| Skin Care Basics With new creams and ingredients being launched seemingly
every day, it's easy to get confused by all the options. And unless you're
willing to spend hours on your skin care routine every day by incorporating all
of these different lotions, you'll need to pick and choose which basics are
right for you. Here, the bare minimum that you need:
- Sunscreen: It's a must, essential for preventing
sun damage and lowering your risk of developing skin cancer. Many skin care
lines have facial moisturizers with SPF already included; they offer a more
luxurious, makeup-friendly texture than traditional sunscreens. If you use
only one product, sunscreen should be it. A lotion like Neutrogena's Healthy
Skin Lotion with SPF 15 moisturizes, protects with SPF, and smoothes skin with
alpha-hydroxy acids (AHAs) and vitamin C -- practically the perfect
all-purpose face lotion.
- Eye cream: The skin under your eyes is more
delicate and dry than the skin on the rest of your face. It's wise to invest
in an eye cream, which treats the eye area with more emollient moisturizers.
Some eye creams even claim to minimize dark circles and temporarily tighten
fine lines.
- Retinols: If you're concerned with wrinkles and
pigmentation spots, a face cream with retinol (a derivative of vitamin A) can
help. Use it in place of your daytime, SPF moisturizer after you wash your
face at night.
- Body lotion with alpha-hydroxy acids: A lotion
with skin-sloughing AHAs smoothes your whole body, including hands, feet,
arms, and legs. For tough dry spots, apply extra lotion before bed and let it
soak in while you sleep.
Skin Type Has Nothing to Do with Your Age
Older skin is different from younger skin; that is indisputable. Yet it is
a mistake to buy skin-care products based on a nebulous age category.
Treating older or younger skin with products supposedly aimed at dealing
with specific age ranges does not make sense because not everyone with
“older” or “younger” skin has the same needs, yet it’s a trap many women
(especially older women) fall into. An older person may have acne,
blackheads, eczema, rosacea, sensitive skin, or oily skin, while a younger
person may have dry, freckled, or obviously sun-damaged skin. Products
designed for older skin are almost always too emollient and occlusive, and
those designed for younger skin are almost always too drying. The key
issue with skin type needs to be the actual condition of your skin, not
your age.
All women, regardless of age, need sun protection and antioxidants, and
possibly treatment of skin discolorations (either potential or existing),
dry or oily skin, or breakouts. Wrinkles may tend to separate younger from
older skin, but the care you give the skin doesn’t necessarily differ. Not
everyone in their 40s and older has the same skin care needs. In a way
it’s simple: You need to pay attention to what is taking place on your
skin, and that varies from person to person.
Does Skin Color or Ethnicity Affect Skin
Care?
All skin is subject to a range of problems, regardless of skin color or
ethnic background. Whether it is dry or oily skin, blemishes, scarring,
wrinkles, skin discolorations, disorders, or sensitivity, and even risk of
sun damage, all men and women share similar struggles. So, while there are
some distinctions between varying ethnic groups when it comes to skin
problems and skin-care options, overall these differences are minor in
comparison to the number of similarities.
According to an article in the Journal of the American Academy of
Dermatology (February 2002, pages 41–62) “There is not a wealth of
data on racial and ethnic differences in skin and hair structure,
physiology, and function. What studies do exist involve small patient
populations and often have methodological flaws. Consequently, few
definitive conclusions can be made. The literature does support a racial
differential in epidermal melanin [pigment] content and melanosome
dispersion in people of color compared with fair-skinned persons…. These
differences could at least in part account for the lower incidence of skin
cancer in certain people of color compared with fair-skinned persons; a
lower incidence and different presentation of photo aging; pigmentation
disorders in people with skin of color; and a higher incidence of certain
types of alopecia [loss of hair] in Africans and African Americans
compared with those of other ancestry.”
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