Three Steps to Healthy Skin

A daily skin-care regime to keep skin healthy and looking good

Caring for your skin is vital to keep it healthy and looking good. This is especially important for the face. A basic three-step, twice-daily skin-care regime using aromatherapy products is described below.

Three steps to healthy skin

• Cleansing is fundamental to good skin care. This is especially important if you live in a city, where airborne toxins readily adhere to your face, causing damage and premature aging. Cleansing should be done twice: once to remove surface grime and make-up, and once to cleanse the pores thoroughly. Facial skin is delicate, so soap is too harsh and drying to to use on your face. Face cleansers, based on a cream or a lotion, are the best way to cleanse your face thoroughly but gently. Cream cleansers are massaged into the face thoroughly, and then washed off with plain water.

• Skin toners are used after cleansing, to refresh the skin and tighten the pores. They also remove any traces of cleanser. However, many store-bought toners contain harsh ingredients that dry out the skin, leaving your face feeling uncomfortably tight. Using flower waters on a cotton wool pad as toners - with and without the addition of essential oils - is a natural and gentle way to hydrate and refresh your skin. Spray pure flower water on your face afterwards and allow it to dry naturally.

• Moisturizer is then applied to the cleansed, toned skin. In many ways moisturizers are the most important product in the whole skin-care range. They nourish, hydrate and protect the skin, preventing dehydration and dryness, and keep the skin supple, glowing and healthy. You need to have two moisturizers: a lighter, easily absorbed one to use in the morning, and a richer, nourishing night cream. The area around the eyes is particularly delicate, so you should only use the lighter moisturizer here.