Many skin care problems are avoidable, but you’re just making them worse with errors in your beauty routine. While some mistakes are easy to identify, others might be more difficult to correct. Discover the worst skin care mistakes many women make and find out how to rectify them.
If you constantly touch your face or have a diet that lacks important nutrients, you won’t be able to avoid some skin issues. However, correcting a few simple mistakes might quickly show improvements for your skin.
Sticking to Your Face and Ignoring Your Neck and Chest
Even when you take care of it perfectly, the skin on your neck and chest can reveal your real age. In order to care for it correctly, treat it just like your face, especially when it comes to moisturizing, exfoliating and protecting your skin from sun damage. By applying moisturizer and sunscreen every day, you won’t have any skin care regrets in a few years.
Using Too Much Product
While many cosmetic products are harmless even if you use them very often, some can have an irritating effect on your skin. One of the worst skin care mistakes is to think that you know better when it comes to ingredients like retinol, AHAs and BHAs. Don’t over-use them, and make sure you’re sticking to the instructions for anti-acne cosmetics as well. If not, your skin might overdose and suffer.
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Not Cleaning Your Makeup Brushes
A great breeding ground for bacteria, dirty makeup brushes can often be the culprit behind breakouts that you’ll blame on your products. If you’re not genetically predisposed to acne, get rid of the pimples that usually pop up on your T-zone by keeping your brushes and your entire makeup kit clean.
Exfoliating and Peeling Too Much
If you’re exfoliating too much, you’re stripping away the layer of skin that you need in order to protect your health. While not exfoliating at all is not an option, doing it too much, whether it’s chemical or physical, can quickly become one of the worst skin care mistakes. Stick to once a week for physical or twice for chemical exfoliators. Chemical peels should also be restricted. Don’t get even a mild peel more than once every couple of months, and wait a minimum of 6 months between deep chemical peels.
Putting Alcohol on Your Skin
Even if you have oily skin, alcohol-based products should not be used regularly. Whether it’s a cleanser, toner or serum, if it contains too much alcohol, the long term effect will be dry skin. Stick to products that don’t contain any alcohols for a healthier and more beautiful skin in the long run.
Getting Used to Harsh Scrubs
Using a harsh scrub, whether it’s made with sea salt, brown sugar or purchased, is not a good idea. Using it once can damage your skin, but repeated use and over-scrubbing can turn into one of the worst skin care mistakes. Once you get used to the feeling of irritated skin, it’ll be harder to dial it back, because every other exfoliants will “feel” ineffective.
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Keeping Open Cosmetics Around for Too Long
Make sure you don’t keep skin care products around for a long time, especially if you’re storing them in a warm and humid environment, like your bathroom cabinet. Some last better than others, but active ingredients fade in time and without good packaging (think pumps) air and bacteria will make them less effective or even dangerous.
Forgetting to Wash Your Face Before Bed
Going to sleep without a clean face is just bad. Even if you won’t get acne, you’ll have to deal with enlarged pores and other nasty skin issues. Avoid one of the worst skin care mistakes by taking the time to properly clean your face. Add cleaning face wipes as a final step to make sure all the dirt, makeup and oils are gone before you go to sleep.
Giving Up on Skin Care Products Too Soon
Many ingredients in cosmetics take a long time to really show effects. In order to make sure a product is doing its job, keep using it for 2 months and try not to introduce more than one new skin care product at a time.
Forgetting about SPF
One of the worst skin care mistakes is relying on foundation with SPF to get you through the day. Use sunscreen daily, whether or not the sun is shinning, and you’ll prevent the sun damage that accelerates the aging process.
