So many women we service want great skin. What is great skin anyway? Is it flawless, wrinkle free with no lines anywhere? I think not. The first key to great skin is to keep your expectations of it at a realistic level. The second key is to try not to be swayed by the ever-streaming media telling us that at 40, 50 or 60 we are not supposed to have lines or spots anywhere.

We are set up to fail from the beginning every time we open a magazine or turn on the television and then compare our skin to those images in the mirror the next morning usually before we go to work which of course sets the tone for the energy you have for the day.

So here I am, in a quandary. I am an esthetician, business owner and a woman. I have been told by the many companies I do business with that this product will do this and that product will do that. As a matter of fact, I have many products that profess to do these very things, line reducing, pore minimizing, oil absorbing etc and I have made some of my own conclusions over my 24 years in this wonderful business I call skin and at the end of the day, this is what I know to be true, by the skin I have seen and helped and the clients we have served as well as my own skin.

Here are my top rules for great skin.

1.     Wash Your Face. Every night before you go to bed no matter what. If you get home at 4:00 pm and you are in for the night, when and if you change into comfy clothes, wash your face.

2.     Use a great cleanser that makes you feel great when you are using it. This way it makes you want to wash your face.

3.     Use a toner.  If you leave out the toner, you are missing an important step in the basic routine. Toner helps to rehydrate the skin after cleansing and helps the moisturizer work more efficiently.

4.     Moisturize. No matter what type of skin you have, moisturizing keeps your skin balanced and moist. Moisturizer does not have to be greasy and as a matter of fact, some moisturizers are oil free and simply hydrate the surface keeping the skin from over producing oil (ironically, this is usually a reason oily skin clients leave this step out)

5.     If you have washed your face at night like I told you in step 1, then your morning routine can simply be splashing with water followed by toning and moisturizing. If you will never wash your face at night or only occasionally, then you must wash in the morning with something a little more high test, usually a gentle daily exfoliant. I recommend Daily Microfoliant by Dermalogica or Botanical Buffing Beads by Peter Thomas Roth. Once either of these steps becomes a pattern that you never break, most of the additional products will enhance this basic routine, such as exfoliants, eye crèmes and treatment products likes serums. Some clients cannot imagine not washing their face in the morning even if they have washed their face the night before. Most skin care companies will tell you that you need to wash am and pm and sometimes even double cleansing. If you have the time, have a good time, in my own experience and the thousands of clients I have serviced, I have not noticed that to be effective unless of course you are a super oily or broken out skin, then you may need to cleanse twice a day to control the oil or bacteria causing acne ( or if you didn't listen to me in step 1.)

6.     Do not let hot water beat on your skin in the shower, this will dry your skin and make it unnecessarily reddened.

7.     Alcohol, smoking, lots of sugar, sun, too much caffeine, excessive dairy, and shellfish can aggravate the skin, so pay attention to your intake if you really want your skin to shine. No matter what anyone tells you, what you put in to you does affect your skin, I have witnessed it for years. 

8. DO NOT PICK YOUR SKIN. I have seen this as one of the most detrimental problems. My mantra is simple. Either it will be ugly for 3 days if you don't pick or ugly for 10 or more days if you do. Picking can cause reddened scarring known as staining and often does damage beyond repair. KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF YOUR FACE. (and your kid's faces too for that matter, moms, you know who you are.)

9.  If you have a magnifying mirror at home, get rid of it unless of course you are using it to see, but if you are using it to cross examine your skin, realize that not even your most intimate lover looks at your pores as close as a mag mirror shows you. YOUR PORES ARE NOT THAT BIG. Leave them alone and they will be the size they are supposed to be.

10.  Of all the skin I have seen over the years, I would say that stress is one of the top agers of skin. Frown lines from anger and depression can wreak havoc on the way your skin appears. Smile more, even if you don’t feel like it, people will smile back and that will energize you which will make you smile more often. Radiance comes from within and no matter what you do to yourself externally, what goes on internally, is more powerful than all of the botox and crèmes combined. So take great care of you and enjoy the privileges we are blessed with to even consider the quantity of choices we have to wash our faces.

To great skin,

alayne white