Summer is a great time to get outside and rejuvenate your mind and body. But for your skin, summer means extra exposure to the sun, heat and sweat. This summer, give your skin a little TLC with these tips for healthy, refreshed skin.

It’s never too early in the year to think about applying sunscreen. The sun’s UV rays can damage your skin all year long. Even on a cloudy day, your skin can be exposed to up to 40 percent of the sun’s UV rays [source: Skin Cancer Foundation]. Be sure to take the necessary precautions to keep your skin safe.

Choose a sunscreen with a sun protection factor (SPF) rating of at least 15 [source: Mann]. For those with lighter, fair skin, try a sunscreen with a rating of SPF 30. Apply your sunscreen 20 to 30 minutes before going outside. To be the most effective, sunscreen needs time to absorb into your skin.

Don’t be frugal — apply sunscreen liberally and reapply sunscreen every two hours or after getting out of the water, since towel drying strips away sunscreen [source: Mayo Clinic]. You’ll also want to reapply lotion after exercising, as sweat can water down sunscreen, making it less effective.

Whether you have dry skin, oily skin or normal skin, don’t forget to moisturize it. Simple daily activities such as perspiring, shaving or washing your face can disrupt the skin’s natural oil and moisture level. To counteract any skin stress your daily routine causes, apply a moisturizer appropriate for your skin type to keep things soft and supple.

Now that you have added sunscreen and moisturizer to your shopping list,check tomorrow to discover how to deal with those oily patches of skin that leave you feeling greasy.

Some interesting tips and facts you should know

Your skin is more than just your face, although that’s what most people pay the most attention to. Your skin is actually the largest organ in your body and weighs probably more than you think. Below are some interesting facts and tips that may surprise you about your skin.

To get more skin care tips and facts, click on www.dermatologycare.ca.

Skin Care Tips and Facts:

• Your skin is your body’s largest organ! The skin of the average woman weighs three kilograms, while that of the average man weighs five kilograms.
• What’s the secret to great skin? Not surprisingly, the state of our skin is affected by genes, nutrition, general health, emotional well-being and exercise. How you care for your skin also plays an important role in ensuring you look your best.
• You’ve probably heard that skin is made up of skin cells. But did you know that you have approximately 19 million skin cells on every square inch of skin!
• Eat your veggies! Eating a wide range of vegetables – particularly those high in vitamins C and E (such as spinach, carrots, red bell peppers and tomatoes) – will ensure that your diet is rich in antioxidants, compounds that are believed to play an important role in maintaining the health of both your body and your skin.
• We’re all thin-skinned, in certain areas! The thickness of our skin varies considerably, depending on its location and the role it plays: it’s thinnest on our eyelids and thickest on the palms of our hands and soles of our feet.
• Not sure of your skin type? Try this simple test. About 15 minutes after washing your face and patting it dry, press lens-cleaning paper on different parts of your face. In those areas where you produce a lot of oil, the paper will stick or pick up oil. If it doesn’t stick anywhere, you have dry skin. If it only sticks on your forehead, nose and chin, you have normal or combination skin. If it sticks everywhere, you have oily skin.
• Need to look after your skin? A dermatologist is a medical doctor who specializes in treating diseases and disorders of the skin. Your family physician may refer you to a dermatologist, who can help you select the treatment options that are best for your particular condition.

For more tips on healthy and beautiful skin, visit www.dermatologycare.ca/signup/signup.html

Taken from skincareguide.com

Fine lines and wrinkles tend to occur on virtually every male and female at a certain age. Certain physical changes occur within the body that cause wrinkles to form. A majority of fine lines and wrinkles occur as a result of collagen depleting under the skin’s surface. Fortunately, those concerned with removing the physical signs of aging will get to choose from a number of treatments to rejuvenate their skin; those with even the driest skin have multiple options.

Dry Skin and Rejuvenation Treatments

Patients with dry skin who receive skin rejuvenation treatments generally notice similar results when compared to patients with normal to oily skin. Many treatments serve each patient in a similar matter with little to no variance on a procedural basis. Though, some product developers create products that match each individual’s specific skin condition in order to provide the best possible rejuvenation results.

Treatment Options

Patients with dry skin who choose to reverse the signs of physical skin aging will select one or multiple treatments. Treatment types range from the simplest creams and lotions to highly advanced laser based procedures.

Moisturizers and creams tend to fluctuate in results due to skin texture and tone. Those with dry skin will often require an extended amount of treatment in order to notice desirable results. Even some more advanced treatments, such as chemical peels, provide less desirable results to those with severely dry skin.

The most advanced skin rejuvenation procedures tend to provide optimal results to those with dry skin as well. Fractional resurfacing will provide patients with a hypoallergenic, precise rejuvenation choice.

Dermal fillers also work well on patients with dry skin. These solutions work beneath the skin’s surface so that skin texture has no effect on the procedural results.

Everyone has pores on their face, but some have larger pores than others. Thus, some women are more worried about the size of their facial pores than other women. If you’d love to minimize the appearance of the pores on your face, there are definitely steps you can take to help accomplish this task. Before you call your dermatologist or pay for expensive skin care pore reducing products, wait. You may be able to help you complexion yourself with over the counter products. Using basic skin care tips and routines, you can minimize the appearance of large pores in only a short time.

Skin Care Routine Helps Large Pores

If you’re not already diligently using a skin care regime for anti-aging or for the prevention of acne you should immediately start using one. While you can choose skin care products from one of a multitude of beauty product lines, even less expensive brands like Neutrogena offer great products for cleansing the facial skin. But, remember when you do choose various products to be sure you stick with the same brand for all of the cleansing products and to be sure you choose products made specifically for your skin type. The importance of staying within the same brand is to ensure your skin is getting exactly what it needs. If you mix brands each product might contain something slightly different than another brand’s product of similar type.

Start by using a good quality cleanser on your face. Choose one that’s gentle enough to use on a daily basis. You should also ensure the cleanser has glycolic acid and salicylic acid so you’ll automatically get gentle exfoliation to help with clogged pores. When you exfoliate gently (not scrub) you can start the technique and process needed to minimize the pores.

Next, be sure to use a toner. Toners can help to clean the deep pore areas of oily skin and shrink pimple, whitehead or blackhead problems. They temporarily will reduce the look of pores and are an essential part of the overall system of reducing the size of pores for extended periods of time. Toners should be applied to the face after cleansing with a cotton ball. Before any other product is applied, they should be completely dried.

Before applying foundation or other makeup, it’s important to use a moisturizer. Some cosmetic moisturizers (such as Neutrogena’s Pore Refining Cream) contain Retinol and Alpha-Hydroxy Acid which can help to bring new layers of skin growth to the skin’s surface quickly which will help unclog pores and minimize their size.

Other Products To Use To Make Pores Look Smaller

Even though your skin care routine is essential to help you get long term results and smaller pores, in the short term you can use other products to help you get the look you desire. Many cosmetic companies now sell makeup primers. These primers are meant to be applied after the moisturizer but before any other makeup or foundation. They help fill in the pores and reduce the amount of makeup that might usually cake into the areas, making the pores look larger. This type of product only masks the problem of large pores but it can be a great product to use while you’re waiting for your skin care cleansing efforts to kick in.

Pimples or acnes badly affect the beauty and sometimes they even leave behind marks, effecting skin badly. So, question arises that how pimples or acnes could be prevented. Following are some of the tips to enjoy beauty without pimples:

1. Pimples usually appear on oily skin, therefore, make sure that you wash your face at least 2 to 3 times in a day.

2. After consulting dermatologist, apply only medicated creams, which may most likely include benzoyl peroxide.

3. Make sure that you drink at least, 6 to 8 glasses of water daily.

4. Use a mud mask once a week to clean out pores.

5. Avoid too much make-up.

6. Don’t rub off pimples or acnes as it may leave behind bad scars.

7. Do physical workouts, as they help improving blood circulation through the whole body and through sweating clean out the pores too.

taken from the Health Blog by Anupam Agnihotri | Apr 4 2007