10 Skin Care Myths

You hear all sorts of things when it comes to skincare. This person swears by this, that person swears by that and where are the facts? Here in this post I want to debunk some skin care myths and get to the bottom of some of these so called facts.

1.     Pores open and close. Pores don’t do that. Your pores don’t open or close. Warm water doesn’t open them. Cold water doesn’t close them. The only thing that can make a difference in the appearance of your pores is the skin care ingredient; Niacinamide. Niacinamide will firm up the walls of your pores making them appear smaller and less prominent. Make sure to always use chemical exfoliants a few times a week (in your night time routine) to clear out the dirt and oil buildup in your pores. That paired with niacinamide can really make a huge difference in the appearance of your pores. Examples of chemical exfoliants are; BHA, AHA, AH, Lactic Acid, Glycolic Acid, Mandelic Acid, Salicylic Acid. Any product containing any of these will be a chemical exfoliant. Always try to start with a low percentage if your skin is new to chemical exfoliants.

2.     The Sun is good for drying out acne. Nope, it doesn’t. Always make sure to wear your sunscreen.

3.     SPF under factor 30 will still protect your skin. Any sunscreen under factor 30 isn’t protection enough for you skin. You will get sunburned and your skin will age faster. You also open up yourself to get skin cancer later on in life.

4.     Rubbing ice cubes on your skin depuffs. Something cold can depuff your skin. But something like ice is too cold for your skin and it will irritate your skin more than it would help your skin.

5.     Cleansing your skin is one step. Well not always the best way to clean your face. Especially when you wear any type of make up you really want a 2 step kind of face wash system. Always go in with a oil/balm cleanser and finish it off with an gentle face wash cleanser. Please don’t use those face wipes, they are so so bad for the environment. An oil/balm cleanser is really great to break up any makeup of sunscreen and dirt on your face. The second cleansing step will wash all of that right off.

6.     You don’t need SPF in the winter. You always need SPF, even if you stay indoors most of your day. UV light is all around us even if we are behind glass or when the sun is behind the clouds. The UV light still gets to our skin and is just as damaging as in the summer. Overcast doesn’t mean there isn’t any UV light.

7.     Tooth paste is a good acne cure.  Please don’t. Anything that isn’t specifically formulated for your skin shouldn’t be ono your skin. It will likely irritate your skin more than do anything else.

8.     Derma-blading makes your hair on your face grow back thicker. Derma-blading is when you take a single blade razor and gently swipe if across your face to get rid of any peach fuzz hairs and it also works as an exfoliator. Because you scrape the top layer of your skin, any dead skin cells will likely be removed together with the hairs on your face. No they don’t grow back thicker, I swear. I was scared too, believe me. But I have been Derma-blading for a year now and my peach fuzz hairs don’ look any different than before. They are not thicker nor darker. It really makes a big difference in the appearance of your skin and it even helps with any product you put on afterwards. Because there are no hairs on your skin any serum or cream will be absorbed by the skin a lot faster and more efficiently. Your skin will look and feel really smooth and if you wear make up it will look even better because the surface area of your face is so smooth.

9.     People with dark skin don’t need sunscreen. Not true, anyone, no matter what color skin your have, needs to wear SPF to protect your skin.

10. Getting a tight feeling after washing your face is good. No this means that your skin is dehydrated and it could be because of some product you use. I used to use a certain cream for a very long time and I always felt like me skin was screaming for moisture after I would step out of the shower. After I started to learn more about skin care and found out I was using the wrong kind of product my skin no longer feels like its pulling. Make sure that the products your using don’t have a high percentage of denatured alcohol in them. This, in small amounts, is fine and helps as a delivering agent for other ingredients in the product. When it’s too high up in the ingredient list it means there is too much of it in there and it will end up drying out your skin. Some skin care brands do this because this way people will actually end up using more of that product because their skin is feeling dry and the will have to purchase the same cream faster.

I hope this opened your eyes to the truth and now you don’t need to wonder anymore. The more you learn about skin care the more you’ll know what to buy for your skin. Get to know your skin, feel what it needs, try things out and see what happens. And just remember; you don’t need to spend a million to look a million!