skincare do's and don'ts!

1. Avoid mineral oil on your skin. Mineral oil can clog your pores, causing breakouts and lead to blackheads. Mineral oils can be found in petrolatum and petroleum jelly (so try not to use vaseline on your face, but of course you can use it on your lips =] ). If you need something to seal your moisturizer, try olive oil.


2. If your skin is oily, be sure to thoroughly cleanse your face before you go to bed, so the oils and dirt trapped in the oils won't clog up your pores. However, NEVER STOP to moisturize your face!  If you don't supply your skin with sufficient amount of moisture, your skin will respond by producing more oils.

3. Avoid fragranted moistures/skincare products. The fragrance might cause skin irritation.

4. Try to use natural skincare products, or use natural remedies. In my experiences, natual remedies work the best, even better than expensive skincare products.

5. When applying skincare products, use just enough of it, don't try to apply a thick layer on your skin. THE MORE IS NOT THE BETTER!!! What I mean by enough, is a comfortable amount of skin product that you actually feel your skin absorb everything, not leaving a layer of the product on your skin. Your skin cannot absorb everything if you apply too much, what's left over on the surface of your skin can lead to breakouts.

6. Drink lots of water!! of course =) Everyone knows why. It'll not only help hydrate you, balance the electrolytes, but also flush out the toxins!

7. Avoid sugary food, chocolate, junk food, and fried food. Blackheads are inevitable, but you will be AMAZED by how much your blackheads improve once you changed your diet.

8. When apply natural remedies, make sure you rinse off your face thoroughly. Natural remedies should never cause your skin to break out, unless there are residues remaining on your skin. ***** ALWAYS CLEANSE YOUR FACE if you want to avoid breakouts!!! Cleansing, in my opinion, is the most important step for good skin care regime*****

9. Always switch up the skincare products, don't just stick with one. I used to use this one line of skin care products from Clinique for 3 straight years because I have very sensitive skin and was suffering allergies then, and Clinique was the one that worked for me, so I just stuck to it. Then after 3 years one day my skin just wouldn't absorb the moisturizer, at all =( like I could literally feel a layer of moisturizer sitting on top of my face, but underneath my skin just feels really tight and dry. What happened is that my skin got so used to the products, it stopped responding to the active ingredients in the moisturizers. So always switch up your products to constantly stimulate your skin =)

10. Is your skin or neck feeling irritated for no reason? (i.e, you haven't changed your skincare routines or didn't do anything different). Try watching out for your hair products. Did you use a new leave-in conditioner? You might be allergic! (I'm allergic to aloe and I once used a leave-in conditioner containing aloe without being aware of it, I started breaking out. I checked the ingrediants and stopped using it. My skin was back to normal in no time). Clay, hair sprays can also irritate your skin. So next time your skin breakouts coincide with change of haircare routine, the hair product is probably the culprit behind all that!

11. Avoid oinments for areas that suffer from rashes. Try cream formula instead. I don't know exactly the reason behind it... just something I discovered.

12. If your skin just feels really really dry and it's like no amount of moisturizer you apply would help... it probably means you're really dehydrated. Drink water!

13. Sleep is when your body repairs itself, so get enough sleep! And getting plenty of sleep is not enough, more importantly, sleep at the RIGHT time. 11pm-2am is when your liver detoxifies, a very important process that takes place in your body, so you want to make sure you're resting while your liver does that, lightening the workload for your liver.

14. Take multiple vitamins regularly. Your body needs all sources of nutrients, vitamins and minerals to maintain its integrity and health, so does your skin, especially when your skin is always turning over and trying to recover from some kind of damages, like free radicals, radiation. ****** It is important to pay attention that your supplements come from a brand that is USP verified-- meaning that the contents are verified not to contain anything harmful/inpurities. Believe it or not, supplements are the only kind of "food" that is not regulated by FDA. If you read carefully, the bottles of supplements usually have this disclaimer: "These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease." Basically, whatever it "claims" to do on the bottle, they don't need any evidence to back it up, and FDA can only intervene when there is undo harm, like liver damages or death. So be careful when you choose your supplements! ****** PS. In case you're wondering how I know... I learned all this info from my nutrition class, so I'm not just BSing :) Also, when you take your supplements, take it with a meal so they're more bioavailable (meaning more readily available to be digested, absorbed and utilized by your body).

15. When your skin is injured for some reason, like from squeezing your pimple etc., avoid wearing makeup on top of it, because the pigments in your foundation/concealor will settle into the wounds, leaving your wound darkened and will be prone to leave scar marks. I've got scars from wearing concealers before T_T


So as you can see... a lot of the advice is not about taking care of the skin... it's about taking good care of yourself. If you take good care of yourself, naturally, your skin is gonna reflect that =)

Take care!

<3 Frances