7 Anti-Aging Tips To Add To Your Beauty Routine

Aging is inevitable, but we humans want to stay and look young for as long as possible. There are many ways where we can fool the mirrors and the cameras (and others!) with the help of makeup, various filters and whatnot to blur out the wrinkles, age spots and appear younger. However, there are some anti aging tips, which one can incorporate in their beauty routine to actually make your skin look and feel younger for a longer time, without any filter.

Ditch your makeup and stop using filters and stay young forever by adding these seven anti-aging tips to your beauty routine:

Without a doubt we need to clean our face daily to remove all the makeup, build up sebum, skin care products and dirt from our facial skin. A clean skin will allow the skin care essentials that you are using to penetrate your skin better and get absorbed more efficiently. For this purpose, it is important to stay away from harsh cleanser and use a gentle cleanser to clean your skin and to retain moisture and preserve your skin barrier. Cleansers that have a high pH are harsh and strips your skin of its natural oils and make your skin more prone to infection and irritation. Cleansers having a low pH are always the best one to wash your face and keep the skin hydrated so the wrinkles are kept at bay and the skin balance is maintained.

Sodium Lauryl Sulfate is an ingredient present in many soaps and cleansers and is very harsh in nature and should be avoided at any cost. Expensive cleansers do not necessarily mean that they are good cleansers. One also need not buy fancy cleansers containing active ingredients, as they stay on the skin for a mere few seconds and get washed away. Active ingredients are better used in other skin care products, such as a serum or a moisturizer.

Toners were advised to use so as to replace the low skin pH when washing your skin using high-pH cleanser (if at all). When using a cleanser having a low pH, in such cases using toner is not needed. Toners containing certain active ingredients, such as salicylic acid, glycolic acid, niacinamide, lactic acid help in smoothening your skin, exfoliating your skin and fading age spots and acne marks.

Serums are those skin care products, which have active ingredient in a concentrated form; and because of this, only 3 to 4 drops of serum are sufficient which should be gently patted into the skin and not massaged or rubbed in anyway. One of the best and the most popular and effective anti-aging ingredient are retinoids (tazarotene, tretinoin, retinol), which are the derivatives of vitamin A.⁽⁷⁾ Vitamin C is another great anti-aging ingredient that helps in collagen production and also performs as an antioxidant to absorb environmental and biological oxidative stress, which is responsible for aging.^{(8, 9, 10)}

As a person ages, their skin function with regards to replenishing itself, gets slowed. There are dead skin cells present on the surface of the skin and as aging occurs, they do not get replaced by new cells as rapidly as before.⁽¹¹⁾ The resulting skin with the dead skin cells on its surface looks uneven and dull and there may also be formation of cracks on it too. Here is where exfoliants come to help you by gently sloughing off the dead skin cells from the surface of your skin.

There are two primary forms of exfoliants: chemical and physical. Physical exfoliants are better avoided, as they can contain harsh beads in them which can cause more sagging of the skin. A soft washcloth is better to use for gently scrubbing or exfoliating your skin.

Chemical exfoliants are those which with the help of certain active ingredients slowly dissolve the bonds between the top layers of the dead skin cells, so they can get detached. Chemical exfoliants can be used by people with any skin type. For mature skin, the exfoliants most suitable are AHAs or alpha-hydroxy acids, such as lactic acid and glycolic acid.⁽¹²⁾ These can be used in the form of serums, toners, face packs or as at-home peels.

As one ages, the natural oil produced (sebum) by the skin decreases. This makes the skin easily dry and prone to fine lines and wrinkles. One of the primary reasons for aging is loss of hydration in the skin, and this is why moisturizing your skin is important; especially as one grows older, one needs to keep your skin moisturized all the time! One of the best moisturizers to prevent or delay the aging process on your skin is one that has water-binding humectants, such as hyaluronic acid and glycerin.⁽¹³⁾ Vaseline is an occlusive which can also be used to moisturize your skin. However, make sure to apply all this on a clean skin to avoid bacteria and dirt from getting trapped underneath.

Damage to the skin is one of the main causes for aging or development of wrinkles. Mature skin is more fragile in nature and bears the effects of any injury for a long time.⁽¹⁵⁾ Studies have shown that when you sleep with your face pressed against a rough pillow case, then it causes sleep wrinkles, which can be permanent in nature.⁽¹⁶⁾ It is better to use pillow cases, bed sheets made of soft silk material, so it doesn’t stress your skin. Similarly, it is better to avoid strong tugging and rubbing motions when you are washing your face and applying your skin care products.

Sun damage is one of the primary causes for aging and no matter how many times people need to be told, they always tend to underestimate the importance of sunscreen when it comes to not only slowing the aging process, but in prevention of skin cancer. Sun protection by application of sunscreen is a fool-proof way to keep your skin as young as it can be. The sun is one of the major causes for visible signs of aging on the skin which is termed as photo-aging.⁽¹⁷⁾

Aging can occur from the harmful UV rays of the sun by:

• Development of uneven pigmented spots.
• It breaks down the collagen and causes problems in elastin resulting in thinner skin that becomes more prone to wrinkles.

So, for youthful skin, use sunscreen, not only when you are at the beach, but whenever you step outside in the sun with a minimum SPF of 30 to be applied every 3 to 4 hours if you remain outside in the sun. If you are living in a house where the sunlight comes in, then also you need to apply sunscreen, even if you are at home. The use of broad-spectrum sunscreen helps in improving the skin texture, fading of the age spots and smoothening out the wrinkles by at least 20% in as less as three months.⁽¹⁸⁾ The reason for this, according to the studies, is sunscreen gives the skin a much needed break from being constantly assaulted by the UV rays and allows its regenerative ingredients to work in repairing the skin.

Other than sunscreen, sun protection can also be achieved with wearing hats, long-sleeved shirts, sunglasses, pants instead of shorts when you are in the sun. It is also better to avoid going out in the middle of the day when the sun is at its most potent and you can avoid exposure to the carcinogenic and skin damaging ultraviolet rays. Along with the face, you should also take care of the skin on the rest of the body too. Some of the important body parts which should not be neglected in an anti aging routine are; hands, chest and neck. If you take care of only your face, then your hands will reveal your true age.

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