Tips for Aging Gracefully

You want your face to look its best and achieving great-looking skin is the first step toward that goal. With a little time and effort, you can improve the condition of your skin with a quick and easy-to-follow natural skin care routine.

Contrary to popular belief, skin care is simple. Cultivating the habit of taking care of your skin is the real challenge. When you consider the immediate and long-term benefits of a consistent, daily skin care program - a healthy, radiant complexion that retains its youthful appearance for years to come - you'll realize it's worth the investment.    

Make skin care a priority - an integral part of your life like showering, brushing your teeth and eating. Some steps such as cleansing, toning and moisturizing are repeated twice daily. Perform others - scrubbing, misting and eye treatments - as you feel necessary. Steaming and applying masks one or twice a week will enhance your regular skin care routine by deep-cleansing and nourishing your skin.      

Here are 7 steps to simple skin care. Although this list looks long at first, you'll breeze through the steps to healthy skin as you become used to the routine.   

• CLEANSING - As environmental pollution increases, thorough cleansing becomes crucial for maintaining good skin. Use a cleanser formulated for your skin type morning and evening. Creamy cleansers moisturize as they clean dry skin, while foaming cleansers remove excess oil from oily skin.     Cleanse in the morning to remove cellular wastes your skin generated as it repaired itself during your sleep. Nightly cleansing removes the buildup of oils, bacteria, makeup and other residues that accumulate on your face during the day. Leaving makeup or environmental pollutants on your skin overnight can lead to premature aging and blemishes. Cleansing is one of the most important steps in your routine! 
• EXFOLIATION - Scrubs gently exfoliate dead skin cells responsible for dry skin, wrinkling, blemishes and blackheads. They also improve circulation to your face. Daily exfoliation can accelerate the turnover of skin cells by about 30 percent, giving your skin a healthy glow and a more youthful appearance. Avoid harsh or abrasive scrubs that can scratch your skin.   
• TONER - Toner removes residues left behind by your cleanser, facial scrub or tap water, and prepare your skin for better absorption of your moisturizer. They're usually made from floral or herbal waters. Avoid toners or astringents with alcohol, which can dry and irritate your skin. To use, moisten a cotton pad with your toner and glide over your face and neck. Repeat until no traces of dirt remain.
• MOISTURIZER - Every skin type needs a pH moisturizer to protect it from the effects of the weather and the environment. Moisturizers create a barrier between your skin and external factors such as makeup, bacteria and the environment. By plumping up your surface skin cells and preventing moisture loss, moisturizers give our skin a smoother, softer, less wrinkled appearance. With the antioxidants on the market now, it's easy to find one for every type of skin. 
• EYE CREAM - Eye creams are different then facial moisturizers; they're a different formulation because of the thinner tissue around the eye area. The delicate tissue around our eyes lacks oil glands and must receive nourishment from a cream. This area is often the first place to show signs of aging. By regularly using an eye cream, you can prevent premature lines, wrinkle and crow's feet.  
• MISTING YOUR SKIN - Your skin constantly loses moisture to the environment because of air-conditioning, heating and dry atmosphere. Misting your face with a prepared mist will replenish your skin cells with much-needed moisture. Floral waters or herbal blends are great for adding additional moisture to your skin. Spray as often as you like.
• MASKS - Cleansing and hydrating masks should be done once or twice a week for glowing skin. Increased hydration and nourishment impart a healthy, vibrant glow and a firmer, more youthful appearance to the skin. Our skin becomes dehydrated and lacks vibrancy due to stress, lack of sleep or poor diet. A good mask can help with these problems.

Veronica Barton-Schwartz, a longtime Malibu resident, is the owner and an esthetician at . She has been in the health and beauty business for more than three decades, and opened her first Malibu center in 1981. Barton-Schwartz can be reached at veronica@veronicaskincare.com.