New year beauty resolutions you must make
BEING your best self this new year means looking the part too. And if you’ve been neglecting something as basic as your skin, then it means that you haven’t been allowing yourself to be your best you.
As we enter a new year, people usually make resolutions for improvements they hope to make in their lives. And some of these should be beauty resolutions —some of which we have described below.
Wash your face
Your skin is one of the most sensitive, fragile organs, and your face puts it all on display. You should be washing your face as often as you brush your teeth — that is, twice a day, or more if you feel unclean. Washing your face with just any old soap isn’t good though; you need soap specially formulated for the particular issue that you have. So invest in a high-quality, gentle face wash. Have oily, sensitive skin? Try a gel cleanser. Breakout-prone skin that just won’t leave you alone? Foaming cleanser. Dry, cracked skin? A cream cleanser will work best.
Drink water
You’ve heard this before, so you should know it’s no joke. Skin is just like any other organ in your body, and it needs water just as much as everything else. When you don’t hydrate your skin, it will become dry, flaky, and more prone to wrinkles. Water also flushes out toxins and any other harmful substances.
Exfoliate
You don’t need to buy a fancy face mask or scrub to do this. Simple ingredients you can find at home — honey, sugar and oatmeal; sugar and coconut oil; or even turmeric and honey, could be your saving grace. You should be exfoliating as often as you wash your hair (once per week), but the condition of your skin may call for a different routine.
Wear sunscreen
No matter how ridiculous this may seem — you’re not going to the beach every day, after all — it is extremely important that you wear sunscreen daily. Sun damage is a real thing, especially in the tropics. Sunscreen prevents premature wrinkles, loosening, spots, and skin cancer. Please, wear sunscreen if you care about the future of your skin.
Sleep
This is arguably the most important step of all. Tiredness shows. Sleeping helps rehydrate your body (in case you skipped step two), and relax your muscles for a less tense appearance. Wrinkles, lines and dark circles are a bother, and sleep will help prevent them.
Moisturise
Moisturising your skin is that one step you shouldn’t miss in your daily routine — it’s as essential as wearing deodorant. Moisturising will keep wrinkles and dry skin at bay, and the right one will have your skin always feeling and looking baby soft.
Don’t go to bed with make-up on
If you’re in the habit of going to bed with make-up on, this is the year to break that habit. Make-up clogs your pores, leaving impurities on your skin. It’s important that your nightly routine involves removing every trace of make-up, and then moisturising before bed, if you want to stay away from blackheads and pimples.
Don’t squeeze that pimple
As tempting as it may be to pop that pimple when it appears, it’s a habit that you should break. All popping pimples does is introduces bacteria to your skin, and while it may feel good to get all the gooey stuff out when you squeeze, you can prepare for black spots to appear soon after. So unless it’s being done by a professional, leave the pimples to shrink on their own, no matter how frustrating it is to deal with them.