Body Basic Skin Care

A major body skin care mistake is ignoring your skin from the neck down. Women commonly focus on their face - especially as they age - because it's the first area of the skin to show any signs of aging. However the arms, legs, elbows, knees and feet can also develop unattractive rough patches, a dull, sallow color and a scaly alligator-like texture.

The best defense against unattractive skin is moisture. This can be supplied in the shower or bath with a foaming body wash or hydrating bubble bath. Remember that your skin also requires re-hydration after your shower with a rich body lotion or a skin firming cream. Body creams and lotions are best applied fresh out of the shower or bath. The steam from the shower leaves the skin's pores open to absorbing all of the moisture-rich benefits of your body cream or body lotion. Healthy skin, all over your body, is less prone to dryness, itchiness, red blotches, painful cracks and rashes, acne and other irritations.

Follow these tips and you will soon have healthy and gleamy skin on your body:
1. Do not smoke. Aside from slowly killing yourself it's also incredibly bad for your skin. Smoking impedes blood flow and, considering that your skin is your bodies largest organ and needs a ton of blood flow, smoking can be the worst thing you'll ever do for your skin. So, for your skins sake, put that cigarette down.

2. Wear sunscreen. The sun dries things out and your skin is no exception. As resilient as your skin is you still need to protect it from the big flaming ball in the sky. SPF 15 or 20 should be more than sufficient for most situations, and don't forget to re-apply!

3. Feed yourself. Eating well is one of the best ways to maintain healthy skin. Stay hydrated and eat healthy, nutritious meals. Fatty, greasy foods will only pass those attributes on to your skin in some form or another.

4. Wash yourself every day. Dirty stuff collects on your skin during the day and while you are asleep. Just think of it for a moment- all the pollution, dirt, dust, grime, sweat... it all just sits there until you take a shower and remove it. Make sure that you wash yourself with a decent soap that doesn't dry your skin out. You don't need to scrub until your skin is raw, but make sure that you cover all of the important areas.

5. Get lots of sleep. Sleeping well will better your overall health, but it also affects your skin specifically. This gives your skin time to rehydrate and “freshen up”.

6. Use gentle body washes. If you're dealing with body acne problem, you might want to take a look for gentle body washes that will assist in clearing blemishes on your back, arms, as well as your chest. Body washes, in addition to all natural skin care products, will have your skin appearing refreshed in a very short period of time and you will not even need to take a trip to the spa.

7. Exfoliate body skin. An essential part of body skin care is using the method of exfoliation. Just as you would use an exfoliating product or a mask once or twice a week, you have to remove dead skin cells from your body as well.

8. And lastly, quit slathering yourself with a ton of moisturizer. Yes, moisturizing is a good thing and you should do it, but that doesn't mean that your body needs to be covered in a thin layer of moisturizer 24 hours a day. Make sure that you are using a good quality moisturizer that is alcohol free. You only need to moisturize once a day, so investing in a decent one shouldn't set you back too much.

Make the above body skin care tips a part of your daily skin care regime to achieve more radiant, smooth, and youthful skin.