The Top 5: Things you can do to improve your skin today

Ooh new Series time! I always love reading ‘Top 5/10’ lists so thought it would be fun to make my own. I will also transfer these to You Tube. Do leave any requests for more in the comments. 🙂

Kicking off: The Top 5 things you can do to improve your skin today.

  1. Cut out sugar. Whatever it takes. Go cold turkey. I promise you it’s SO much easier than you would think. The cravings go after a couple of days and then it’s much easier to ignore the chocolate bait at every till point in the land. Sugar takes a hammer and chisel to your collagen. Like removing scaffolding from the front of a house before the building work is finished. *face collapses*
  2. Stop smoking. Not just for your skin obviously, but please, please, for your health and the health of those around you, please try and stop lighting up. It destroys your collagen and deprives your skin of oxygen. Literally turns you grey. Seriously. Farrow and Ball make a gorgeous grey paint. It’s not so attractive on your face. Nasty, smelly, gross, can kill you. How’s that?
  3. Eat real food. Before you buy something think: does it come from a mother or the ground? Try not to eat anything where you have to ‘pierce the film’. (If you’ve just come in from a double shift and haven’t slept in 48 hours, do what you have to do, but when you wake up, do better.) 🙂 
  4. Get some sunshine. Before the SPF mafia send out the lynch mob, obviously I mean in a sensible fashion, but yes, get some sunshine on to your skin. You need the vitamin D, your skin will thank you for it. Note: I am not advocating slathering yourself in baby oil and lying out in the midday heat for 4 hours. You’re grown-assed people. You know what I mean – you know your own limitations. Go for a walk. The sun, when treated with respect, is your friend.
  5. Stop treating your evening skincare routine as something to just ‘get done’ and take a few minutes every single evening to check your skin for what it needs. This will make the biggest difference in the quickest time. Cleanse properly, acid tone and then look at your face. If in doubt, use a facial oil and massage it in – even for 1 minute. Everyone can take one minute to massage their face. If you’re that pressed for time do it while you sit on the toilet. Whatever it takes. Make knuckles, massage your cheeks deeply, smooth out over your eyebrows and under your eyes in a circle 4 or 5 times. Your skin will thank you for it. 

5.5. WATER. Eagle-eyed readers who know me well commented/tweeted almost as soon as I had hit ‘publish’ that I had left out water/hydration. My only excuse is that water is truly so second nature to me that it doesn’t even occur to me anymore to talk about it. Does that make sense? Anyway – yes, WATER – I drink around 3 litres a day of water – excluding tea. Tea and water are literally all I drink these days. So yes, get your water on!!!! And thank you Ladies for the kick. 😉