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Beauty and Skin Care

Americans spend millions on body products every day, but are they buying the right ones. How much do you really know about what your skin needs, what type of skin you have, what kind of soaps and lotions are the best for your skin? Here's some advice that will help you maintain naturally healthy skin and overall beauty:

1. Soapless soap, lotions and body cleansers are better for your skin because most soaps actually strip the moisture out of your skin. Soapless soaps have a combination of water and oils. So actually, they remove the dirt and debris and actually replenish the moisture at the same time without drying the skin out. Look for products that specifically say "soap free cleanser," "soapless cleanser." They have a variety of compounds that fit into the general category. Cetyl Alcohol is one of them.

2. Moisturize after washing your skin whether you use a traditional soap or a cleanser. When the water evaporates, the skin will dry out. So the best time to moisturize is right after bathing. If you don't want to moisturize heavily, then you don't want to use a lotion. If you want a heavy moisturizer, then you would likely use a cream. There are creams that tend to be more greasy or less greasy. The more moisture that one's skin needs, the heavier moisturizer or more oily moisturizer one should use.

3. Know your skin type. Most people will often believe one of two things: "I have terribly oily skin," or "I have terribly dry skin." In most cases, it's somewhere in between. Independent of whether you have oily skin or dry skin, the general guidelines of washing your face once a day apply.

* Dry Skin: For most dry skin is visible. Skin will be flaky and dry, and it can be irritated easily. Moisturizer can remedy that.
* Oily Skin: This skin type is difficult to diagnose accurately. But do note that frequent washing will not clear up oily skin - it will only irritate it.

4. Mild Exfoliation. Use a mild abrasive soap or cream. Do not do it more than once a week or once every couple of weeks. The idea that if you sand your skin down it's going to get smoother and fresher doesn't always apply.

5. Acne Treatment. Even for individuals with acne, over-cleaning, over-washing and scrubbing is not helpful. It's just going to irritate the acne lesions that are there. Although there is an attempt to clean the oil off of the face, it really is not beneficial and can set you back in terms of causing more inflammation. Some people who have acne actually have acne with dry skin. So drying that skin out further is obviously going to set them back even further.

The desire to pick at acne blemishes is second only to the desire to scratch in the rather human experience. There is one message that I think can convince teenagers and other acne prone individuals not to pick. That is that probably the number one cause of acne scarring can be picking and manipulation. Getting the acne under good medical control is the best solution.

6. Use Sunblock. Use a compound with a sun protection factor of at least 15. That gives you about 94% to 96% protection against the ultraviolet B or burning rays of the sun. It's important to remember that the ultraviolet A rays that come down from the sun as well have an effect on skin. They are actually the tanning and aging rays that penetrate into the dermis and shatter the elastic tissue. So you want to look for a sunscreen that is broad spectrum as well.