I’ve always had pretty good skin. I’m lucky—I was born that way. Genes that you inherit from your parents do play a huge part in how your skin looks and how it ages. But the good news is that your DNA is not a life sentence. If you have problems with your skin—which most of us do—there are a lot of things you can do to improve it. The first step is taking responsibility. You’ll probably have to try different products and routines before you find what’s right for you. There is no perfect answer to anything. Even dermatologists sometimes have to try multiple solutions before they can fix a problem.
My secret to beautiful skin has a lot to do with what I put in my body. As a beauty expert and well-known health nut, I’m just as concerned about what I eat as the moisturizer I use (and believe me, I’m obsessed with moisturizer). Like any organ in your body, your skin will improve with good, clean, healthy foods. Luckily, even if you’re having a bad skin day, month, or year, there are loads of makeup products to improve its appearance. But we’ll get to that later. First, let’s get your skin the most beautiful it can be.
“Routine” is not usually a word I like. When it comes to skin, however, I love it. Establishing good habits every day (yes, every day) is the most important thing you can do. If you skip washing your face after sweaty sports or a long day of wearing makeup, your pores can quickly clog and cause pimples.
Pimples come from pores that are clogged with dead skin cells and have become infected. The basic idea behind clear skin is to keep your pores clean. This is more than just getting rid of dirt on your face. In fact, it’s hard to wash inside the pore with regular soap. You need to use a product that gets deep inside the pore.
To find a cleanser that will get rid of dead skin cells, look for any of these ingredients in the label: salicylic acid, benzoyl peroxide (this has antibacterial properties but also bleaches clothing and skin), retinoids, glycolic acid, or lactic acid. All of these are doctor approved and come in regular, over-the-counter face washes.
Your skin type will determine the cleanser formula you should use.
OILY: Use an oil-free cleansing gel that doesn’t dry out your skin.
NORMAL: Use a clear, foaming cleanser.
DRY: Use a non-foaming or creamy cleanser.
Don’t tug on your skin when you are washing it. Use warm water and lightly apply the cleanser. If you want a bit of added exfoliation, use a washcloth while rinsing off.
A lot of girls who play sports find they break out if they don’t instantly clean their face after working out. Bring a towel to your workout, soak it in water, and wipe off sweat from the face. Or you can look in the drugstore for face-cleansing pads that you can stash in your gym bag.
Toners are generally only useful if you have oily skin. But sometimes it feels so good to have that tingling sensation, which seems to scream clean. No matter what your skin type, don’t use a straight alcohol toner. The product should not just strip your skin of oil, it should also deliver healing or antibacterial products, such as witch hazel or chamomile, to your skin.
Moisturizer adds things to the skin to help it absorb and retain water after you’ve cleansed your face. That becomes more important as you get older, but it is necessary for anyone with dry skin. This may sound counterintuitive, but girls with oily skin need moisturizer, too. It’s essential for delivering other things to the skin, such as vitamins or SPF. Look for oil-free moisturizers with sunscreen for everyday use in the morning and evening.
No matter what kind of skin you have, make sure your moisturizer is noncomedogenic, which means it doesn’t block pores. If you have dry skin, use a moisturizer with SPF during the daytime and cream (which has less water) at night.
Showering daily with the right soap is important for good hygiene. Everyone wants to be clean and smell good, but you also want to avoid drying out your skin.
When showering, keep the water at a warm temperature. I know super-hot water feels great, but it also dries skin. When soaping up, concentrate on areas that emit odor, such as underarms. You don’t need to lather all over unless you are really dirty after camping or a massive workout.
If you get pimples on your back or chest, find a cleanser with salicylic acid that will exfoliate the pores. Anyone who wants smoother skin can use a grainy scrub product, loofah, or washcloth to physically exfoliate the skin and remove dead skin.
Moisturizers for the body can be lotions, creams, or balms. The most effective time to apply is right after you’ve stepped out of the shower, when your skin is still damp. Another option if your skin is on the dry side: keep a spray bottle with baby or body oil in the shower. After you turn off the water, pat your skin dry with a towel. Then spray yourself with the oil.
Save the richest moisturizers for your hands and feet, which take a lot of abuse. If your feet crack in the winter (a common problem), rub the soles of your feet lightly for thirty seconds with a pumice stone in the shower to remove dead skin. Follow that immediately with a specially formulated foot cream that you can find in the drugstore or chemist aisle. Then put on a pair of gym socks to wear to bed or at least for a couple of hours. This will seal in the moisturizer to heal dry feet. You don’t need to have super-dry feet to do this. Anyone who wants to pamper her feet once in a while should give it a try.
When it comes to finding cleansers, deodorants, and moisturizers, don’t just stick to your local drugstore or chemist or department store. I like to branch out to health food stores, where the products are all natural. I use a lot of organic and natural beauty supplies. Of course, the best all-natural experience comes from making your own beauty product. Make my favorite exfoliation scrub by combining kosher or rock salt or sugar and olive oil (just enough to make a paste out of the salt or sugar). Mix the ingredients together in a plastic container and scrub into the skin, then rinse. Be careful not to apply the salt scrub right after you’ve shaved, or it will burn.
Conquering the pimple problem is not easy, especially when you’re a teen. Acne is more common during the teenage years because of hormone changes that happen during that period. How you deal with a pimple depends on what kind it is, but in general you should try to avoid picking. The bacteria on your hands will get onto your face and just make the situation worse. Also, picking can lead to permanent scarring. Here’s what you should do.
IF YOU HAVE MOSTLY WHITEHEADS: Use an over-the-counter medication with antibacterial properties. Benzoyl peroxide is a good option, because it also dries out the pimple. Whiteheads are tough to leave alone. If you get one you can’t live with, take a washcloth and soak it with very hot water. Press the hot washcloth to the pimple gently and repeat until the pimple opens itself and drains.
IF YOU HAVE MOSTLY BLACKHEADS: Retinoids are great at exfoliating the pore, which is necessary for getting rid of blackheads or stopping them from occurring in the first place. If you have a lot of blackheads that aren’t shrinking with a product, you might need to get them extracted with a facial. Go to someone who is medically trained and not just a place offering a soothing experience.
IF YOU HAVE DEEP-SEATED PIMPLES: These are the painful, red bumps that have no head at all. If you get this kind of acne, you should see a dermatologist because this acne is hard to treat with over-the-counter medicine and can lead to scarring. To find a dermatologist, ask your family doctor or friends to give you a referral. I’m not a fan of finding a doctor online or in the phone book. When you call a dermatologist, ask if the doctor is board certified and always ask the cost of an office visit.
Makeup is a great ally when it comes to dealing with pimples, but you have to mask them the right way. Follow these simple steps to camouflage your zits.
STEP 1: Apply a little oil-free moisturizer on the pimple. This might seem counterintuitive, but you want to smooth out the zit’s rough surface before you disguise it.
STEP 2: After the skin has absorbed the moisturizer, use your finger or a small brush to cover the zit with foundation or blemish cover stick that matches your skin exactly. You can use a cream or stick foundation, but never use concealer lighter than your skin tone; concealer will only highlight your pimples.
STEP 3: Set the foundation in place by layering a sheer yellow-toned powder on top of it with a cotton ball. Wipe off the excess yellow powder—which helps blend the foundation into the skin tone—with a brush.
File this under the “What-Not-to-Do” section: once, when I was a teen, I took an empty cardboard box, lined it with silver foil, put baby oil and iodine all over my body, and laid out in it under the sun! That’s how intense I was about getting tan. If that sounds insane, well, it was. We didn’t know how bad the sun was for your skin (or that smoking was bad for you either).
Overexposure to the sun’s harmful UVA and UVB rays can cause not only premature wrinkles but also skin cancer later on in life. Regardless, lots of people are still into tanning. Look, I get it. Think about when you put shorts on that first day of summer—scary. A little bit of sun hides a lot of imperfections and gives a healthy glow. The key is to protect yourself because the damage you prevent as a teen will do more for your skin than any wrinkle cream later on.
SPF, which stands for sun protection factor, is seriously confusing. The sunscreen aisle at the drugstore or chemist has more numbers than math class. SPF tells you how much protection you are getting against UVB rays—those are the ones that cause burns and skin cancer. The number on the bottle tells you how much longer you can stay in the sun after using the sunscreen. Let’s say you normally burn after being in the sun for 20 minutes. If you wear an SPF of 10, then you multiply the SPF (10) by how long you can normally stay in the sun (20 minutes) to come up with 200 minutes (the new amount of time it’ll take until you burn). That’s in a perfect world, and we all know there’s no such thing.
The fairer you are, the higher the SPF number you’ll need. A bottle of sunscreen with SPF 60 is not double 30, not even close. Most people should wear SPF 15 on the face during the colder months. In the summer months, on the beach or outside playing sports, you should wear at least SPF 30.
SPF doesn’t mean anything if you don’t do a good job of applying it. You need a teaspoon of sunscreen for your face and about three tablespoons for your body. Try measuring that out to get an idea of the amount. It’ll seem like a lot at first.
Apply it 20 minutes before you go in the sun. The exception is any protection with titanium or zinc—those block light from your skin. Every product needs to be reapplied every two hours, or more if you are swimming or sweating.
Sunscreen isn’t just for your nose and shoulders. Make sure it gets into the hairline and all around the ears (there’s a lot of skin cancer there because people never think to put SPF on them). The tops of the feet really hurt if burned. And don’t forget the lips. There are loads of great lip balms with SPF protection in all sorts of shades.
Love that sun-kissed look? So do I. Luckily, you don’t have to damage your skin to get it. Bronzers and self-tanners can give you the same great glow. Here’s how to keep it real when it comes to a fake tan.
Powder is my favorite formula for bronzer because it’s pretty much mistake proof and goes on quickly. Take a short, flat, fluffy brush and dust the powder bronzer wherever you typically get sun—the forehead, cheeks, nose, chin, neck, and chest. The trick is to make sure it’s blended on the side. You can layer the application to get more color. Bronzers in cream formulas give a dewy look, while gels are very sheer and better for oily skin. Use your fingers to apply these formulas in the same way you would powder.
When it comes to choosing the shade, the most natural-looking bronzers have brown tones with some red. Stay away from anything that’s orange or frosted, or you will get that dreaded fake-tan look. Most products come in a range of shades from light to dark. Follow the way your skin tans in real life. So if you turn a dark brown in the sun, go with the dark shade. Don’t mess with your natural skin tone or you will just wind up looking orange.
These two little words conjure up scary images of Day-Glo skin. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Self-tanner can provide pretty color that lasts for a few days. It’s important to start with smooth skin, so make sure to exfoliate all over before hitting the bottle. Test a little bit of the product on the inside of your arm to check for any allergic reactions before putting it anywhere near your face. The secret to successful self-tanning is starting with a very thin layer. Wait until the color sets and you’ve checked it out to see if you want to do another layer. Don’t forget your ears and neck, but be careful to steer clear of your eyes. Once you’re done, wash your hands well. Make sure you wait until the self-tanner is completely absorbed before you get dressed. If you find any streaks or the shade is too dark, rub a gentle exfoliant over the darker patches and then moisturize the area of skin to remedy the problem. For a sun-kissed glow, add a little soft bronzer on the cheeks.
Because Katie has a porcelain complexion (I love beautiful pale skin), she needs a glow that isn’t bronzy. A typical bronzer would appear too dark or orange on her skin. Instead, a bronzer in pinkish and peachy tones that’s highlighted with gold flecks gives her skin a completely natural flush.
Aviva also has porcelain skin (I love beautiful pale skin). But she has decided to use a self-tanner because a little color gives her confi dence. It’s important that the selftanner looks natural and not too orange. The secret to her sun-kissed glow is to add a little bit of soft bronzer on the cheeks.
You know who you are. You get burned if someone even mentions the word “sun.” No matter how light the bronzer or self-tanner is, it just makes you look weird. But, you can still get a pretty glow. Skip self-tanners and opt for a soft pink or apricot blush to warm up your complexion. For a special glow, choose a blush with flecks of gold. On your body, always wear a high SPF when you go outside.
My favorite porcelain beauty, Vogue editor Sarah Brown. Only pinks for her.
There’s a sunscreen out there for everyone. There are powders, foundations, moisturizers, lip balms, and lotions, all with SPF. I’m big into protecting my skin because I’m in the sun all the time—whether watering my garden or watching my son’s twelve-hour lacrosse tournaments.
When I’m running around in the city, I apply a high-end moisturizer with SPF. I’m usually in a crazy rush, so I use a moisturizer with SPF that I make, which is also tinted. That way I get protection, moisturizer, and foundation—all in one. When I’m playing golf or doing any kind of outdoor activity, I trust heavy-duty sunscreens from Bullfrog or Coppertone and always wear a baseball hat.
Getting rid of unwanted hair is a lifelong battle. Luckily, there are a lot of weapons you can add to your arsenal.
Shaving is one of the simplest, cheapest, and least painful methods of temporary hair removal. It also requires the most maintenance—often daily shaving. For the closest shave, soften hair before you start by using soap rather than shaving cream (a dollop of hair conditioner works great in a pinch). Replace blades frequently, and shave at the end of your shower, when your pores are opened up.
Waxing lasts longer than shaving but costs a lot more when you get it done professionally. You save money with at-home waxing kits, but you’ll need to be tough when it comes to ripping the wax off your own body with strips of cloth or paper. Warning: ingrown hairs are common when you wax your bikini line (they can also occur when you shave that sensitive area). Don’t pick at the red bumps; this will only make them worse. Treat ingrowns by exfoliating the area with a sudsy loofah or using a product called Tend Skin after you get out of the shower. If the problem is really bad, a doctor can prescribe a topical cortisone gel.
Tweezing is great for grooming eyebrows or getting rid of stray hairs that pop up every now and again on your face. Wide-grip slanted tweezers are the easiest to use. Reduce the pain of plucking by doing it right after you get out of the shower. Pluck the hair as close as you can to the root and pluck it in the direction of the growth so you don’t just break off the hair at the surface.
Electrolysis permanently gets rid of hair by sending electricity to the hair follicle, basically killing it. This method is pretty pricey and also painful—a metal needle is inserted into the skin. It also takes a long time because each follicle needs to be zapped.
Laser hair removal is similar to electrolysis, but instead of electricity, it uses an invisible beam of light to penetrate and destroy the hair follicle. The laser beam finds the follicle by first identifying the melanin, or the dark color of the hair. That’s why light-skinned people with dark hair have the best results. Laser hair removal isn’t great for people with dark skin or those with light skin and light hair since the laser will not be able to target the follicle. It doesn’t hurt, but like electrolysis, it’s an expensive option.
