Looking and feeling your personal best means having a good sense of style and implementing a daily skincare and beauty routine. When you neglect your beauty maintenance and don’t practice good personal hygiene and grooming you can exaggerate flaws, age your skin, and make yourself look less attractive. Here are some bad beauty habits that could be messing with your appearance.
1. Harsh Exfoliation
Exfoliating your skin regularly is good practice to remove dead skin cells, and unclog pores to reveal a radiant new layer and to ensure your skincare products penetrate deep into the skin’s epidermis. However, using a harsh scrub or undergoing extreme microdermabrasion can damage the skin’s barrier, wound the skin, and trigger an inflammatory response, resulting in redness, sensitive skin, and premature aging.
2. Sleeping in Makeup
Not removing your makeup before bed can negatively impact the condition and appearance of your skin and speed up premature aging. Sleeping with makeup on restricts the skin’s ability to breathe and heal, triggers free radical damage (toxins) which accelerates aging and the debris clogs pores resulting in redness, irritation breakouts, and acne.
3. Not Cleansing Properly
It’s important to cleanse your skin morning and night and many beauty experts advocate for a double cleanse each time to remove makeup, dirt debris, and bacteria that builds up on your skin throughout the day. Without proper cleansing, skin loses its radiance, pores become clogged, excess oil is produced, dead skin cells form and your moisturizer and skincare products don’t penetrate effectively.
4. Lax Skincare Routine
To maintain the health and appearance of your skin and fight signs of aging you need a daily skincare regime that includes cleanser, serum, moisturizer, and regular gentle exfoliation. It’s best to use clean chemical-free products enriched with healing, hydrating, anti-aging ingredients like Vitamin C, peptides, niacinamide, and hyaluronic acid.
5. Neglecting Your Neck
Many women are diligent about an anti-aging skincare routine for their face but forget about their décolletage (the neck and chest area). “The skin on your neck is thinner, dryer, and has less collagen than our face so wrinkles are five times deeper, ” says skin expert Trinny Woodhall, founder of Trinny London which just released The Elevator, a potent antioxidant and plant-based gravity-defying serum for the neck that prevents sagging and strengthens the skin’s elasticity.
6. Overdoing Oils
Applying skincare oils to your skin can boost hydration and radiance but not all skins are suitable for oil. If you have oily or combination skin, applying oil can speed up oil production clogging pores and causing congestion and breakouts.
7. Stop Slugging
Slugging is a deeply moisturizing process that involves applying occlusive products like petroleum jelly to your skin following your usual skincare routine and leaving it on overnight. Again not all skins are suitable for slugging and the technique can overload the skin, causing blocked pores, congestion, and breakouts.
8. Forgetting SPF
Exposing your skin to the sun’s damaging UV rays damages the DNA in the skin cells which can trigger premature aging and even cause skin cancer. “My ultimate skincare tip is to use SPF 50 every day regardless of the weather as we get damaged even though a window, ” says Woodall who recommends using a moisturizer infused with SPF.
9. Heavy Matte Foundation
Applying a thick layer of foundation, especially a heavy matte formula is very drying on the skin and makes it look dull and cakey. Foundation also settles into the crevices of fine lines and wrinkles making them look more obvious and you less attractive. Ensure your base matches your skin tone as anything too light or dark looks unnatural and makes you look older.
10. No Lip Love
Our lips lose elasticity and become drier and thinner with age and can become dry and chaffed by environmental factors like sun damage and dry air. Neglecting your lips by not applying an irritant-free moisturizing lip balm speed up fine lines. It’s also important to use a hydrating lipstick that suits your skin tone as heavy matte shades can age the appearance of your skin and make your teeth look yellow.
11. Ignoring Bodycare
The skin is the largest organ in the body and like your face it needs a hydrating, healing skincare routine to prevent dryness, sagging, and aging. Dry body brush your skin before a shower to boost circulation and skin tone and always moisturize your body every day.
12. Bad Hair Days
Your hair thins and goes gray as a result of genetic aging but you can also shed faster and impact the health and luster of your locks by not treating them right. Overwashing your hair strips it of its natural oils, not washing it enough causes a build-up of debris, and using the wrong products for your hair type can also affect its condition. You should also never brush your hair when it’s wet as that is when strands are more fragile and prone to snapping.
13. Poor Grooming
Poor grooming and hygiene can make you look unkept and unattractive. Practice good dental hygiene, drink 2.7 liters of water a day, and eat a diet high in vitamins and antioxidants for your health and to fight aging. And don’t forget the details. Keep your hands, nails, and feet well moisturized to prevent dryness, age spots, and cracking, and have regular manicures and pedicures.
14. Overplucking Brows
Your eyebrows frame your face, open up the eye area, and can disguise a droopy brow. If you over-pluck your eyebrows they become thin and sparse, take a long time to brow back, and this can make you look older. Leave them alone and get a professional brow job to shape them or use a brow pen with fibers to help plump and define them.
15. Beware Bacteria
Makeup sponges and brushes are a breeding ground for bacteria. If you apply your foundation and makeup with the same sponge or brush every day without washing it, you are adding dirt, debris, and bacteria to your face which can cause congestion, breakouts and uneven skin texture. It’s better to apply with your fingers, ensuring you have washed them thoroughly before application.