by Steven Gomez

Created on: January 17, 2011   Last Updated: January 18, 2011

A bad complexion may stick with you no matter how many remedies you've tried.  But improving your complexion may require much less facial therapy than you think: The key to healthier skin and a better complexion lies in how you take care of yourself.  Follow these four tips:

1.  Wash your face in the shower or bath.  Multi-tasking the cleansing of your face with cleansing the rest of your face helps reinforce the washing of your face by keeping your now-clean face in a moist and humid environment for several more minutes than if you had just washed your face in the sink.  Make sure you wash your face after having washed your hair, so that the shampoo and conditioner chemicals, which can contribute to damaging your complexion should they settle on your face, can be washed from your face.

2.  Don't focus on moisturizing the surface of your face, but moisturizing your body from within.  Drink at least 8 cups of water per day, and try to eat more fresh, hydrated foods like fruit and vegetables, even rice (which is about 60% water once cooked) while minimizing your intake of processed and pasteurized food.  You are what you eat, and by eating healthier, your skin will get healthier as well.

3.  Minimize facial treatments.  Contrary to popular belief, the more facials and clean-up procedures you have, the more damage you can actually do to your face.  Sure, having one every 2-3 months can help your skin.  But do them more often than that and you can actually disturb the skin, which can damage your complexion.

4.  Get some rest.  Short sleep can cause all sort of facial maladies regardless of your natural complexion, issues such as baggy eyes and wrinkle development.  So it's no wonder that it can also damage your complexion.  Your skin does most of its repair work at night while you sleep (which is where we got the term 'beauty sleep'), so make sure you get a good 7-8 hours or more of sleep every night, or as often as you can.  If you must work on short sleep one night, try to catch a nap the next day or get good sleep the next night.

Do these four steps, and you may be surprised at not just how your complexion improves over time, but how much better you feel as a person.  Beauty indeed is more than just skin deep.  The key to a more better complexion is better living through better habits.  Improve your health, and the health of your complexion will improve in kind.

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