When we’re in our 20s, we may not have any noticeable wrinkles or crow’s feet, but it’s never too early to start preventing them from occurring too soon.
Moisturizers
Though we need the sun to help our bodies naturally produce Vitamin D, the sun also damages our skin, and is what gives us wrinkles and old-looking skin. One of the best skincare products that anyone can buy is sun protection, so it’s important to buy products with SPF. Estee Lauder’s Daywear Plus is a great moisturizer that lasts all day. You can purchase the kind that’s for normal/combination skin or the kind for dry skin. It comes with SPF 15, and is a great preventive tool against oncoming wrinkles. This moisturizer carries a hefty price tag of $40.00 for 1.7 oz.
If you’re on a tighter budget, I recommend Olay’s Anti-Wrinkle Nutrients (Wal-Mart carries this for less than $15.00). It comes with SPF 15 and moisturizes without leaving your skin feeling greasy.
Another area we need to protect is our eyes. The skin around our eyes doesn’t produce as much oil or collagen as the rest of our skin does. There’s a reason why we don’t see people with pimples in their immediate eye area. And those eye shadow grease lines on your eyelid folds at the end of the day? That’s a whole day’s worth of accumulating eye shadow and oil from all the times you were blinking.
Estee Lauder’s Hydra Complete Moisturizing Gel Crème will leave the areas around your eyes looking younger. This weighs in at around $40.00 for a very small jar, so if you’re on a tighter budget, L’Oreal Eye Defense (less than $15.00) works as well though I found Hydra Complete left the skin around my eyes feeling less thick.
Food
Another great skincare product isn’t a chemical result of laboratory procedures. Instead it’s the vitamins we consume. Vitamin A, Vitamin C, and Vitamin E are great at shielding your skin against the free radicals, which are caused by damaging sunrays. So eat your whole grains, fruits, vegetables (asparagus and leafy greens are great), and eggs. Though egg yolks are high in cholesterol, that’s where the vast majority of vitamins and nutritional content reside. An egg here and there can’t hurt you. If you’re reading the ingredients content of your skincare products, look for retinol, ascorbic acid, and tocopherol, which are other names for A, C, and E, respectively.
Soaps
It’s always important to wash your face with soap, particularly after you workout or after a long day’ wear of makeup. Using a mild soap and an exfoliater is important. Clinique’s Three Step system’s mild soap and clarifying lotion are fantastic. There are different types of clarifying lotion depending on your skin type, so visit your local Clinique specialist to see which one’s right for you. And if you’re on a budget, Cetaphil has a fantastic mild facial soap.
Also, try not to excessively soap and exfoliate. Our own skin produces some good substances to protect itself, and we wouldn’t want to deplete all of that away.
Other Preventive Measures
There are other preventive measures that you can practice to protect your skin from oncoming signs of aging.
1. Use sun block when you’re outside especially during the summer months. I recommend buying products with SPF 30 or above that are simultaneously sweat-proof. The higher the SPF, generally the thicker and greasier the sunblock. I recommend Coppertone’s Ultraguard Sunscreen Lotion. It is sweat-proof, has SPF 50, and will leave your skin feeling less greasy than other sunscreens with comparable SPF
2. Drink plenty of water.
3. Sleep, sleep, sleep. Though coffee has antioxidants (not as much as berries and vegetables), too much coffee and caffeine are bad for you. Your body needs sleep to renew itself and its skin.
