to keep track of your daily water intake knowing that you need to fill up your cup at least twice to be on track. The second way to hydrate your skin is to use a moisturizer first thing in the morning and right before going to bed at night. Ideally, try to apply moisturizer within two minutes of getting out of the shower because that's when the skin is still porous and will absorb the moisture the best.

Exfoliate! Exfoliation is THE FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH! Exfoliation removes dead skin and unclogs pores. It stimulates cell turnover (brand new baby skin cells), increases blood flow and plumps and stimulates the production of collagen (collagen is what makes you look young and supple). When you do not exfoliate, your dead skin cells collect and pile up on top of each other, creating an uneven bumpy texture. It also collapses your collagen and reduces cell turnover, which causes pre-mature aging. You literally can get unnecessary early wrinkles from not exfoliating. Use a chemical exfoliator every morning and/or night, along with a mechanical exfoliator like a scrub or rotary brush (like the Clarisonic) every 3-4 days. Some great products to check out: charcoal, sugar or salt scrubs. Avoid using a nut shell scrub like St. Ives as it can damage the skin.

And last, but certainly not least, make sure you apply sunscreen daily. Sun exposure causes premature wrinkles, age spots and seriously dehydrates the skin! By applying a facial sunscreen before your makeup each morning, you are protecting yourself from sun damage and ensuring that your skin continues to look flawless. La Roche-Posay makes a great facial sunscreen that's small enough to carry in a clutch bag and you can even buy it at your local Target!

We hope that you found these tips helpful and we would love to hear how you incorporate these products into your skin care regiment!