Taking care of your skin as early as possible is one of the best ways to prevent it from aging quickly and prematurely. It’s important that you follow a routine and use products that are especially formulated for your skin type to get the most out of your skin care regimen. Did you know, though, that no matter how expensive your skin care routine / regimen is, you’re still putting your skin at risk for damage by doing certain thing? These things often seem harmless but they can speed up skin aging and damage your skin, too. Here are some tips on how to be kinder to your skin.

• Stop using harsh cleansers – there are so many skin care products out there that promise you dreamy results and often we are sucked into buying these without checking what they are made of or what they contain. Make sure that you read the label on a product before buying it. The fewer unpronounceable ingredients there are in the list, the better it is for your skin.

• Pick products in tubes – jars make great packaging and some brands even go the extra mile putting their products into decorative and ornate jars to lure people into buying the product but did you know that each time you open your jar, you expose its contents to light and air, making the product less effective (especially anti-aging products). To keep your products working until you empty it out, choose those that come in tubes. Tubes allow less light and air to come in contact with the product so it stays effective.

• Get enough sleep – this is a really important thing to do, not just for beauty purposes but for your health and well-being as well. A good night’s rest will give your skin that healthy glow and will help eliminate free radicals that make the skin look dull and pale.

• Use soft pillow cases – when choosing pillow cases, you shouldn’t just base your decision on how cute the print or the pattern is but also on what fabric the pillow case is made of and how soft it feels against your skin. The creases left on your face by a rough pillow case can lead to collagen breakdown which may later on cause wrinkles.

• Use speaker phone or a headset – the surface on your phone accumulates so much dirt and bacteria so imagine what happens if you keep putting it up against your skin. Prolonged use of phone (against the skin during a call) puts lots of pressure to it as well and this traps oil and causes zits and sometimes even a breakout.

• Remove makeup before bed – another must-do that a lot of us women take for granted is taking our makeup off before we hit the sack. Our skin needs some time to breathe and recuperate and nighttime is the best time for that so make sure your skin gets enough break from all the products and chemicals by going to bed makeup-free.

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