Bobbi Brown Makeup Manual: For Everyone from Beginner to Pro (6 page)

Chapter 3

SKIN

Beauty starts with smooth, healthy, glowing skin.

Anyone can learn to become a skincare expert by:

Understanding how
lifestyle
impacts the condition of the skin,

Knowing
how skin works,

Learning the basics
of skincare, including

How to
analyze
skin conditions,

How to
identify
skin types,

How to properly
care for skin,

Knowing skincare
ingredients
and how they work in order to select and use the appropriate products.

Lifestyle

Beautiful skin begins with a healthy lifestyle. While heredity may determine how your skin looks, behaves, and ages, you can improve it by taking good care of yourself. Skincare basics include eating the right foods, drinking plenty of water, exercising, getting enough sleep, protecting your skin from the sun, not smoking, and limiting your intake of both caffeine and alcohol.

Nutrition

The health of your skin begins with good nutrition. New, living cells continually replace the dead cells on the surface of the skin. The growth of new cells is dependent on vitamins, minerals, and hydration.

Eat at least five servings of fresh fruits and vegetables each day. Remember to look for the “ACE” vitamins: A to help prevent aging, C to promote clarity, and E to protect against the environment. Vitamins A and C are most important for healthy skin and are plentiful in fruits and vegetables. Vitamin A is found in carrots, spinach, watercress, broccoli, sweet potatoes, and melons. Peppers, strawberries, oranges, grapefruit, and leafy greens all contain vitamin C. Also include whole-grain foods, nuts, dairy, fish, and beans in your diet. They are all foods rich in zinc, which promotes healing and reduces inflammation in the body.

Biotin is another nutrient needed for healthy skin, hair, and nails. It is sometimes identified as vitamin H and is part of the vitamin B complex. Foods such as peanut butter, whole grains, eggs, and liver contain biotin and can help prevent dermatitis and hair loss.

There are many advantages to taking your vitamins in food rather than in pill form. When you eat, you are never getting single, isolated nutrients. For instance, a bowl of leafy greens provides an abundance of several important vitamins, such as B, K, and E, as well as fiber and antioxidants. The fresh fruits, vegetables, and whole grains that provide fiber also naturally deliver vitamins and minerals and are low in calories. It is virtually impossible to consume dangerous levels of any vitamins or minerals through diet alone.

Your diet has a direct impact on not only your overall health and how you feel but also on how you look. Certain nutrients in particular are important for maintaining healthy skin, hair, and nails. Think of them as your beauty vitamins.

VITAMIN A

Antioxidant essential for the growth and renewal of new skin cells. Topically applied, may boost collagen production and promote skin cell turnover.

Egg yolks, dairy

VITAMIN B

Increases fatty acids in the skin, promoting exfoliation and firmness.

Yeast, eggs, liver, vegetables

VITAMIN C

Building block of collagen, the protein that gives skin its structure, tone, and elasticity.

Citrus fruits, broccoli, peppers, berries, tomatoes

VITAMIN D

Essential for the development of skin cells.

Egg yolks, salmon, fortified milk, and other dairy products

VITAMIN E

Antioxidant that helps build and maintain healthy skin tissue.

Wheat germ, leafy greens, nuts, whole grains

FAT

Fat is also an important nutrient for the skin and the health of the whole body. It is necessary for supple skin and soft, shiny hair.

Incorporate unsaturated fats, such as the monounsaturated fats found in olive oil and avocado, with omega-3 fats, found in fatty fish and some seeds, into your daily diet.

Keep these healthy foods on hand for satisfying between-meal snacking:

Almonds

Plain, low-fat yogurt

String cheese

Chocolate protein powder

Protein bars

Low-fat ricotta cheese with a dash of vanilla

Hard-boiled eggs

Water with a bit of unsweetened cranberry extract or lemon juice

Our bodies are 80 percent water. Without sufficient hydration, the skin cells become dry and flaky. To keep the body, including the skin, hydrated, eat foods with a high water content, such as fruits, vegetables, and clear soups, and drink at least eight glasses of water a day. It is important to limit your intake of coffee and other drinks containing caffeine, as they are diuretics that remove water from the body and block the absorption of vitamins and minerals.

Exercise

Exercise is a skincare essential. Raising the heart rate through vigorous exercise increases blood flow, brings more oxygen to the skin, and cleanses impurities from the body through sweat. Just twenty to thirty minutes of exercise a day is enough to help boost your immune system, reduce stress, lower blood pressure, strengthen your heart, build stronger bones, increase your energy level, and improve your mood. Ideally, you want to do a mix of aerobic exercise and strength training. Aerobic exercise helps get the blood flowing, so take a walk, run, or swim regularly. With regular exercise, you build lean muscle mass and raise your metabolism. Since the metabolism slows with age, exercise is fundamental to weight management.

Sleep

Sleep is the time when the body’s cells have a chance to repair and regenerate. Sleep deprivation stresses all of the body’s systems, including the skin, and can result in headaches, irritability, lack of energy, or the inability to focus. The skin becomes less elastic and prone to outbreaks of acne or rashes.

Tip

Smile, be positive, breathe, and take a vacation once in a while.

Sun

Excess sun exposure is skin’s number-one enemy. It causes premature aging, including wrinkles, loss of elasticity, and hyperpigmentation. Worse, overexposure often causes deadly forms of skin cancer. Wear a broad-spectrum sunscreen with a sun protection factor (SPF) of at least 15 in the winter and 30 in the summer.