Are You Making Yourself Look Older Without Even Knowing It?

You may not realize it, but your habits may make you look older than you actually are. As habits often go, they can be so well-entrenched in your daily routine that you are unknowingly ageing yourself inside and out.

Take a good look at your habits and see how many you need to change – or do without altogether – for a younger looking and more vibrant you.

Favoring coffee over water

In moderation, coffee has been linked to lower risk of heart attack and stroke, but because it’s a diuretic, coffee may make you dehydrated if you don’t compensate for all the water you lose through urination.

Dehydration does not only affect your energy level and mood, but also your skin. Dehydration will make your sagging skin and wrinkles more noticeable, and slow down the ability of your skin to repair itself.

Using heavy cosmetics to hide fine lines

They are called ‘concealers’ after all, but a heavy foundation and other cosmetics that hide blemishes will only accentuate your creases. Instead, consider minimizing – and preventing the appearance of more – wrinkles by treating the area with Botulinum Toxin (or more commonly known as Botox) injections that are FDA-approved as fine lines treatment for forehead vertical lines and lines around the eyes (crow’s feet).

Over time, Botox makes the muscle that creates those lines smaller, so muscles are less conditioned to wrinkle and crease, requiring fewer Botox injections to achieve the same level of results. Make sure a Botox specialist administers the treatment for natural-looking results without the frozen smile and perpetually surprised look.

Complementing the results of Botox are cell-communicating plant stem cells that stimulate human skin cells to act in a younger, healthier manner. This is how Fibroblast Growth Factor Serum from Dr Sylvia Skin Care works as an aging face treatment: Plant stem cells from apples, gardenia and gotu kola reactivate collagen and dermal activity, thus slowing down age-related degradation of skin cells. As a result, skin becomes firmer, more dense and less wrinkled in as short as 42 days.

Not using enough sunscreen

If there’s one other major contributor to wrinkles other than normal ageing, it’s the sun, which is why dermatologists advise using sunscreen as one of your best defense against aging skin. One ounce (enough to fill a shot glass) of sunscreen is recommended to cover the exposed areas of the body, but not many of us apply sunscreen as often or as much. As a result, we get sneaky sun damage from going outdoors on a cloudy day, or even driving the car. Over time, these small exposures accumulate and surprise us with age spots and wrinkles in places we never expected.

If you are looking for a non-invasive treatment option to reverse sun damage, use skin-repairing ingredients that have been clinically proven to minimize, if not completely undo, the effects of those hours under the sun. Vitamins C and E in Dr. Sylvia’s Vitamin C, B and E Serum with Ferulic Acid work synergistically to optimize each other’s antioxidant effects to thicken the skin and reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles due to sun damage. Vitamin C, in particular, has well-documented anti-aging and brightening effects against sun spots. Vitamin B3 also inhibits the transfer of pigment to the surface of the skin so areas of unwanted pigmentation gradually fade away.

The skin care specialist who developed these skin rejuvenation products is Dr. Sylvia Ramirez, Medical and Scientific Director of a highly trusted laser clinic in Scotts Road, Singapore that also offers sun spot removal using intense pulsed light (IPL) and light and heat energy (LHE) treatments.

Over-exfoliating

Exfoliating is crucial to good skincare because it strips the dead layer of the skin that acts as a barrier to moisture and skin care products. But overdoing it can actually strip your skin of important hydrating oils as well as exposing new skin cells to elements before they are ready. If damage has already been done, replenish moisture to your skin with Dr. Sylvia’s Advanced B5 Hydration with Resveratrol, a non-greasy super hydrating serum that leaves the skin firmer, smoother and more supple.

Sleeping late (or not getting enough sleep at all)

Many of our lifestyle choices make it very difficult to for us to get the needed amount of sleep that our body requires. For most adults, this is between 7 – 8 hours of restorative sleep a night. Anything shorter will likely leave you with breakouts, dark under eyes, eyebags and dull-looking skin.

Don’t conceal your dark under eyes with cosmetics. Bring out their glow with eye serums and eye creams that have been specifically formulated for the eye area, like the Elastifirm Eye Serum and Eye Cream from Dr Sylvia Skin Care. These eye products moisturize and protect the sensitive skin around the eye area from free radical damage, and make them firmer and more elastic so wrinkling is minimized. Dr Sylvia’s Dark Circles No More is a serum that targets the accumulation of melanin and heme around the eye area, and strengthens the capillaries to reactivate microcirculation and fade away that ‘panda look.’

Not getting enough rest can also aggravate the appearance of your tear troughs. A complementary treatment to eye serums and creams to correct hollow under eyes is the use of dermal fillers to plump up this area. Choose dermal fillers that not only volumize but also stimulate collagen production so you’ll require fewer fillers over time.

Tags: Face, Skin Care, aging skin, fine lines treatment, Botox specialist, skin rejuvenation, laser clinic in Scotts Road, dermal fillers