Clense Your Complexion

By Lori Kremen

Wash Your Face once a day in the morning and rinse your face at night if you wear make up. You can harm your skin if you over treat it:

• Don't use body soap, it will dry out your skin, as it was not chemically formulated for the sensitive skin on your face.
• If you have dry skin, you want to use a moisturizing facial soap.
• If you have oily skin, you want to use a soap containing salicylic acid, which will suck up the oil.
• If you have sensitive skin, you want to use a soap containing propylene glycol, which is also an ingredient in antifreeze, but don't let that scare you.
• If you have normal skin, you'll want to use soap containing lanolin

Tone your face once a day to remove the dead skin cells from your face and reveal a healthy layer of fresh skin cells. There are two ways to exfoliate your skin.

• Mechanical exfoliates is like rubbing sand on your face. Swiss skin care companies, like St. Ives, have created lines of mechanical exfoliates that use micro beads, oyster shells or apricot pits. Even thought the name sounds pretty, it can be quite painful.
• Chemical exfoliates contain mild acids such as alpha-hydroxy, beta-hydroxy, or salicylic acid. These chemicals break down the dead skin on your face and are a lot less painful then their sand-blasting alternatives.
• If you shave your face every day, you do not need to exfoliate the areas you shave. You should exfoliate the areas around your shave zones, however. Always moisturize before and after you shave your face.

You will want to moisturize your skin daily after you rinse and tone your face. Daily moisturizing will prevent premature aging and wrinkles. It is very important to use a specially formulated facial moisturizer which does not block your pours.

• occlusive moisturizers act like dams and bring trap the water in your face. If you have normal, oily or sensitive skin, occlusive moisturizer is right for you.
• humectant moisturizers grab water molecules from the air and then trap them on your face.
• Petroleum products (such as Vaseline) also work very well as facial moisturizers, but can add unnecessary shine.

Before you leave the house everyday, smear a dollop of sun screen on your face.

• Sunscreen prevents skin cancer
• Sunscreen prevents premature aging
• When shopping for sunscreen do not use less than an SPF 15 for your face.