Tuesday’s Tip: Be Gentle, Stop Pulling Your Face!

This may sound silly; but it comes directly from a dermatologist:if you don’t scrunch your forehead, you will not get wrinkles there and thus will not need Botox. Seriously, a derm told me that.

Additionally, please stop pulling your face, especially around your eyes. If you need a smooth place to deposit your eyeliner, please tilt your head back and raise your eyebrows. Otherwise you are just asking for surgery. Also? Sunscreen. Kiehl’s Oil-free 25 SPF under your makeup.

And if you’re doing a lot of at-home microdermabrasion or using alpha- or beta-hydroxies or fruit acids at all either stop (please stop!) or apply sunscreen before you leave the house and then again at lunchtime when you leave the office or house again. I know one woman who just used A-Ha’s on her skin and wore neither sunscreen nor a hat when she went outside – she will be getting something gouged out of her nose in a few years, guaranteed.

I wonder why the skin cancer rates are up: is it because we have no ozone and the sun is beating down hotter on us or is it that combined with the fact that we are stripping our skin unnecessarily because we think there is so much wrong with it? Please, people: your skin is like a fine-mesh sweater that needs delicate handling. Treat it nicely, wash and moisturize it daily, give it a special treat once in a while like a mask or gentle exfoliation and feed it proper nutrients.

Can someone help me down from this soap box? Thanks.