Our skin is a reflection of our habits. Here are a few easy things you can do daily for glowing, healthy skin.

beautiful skin is healthy skin text over photo of woman looking in mirror in red deer alberta

Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate.

Listen, I know you’ve been told this by literally everyone on the internet- but it’s true. Water is essential for your body’s natural healing process to take place, with all the environmental stressors you go through during the day- why not give our skin all the help it can get? Not to mention the fact that if you’re chronically dehydrated you might look like you have more fine lines than you really do. Aim to drink around 2L of water a day, and eat high water content foods like melons, apples and cucumber to help contribute to hydration. If water just tastes boring to you, try adding in some fruits and herbs to add flavour, plus you’ll get added health benefits, win-win. Here are a few of our favs to try!

Wash your face every night.

This is one of the most important things to remember if you want good skin. During sleep our bodies repair and recover from the day- this includes our skin. Sleeping without washing your face just lets sweat, oil and makeup sit and clog your pores. Plus think of all the bacteria that adds to your pillow! The problems just compound from there. If you get super sleepy and pass out before you get a chance to wash up, try washing your face as soon as you’re home from work. Exfoliate twice a week to keep skin fresh and use a hydrating serum nightly.

We will be posting a guide to building a skincare routine for beginners soon. If that’s something you are interested in stay tuned.

Sleep more

Speaking of nighttime routines. Get your beauty sleep! Lack of sleep leads to under-eye bags, puffy eyes and increases the appearance of fine lines. If you struggle to fall asleep at night limit your caffeine intake during the day. Avoid screens 1 hour before bed, blue light keep our brains active. Go on a walk after dinner, exercise is shown to help increase your quality of sleep. Do some gentle yoga, deep breathing can help relax you. Take a bath with lavender to decompress. Finally- if all else fails try a cup of sleepy time tea.

Sun protection

SPF is arguably the most important step in your skincare routine. We all know we need to lather up before a day at the beach, but the truth is we should wear it every single day. Yup, no matter the weather or time of year you need to apply SPF. But why? You may not feel it but UV rays are present everyday. UVB rays are the cause of sunburns and skin cancer. Many people think you only need to worry about them in summer. Although the effect of UVB rays in winter may be reduced the are still present and can still burn you. UVA rays are responsible for premature aging, and are present every single day.

UVA rays from the sun can damage the skin and make it more prone to the signs of aging. All that hard work you’re doing with retinol and the rest of your skincare routine? You’re basically undoing it all if you don’t wear an SPF during the day. SPF has been scientifically proven to reduce the early onset of fine lines, wrinkles, and dark spots, so why wouldn’t you want to add it to your routine?

Makeup and moisturizers with SPF in them are not enough to protect your skin. They may claim to contain SPF in them but the reality is they are watered down by the rest of the product. The amount you would need to apply to actually get the sun protection you need is comical. If you want coverage search for a tinted SPF. Alternatively search for a non peeling sunscreen or sunscreen primers to wear under makeup. ZO also has a powdered SPF to make reapplying easy.

Pro tips:

Apply sunscreen with a beauty blender to avoid streaks.
Wait for sunscreen to completely dry before applying makeup
Powdered SPF makes reapplying easy
UV stickers can tell you when to reapply

Commit to a routine

Much like exercise, if you want to see real results routine is the key to success. That means EVERY morning and night.

It’s obvious at this point how obsessed we are with ZO Skin Health. One more thing we love is how easy their beginner routine is: Cleanse, exfoliate, tone and hydrate. If you only do the basic routine you will notice big changes in your skin. This is because ZO has designed this routine to be the building blocks of any other skin treatment in your life.

A starting routine could look something like this.