The awesome skin you’re in. That’s right. Your skin is awesome, especially when you take care of it. Some of you feel that because of your melanin, you have carte blanche to skip certain basics in skin care.
A skin care regimen to maintain the beauty of your awesome melanated skin is a good start. Some of you say you don’t put anything on your face. Others of you swear by Vaseline petroleum jelly. There are those of you that only use cold water. Then there are those of you that will experiment with every new product that comes on the market or recommended by a friend or relative. Where do you find balance?
Learning To Work With the Awesome Skin You’re In
How did you come here? How has your skin been most of your life? Dry, normal, oily or a combination? The key to caring from the skin you’re in is to work with what you have.
One of the problems and a major one I might add, is that some of my beautiful black sisters don’t like the beauty of their chocolate skin. Instead of embracing it, you seek out ways to lighten it up. Why? There’s a reason you were gifted with such beauty and your gorgeous complexion.
How will you maintain it? Cleanse, tone and moisturize. That’s a three step basic regimen that anyone can follow.
Let’s Deal More With Your Skin Types
Oily Skin
Oily skin is a blessing in disguise. While it drives you nuts, it is also keeping you looking youthful and actually makes your skin care regimen easier.
Keep your face clean and don’t allow excess oil to clog your pores. Depending on the level of oiliness, a cream based cleanser will be sufficient. If you’re excessively oily, a gel based cleanser will help remove the excess oil better.
Weekly facial masques using a natural black skin care product, can often prevent your pores from becoming clogged with oil and dead skin cells.
Another step for oily skin is to exfoliate at least once a week. A product with jojoba wax beads make for an excellent exfoliant. They’re gentle enough to slough away dead skin cells without scratching your skin.
Dry Skin
Your skin always feels tight. You have a tendency to chap in cold weather. Your skin will age much faster and show fine lines and wrinkling around your eyes and mouth.
The only way to deal with dry skin is to constantly moisturize it. Instead of using harsh detergent-based soaps for cleansing, you need to seek out a cream cleanser or a super- fatted beauty bar and not use soap at all.
Believe it or not dry skin will benefit from an exfoliation treatment. However, those little exfoliation pads are Not for you. They will dry your skin out even more so.
Combination Skin
Combination skin is dry in some spots and oily in others – mainly the T-zone. That’s the area across your forehead and down the bridge of your nose.
As you mature and go from oily skin to combination skin, you will have to slightly modify your moisturizing process. Pay much more attention to the dry areas. Use a rich, deep moisturizing product, that will keep your skin looking fresh and dewy.
Masque are great for combination skin. You will need two. One for the dry area and one for the oily area.
Nutrition and Its Role in Having Really Awesome Skin
When it comes to the category of food that best promotes healthy skin, fruit, vegetables, herbs and spices top the list!
While you don’t have to peel, cut, chop and cook them, raw fruits are simple to consume and each one is its own handy little package filled with vitamins and minerals and all sorts of good things.
Vegetables can nourish your skin from within and with less the amount of sugar found in fruit.
This will get you started with a basic regimen, inside and out, when it comes to caring for the skin you’re in.
I’d love your feedback. Tell me if you’d like to learn more and go deeper when it comes to nutrition and your skin.
That’s it for this week. As always …
Dedicated to Your Beauty,
Juliette Samuel,
Esthetician/Author/Publisher
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