7 Moisturizing Tips for Younger Looking Skin

1. Know When to Apply Moisturizer

Long, hot showers strip skin of its moisture and wash away its protective oils. Limiting your showers to no more than ten minutes and keeping the water as cool as you can stand can help limit the loss.

For younger looking skin, lock-in moisture by applying a cream or lotion within three minutes of exiting the bathtub or shower.

2. Pick a Moisturizer with Skin-Repairing Ingredients

Moisturizers can stop dryness and even tearing if your skin is thin and sensitive. Customize yours by checking these active ingredients:

Humectants: These include glycerin, sorbitol, urea, or proylene glycol. They attract water by pulling it up from deeper skin layers. They’re good choices for people with oily skin.

Occlusives: Petroleum jelly, lanolin, and beeswax are good examples. They prevent water from evaporating.

Barrier-repair compounds: These include ceramide, monolaurin, and linoleic acid. These ingredients often used in combination with others like cholesterol, help repair the skin’s barrier to prevent moisture loss and damage.

3. Don’t Equate Price with Quality

When one large consumer organization tested moisturizers, it found that both pricey and cheaper products work about the same. (Save even more of your hard-earned cash by making your own moisturizing face masks!)

4. Add Eye Cream

The thin, delicate skin beneath the eyes produces little of the protective oil that keeps skin soft and youthful looking. Specially formulated gels reduce puffiness and dark circles while they moisturize.

Look for a cream with peptimes-amino acids that may stimulate collagen production-if you’re bothered by wrinkling, sagging and dark circles. Try a cream containing caffeine (yes, the same ingredient that’s in coffee and tea) for under-eye puffiness – it may shrink blood vessels.

5. Adjust Your Moisturizer for the Season

Your skin needs more moisture in winter than in summer, so the same day you bring those sweaters down from the attic for the winter, buy a heavier moisturizer.

When you trade in the sweaters for shorts, switch to a lighter one.

6. Moisturize Before Bed

For softer, younger looking hands and feet, wait until right before going to bed to slather on moisturizing cream, then slip on thin-fabric socks and gloves.

It’s like a spa treatment, and you won’t get your sheets oily or rub off the cream.

7. Go Natural with Olive Oil

For younger looking skin, smooth a couple of drops of olive oil over your face, elbows, knees, and the backs of your arms every evening. The olive oil contains monounsaturated fat, which refreshes and hydrates skin without leaving a greasy residue.

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