"The Routine"

I’ve been very flattered lately to have been asked by a few people what my “routine” is. I hesitate to share this because it should be different for everyone – depending upon your skin’s needs – but I decided there are enough things we all should be doing (and I do have some favorite products) that it was worth a post.

The most important thing about your routine is to find out your skin type. Whatever you think your skin type is now, I'm sorry to say you are probably wrong. I know I was. I thought that since I was prone to breakouts that my skin was oily ( a common misconception), so I kept doing things to dry it out, which just made me break out more. Then, thanks to the fact that I write this blog, I was invited to a Skin Type Solutions event about a year ago and was given a set of products by Dr. Leslie Baumann tailored to my skin type. It is not an exaggeration to say that within about a week my skin transformed itself and that I can count on one hand the number of blemishes I’ve had since then. My skin has literally never looked better. So get thee to the skin type solutions website. There you will find out what type you really are.

• Once you know your skin type, CLEANSE. I used to be a department store snob, but once Dr. Baumann’s kit introduced me to CeraVe (from the Kinerase family), available at Walgreen's, I no longer turned my nose up at buying my products at drug stores.  

Creamy and moisturizing, it’s a great morning cleanser. I used to use it at night, too, but I found that it doesn’t do well at removing makeup so I had to use a washcloth, which was unnecessarily abrasive and defeated the purpose of using a gentle cleanser, so I set about finding a good moisturizing cleanser that removes makeup well. My search landed me very happily with Fresh’s Soy Face Cleanser. It foams just a little bit, smells like heaven, and - in an unexpected bonus - takes off most of my eye makeup without any burning. When I dry my face on my white towels, there is virtually no makeup left behind!

• EXFOLIATE. Do this at least a couple of times a week, particularly if you use any type of retinoid product on your skin like I do for acne, as these products speed up cell turnover and exfoliation helps this along. My favorite exfoliator is Biore Even Smoother Microderm Exfoliator (another drugstore superstar) because it’s so gentle and leaves you so glowing without over-stripping or shredding your skin. 
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  And don’t forget to exfoliate your lips, too, particularly in the winter. This will help de-flake and make your lipsticks go on more smoothly.You don’t need to waste money on a product for this. Just wet your lips with some water, rub some granulated sugar over them and rinse! Do this at night and go to bed with some Smith’s Minted Rose Lip Balm on your lips and your lips will be transformed in the morning.

• TONE. I use toner to remove the last bits of makeup from my skin, to hydrate and refresh. This is an optional step, but don’t ever, ever use products like Sea Breeze or Bonne Bell’s Ten-O-Six Lotions. You might as well just stick your head in a vat of alcohol. If you’re a dry skin type, there’s clearly no need for this and if you’re oily, you may think you’re doing your skin good, but all you’re doing is making your skin produce more oil to compensate. Gentle is the operative word here. Since my favorite toner, Kinerase Antioxidant Hydrating Mist, was taken off the market, I had to find a new toner, and, again, Fresh to the rescue with its
  
  Rose Marigold Floral Water.
• MOISTURIZE. First of all, don’t skip eye cream. I don’t care how old you are or if you have the first signs of wrinkles yet. Your undereye area is incapable of making its own moisture so you have to help it. If you don’t have visible signs of aging yet, simply use a moisturisizing product like Clarins Eye Contour Balm or Neutrogena Healthy Skin Eye Cream.  If you are older and have various issues under the eyes, there are about a zillion products out there that target each area – puffiness, dark circles, lines and wrinKles, dryness. I’ve done the legwork, though, and still my favorite (and such a bargain!) is Dr. LeWinn’s Lift and Resculpt (see my post), which targets all these issues.
• Secondly, moisturize your whole face. Even if your skin is oily, you need some kind of moisture, but follow the recommendation of your Dr. Baumann regimen.  During the day I typically use a moisturizing sunscreen (again CeraVe because it has everything I want and need: ceramides and hyaulronic acid, both crucial for water and moisture retention, is non-comedogenic and controlled-release so my skin feels moisturized all day. At night,if I’m particularly dry, I use a moisturizing oil straight out of the shower (a tip from my favorite beauty maven Jean Godfrey June).
  
  
  My pick for this is the slightly-pricey Clarins Santal Oil for Dry Skin. I follow that with the heavier CeraVe Cream (as opposed to the lighter lotion.
  
  

If all this has been too much information, feel free to ignore everything I’ve said except this: DO NOT LEAVE YOUR HOME WITHOUT SUNSCREEN ON YOUR FACE AND HANDS. The brand is not important (although I like CeraVe for the quality, ingredients and the price), but the SPF (at least 30, preferably higher) and the stability of the ingredients is. This step alone will save you from premature aging, skin cancer and age spots. It will, unfortunately, also prevent you from getting enough Vitamin D, so make sure you are not deficient in this (see my previous post about this for details).

Here's to better skin for all in the new year!

Give Yourself a Hand

With most women’s skincare energies (understandably) focused on their faces, they very often forget that the thing that can often give away their age – sometimes prematurely – is their hands. While we may be unrelenting about putting sunscreen on our faces and necks, how often do we all walk out the door with sunscreen on the backs of our hands? Probably seldom to never. Then we’re encouraged to repeatedly wash our hands to stave off cold and flu germs, we slather bacterial gels all over them and we wipe them down with sanitizing wipes. These harsh drying habits are further compounded by winter weather, during which many of us cast aside our gloves because we can’t use our touch screens with them on. At best, then, we’re exposing our hands more and moisturizing them less. They take quite a beating, especially this time of year.

If you only have dryness, you can consider yourself fortunate, and begin to take preventive measures now, such as using a handcream with an SPF of at least 15 every day, and yes (I know it’s a hassle) re-applying after you wash your hands. If you’re not so lucky and you’ve started to see even the faintest brown spots (they come out more when you get a little sun), there are a number of products at different price points that can help reduce their appearance, as well as some at-home remedies such as lemon, or prescriptions such as hydroquinone.

I’ve seen a couple of brown spots crop up on my hands – no doubt from my carefree youth dousing myself in baby oil beginning the first day of spring like all my friends – and have had to remind myself again and again to protect my hands before I leave the apartment. One thing that’s made it easier is I just put a little of my face cream (Kinerase Daily Defense Cream - specifically designed to protect and heal sun-damaged skin) right on my hands during my morning routine. Any kind of sunscreen you can use on your face is suitable for your hands.

But many companies now make great products specifically for this particular challenge. One of my favorites is Clarins’ Age Control Hand Lotion. Non-greasy, with natural ingredients and a fragrance to die for, it makes you want to reapply just to smell it again and again (although the price makes you think twice about doing that). On the more affordable end, Dove’s ProAge Hand Cream sports an alpha hydroxy acid (AHA) content to support cell turnover in the skin. Even better on price, and SPF, Neutrogena’s Age Shield Hand Cream at $5.99 with an SPF of 30 is such a great buy and so small and cheap you can afford to keep one at home and drop one in your bag!

Let the Sun Shine In...Just Not On Your Face

I do not pretend to be the sole keeper of the secret of the Fountain of Youth...countless dermatologists and beauty editors before me have said the same thing, but it certainly bears repeating: to avoid the single most insidious cause of premature aging, wear a good sunblock every single day, even if it's cloudy, and in the summer add to that a big floppy hat and sunglasses.

I'm going to leave it to you to find your own chic floppy hat and glasses (the glasses can be inexpensive, just make sure they have 100% UVA/UVB protection) but what I am going to tell you to do is to check out my two new favorite sunscreens on the market. They are my favorites because, unlike their predecessors that were almost always white, goopy and seemed to transform my makeup to into some other new, non-spreadable chemical compound, these two really are as they promise to be: ultra sheer, dry and absorbent. They are so good at disappearing into the skin's surface, in fact, that I would go so far as to say that they almost serve as a skin mattifier or serum, but with the endless benefits of sun protection. They both even smell faintly nice although they are technically unscented.

First up, on the more expensive end, is Kiehl's Super Fluid UV Defense SPF 50+, available at Kiehl's stores as well as Bloomingdale's, Barney's and other high-end department stores for $32. Kiehl's doesn't specify how the product is photostabilized, but I trust them that it is in fact stabilized. It's also water-resistant and oil free, and if you have a Kiehl's near you and buy a bottle, they'll sweeten the deal with a sample of Midnight Recovery Concentrate (another favorite of mine - more on that another time) and Ultra Facial Moisturizer, which can help make that price tag seem a little less pricey.

On the less expensive end is Neutrogena's new Ultra Sheer Liquid Daily Sunblock SPF 70 or SPF 55 (please, always choose the highest SPF possible). Available at drugstores everywhere at an easy-on-your-wallet $11.99, Neutrogena claims that their water-light texture spreads easily over skin, absorbing instantly for an invisible, weightless feel, and I have to agree. I have been a longtime user of their previous generation of dry-touch sunscreens and thought they were anything but dry-touch and had to wait around while the white goo turned clear enough to rub in. This one truly is ultra sheer and has a lovely texture. Its photostabilizer is the much-publicized Helioplex®, which, even though we may not understand exactly what it is, at least gives us the fancy scientific name to look for that we've heard of before.

So get out there and let the sun shine in, just not on your pretty face.