Knowing what you should and shouldn’t use on your skin can be confusing. Here, Mario Riano, Skin Specialist at The Private Clinic of Harley Street shares her top tips on what you should be avoiding and why….
Hot showers
Soap and water
It is really important to always use a cleanser to remove the bacteria, dirt and grime from your skin. This is because soap has lots of irritating ingredients and as a result can create more unwanted blackheads!
Smoking
Smoking has a detrimental effect in the skin because it causes the skin to dehydrate. The carbon monoxide in the cigarette smoke displaces the oxygen to the skin, this reduces the blood flow causing the skin to look discoloured, dull and lifeless. This also effects the aging process by depleting the collagen cells in your skin resulting in fine lines and wrinkles.
Aggressive face scrubs
People think that exfoliating with an aggressive face scrub is good for the skin and it will remove more dead skin than a normal face scrub, in fact it’s the opposite. Aggressive face scrubs can damage the skin cells by ripping them, causing more damage than good. As well as this, they can also leave the skin prone to break out and open to infection.
Hot showers
Really hot showers should be avoided as they can remove the essential moisture and oils in the skin, leaving the skin red, flaky and itchy.
Tanning Oil
Using tanning oil will damage the skin and cause premature ageing, sun spots, pigmentation and skin cancer as it will not adequately protect your skin from harmful UVA and UVB rays. I would recommend always wearing SPF50 sun cream when in the sun.
High street acne products
In my experience, people suffering with with acne try everything to try and cure it. As a result, they might use five differenct products that strip the skin as they think this will dry out the acne. In fact, this will only make the acne worse! If you are worried about your acne, it is important to always consult a skin specialist or dermatologist and use the products recommended by them.