Your skin is the biggest organ on the human body. Because it interfaces with the environment, skin is your first line of defense in protecting the body against damage. It also acts in insulation, temperature regulation, sensation, and in the synthesis of vitamins. Because it plays such a vital role in your body’s defense system, you must do your best to take care of it. Here are some tips to keeping your skin in tip top shape.

Severely damaged skin will try to heal by forming scar tissue or lead to hyper pigmentation. This is something so many people experience from either acne scars, sun damage, or even self-inflicted damage! Using too many products or using products that are too harsh can sometimes cause irritation that wouldn’t be there if you had just stuck to the simple stuff in the beginning.

Your skin is very sensitive and you should treat it as such, even if you don’t consider yourself to have “sensitive” skin. You can easily over do it! Below are some things that you may be doing wrong in your skincare routine:

Over exfoliating: You should exfoliate two to three times a week, but any more and you are going to break down your skin’s protective barrier, so be careful and give your skin time to rebuild in between you breaking it down.

Using too much of each product: Your skin should be able to breathe even once you put on all of your nightly products. You should be using the smallest amount of each product to create a thin later on your skin. Heaping on each product is not going to help as much as using just enough. This will help your products last longer too!

Over medicating: For example, acne medications and some anti-wrinkle treatments really dry out your skin. If they are creating flaky, dry skin then you should probably talk to your doctor about spacing them out, and always make sure that you are moisturizing. If you keep using it even though your skin is dry, you are doing more harm than good!

Over cleansing: You need to find a good cleanser that works for you and stick with it. If you want some suggestions, check out My Skincare Routine for what I use! Also, don’t wash your face too often or you will strip your skin’s natural oils which can aggravate acne and other issues. Your skin should never feel dry and tight.

Everything in Moderation

From how much you eat to how often you exercise, everything should be done in moderation, not to the extreme. This also applies to your skincare regimen. How often you receive laser treatments, facials, injectables, and plastic surgery should all be in moderation as well. It’s always best to keep your routine as simple as possible.

Check out some other great skincare tips I’ve written about with my post on LED Lights and my review of My favorite facial spinbrush!

Let me know what you guys think of these tips and if they were helpful to you in your own routines!

xoxo, Arielle