Skincare Tips for People Who Know Nothing About Skincare

When Aveeno asked me to share some of my skincare tips recently, I have to admit, I was at a bit of a loss. Skincare tips? Me? *Looks over shoulder to make sure they’re not talking to someone else.*

The thing is, skincare has always been a bit of mystery to me. I see people throwing around words like “AHAs” and “hydroquinone” and “dimethylaminoethanol” and I start getting flashbacks to those dreams I have in which I’m about to sit an exam I haven’t studied for. The truth is, I know nothing about all that stuff: I just know what works for me and what doesn’t, and I feel like most of what I’ve learned about skincare is really just common sense. Wear sunscreen. Drink water. That kind of thing.

Sharing my skincare tips with Aveeno

And that’s why I like Aveeno. It has that “no nonsense” feel about it, doesn’t it? It’s the moisturiser you’ve probably been picking up for years and not giving it much thought, because it does what it says it will, and you don’t have to re-mortgage your house to pay for it. I mean, it’s made from oatmeal. OATMEAL, people. (And, OK, Distearyldimonium Chloride, whatever that is.) (Not actually asking.) Who doesn’t love oatmeal?

Anyway, I’ve been using Aveeno’s Daily Moisturisng Lotion on my legs for the past couple of weeks, in a bid to get them ready for my holiday (which, yes, I’m STILL talking about), and using it has once again made me realise the same thing I always realise when I use product: YES, IT MAKES A DIFFERENCE. My biggest challenge with body lotions, as I’ve mentioned before, is that I can never seem to find the right time to apply them. Do it in the morning and you’re left trying to pull your clothes on over sticky skin, do it at night and hello nicely moisturised bedsheets. The first of my skincare tips, then, is not a secret at all:

DEVELOP A ROUTINE. STICK TO IT.

For the last two weeks, I’ve been faithfully applying the Aveeno lotion to my legs as soon as I get out of the shower. That means it’s long since absorbed by the time I’ve finished applying my makeup and blow-drying my hair, and basically, why don’t I do this ALL the time? It works, people. It makes my legs feel smooth and silky, and they could have been like that all along if I’d just bothered to develop this routine years ago. Gah.

Well, I’m doing it now, so at least that’s one less thing to think about. Here are some other things I’ve learned about skincare over the years… (*Wise-old-woman mode enabled*)

START LOOKING AFTER YOUR SKIN BEFORE YOU THINK YOU NEED TO.

If I were to give you just one piece of skincare advice, I think this would be it, obvious though it may seem. Or maybe not, actually. I know a lot of people who go through most of their youth thinking they’re too young to worry about skincare, only to wake up one day and realise that, whoops, too late, shoulda thought of this sooner! The fact is that prevention is always going to be better than cure, and once the wrinkles start to arrive, there really ISN’T a “cure” – or not one that you can find in a bottle, anyway.

Now, I’m not suggesting you need to rush out and buy a ton of anti-ageing products rightthisverysecond, but don’t wait until you start to see visible signs of ageing, is all. I’ve been using moisturiser and eye cream of some description since I was in my teens, so it’s now just a part of my daily routine that I don’t even think about: sure, if you’re very young, you’re not going to need a ton of products, but looking after your skin is a really good habit to get into, so start NOW, not when you wake up one day and think, “Huh, is that my FACE?”

WEAR A HAT IN THE SUN.

My mum spent the first few years of my life struggling to keep a sunhat on my head, and having to replace it every few seconds, because I WOULD NOT HAVE IT, NO WAY, NEVER. The result? A face full of freckles, which are the main subject of those teenage diaries I posted about last week. I want to be really clear here that I don’t think there’s anything wrong with freckles – in fact, these days I don’t even THINK about them – but they made my teenage years an absolute misery, and I REALLY wished I could’ve gone back in time and just worn that hat.

Obviously freckles aren’t the only skin-related sign that you’ve been in the sun, and while wearing sunscreen is absolutely non-negotiable for me (“Wear sunscreen” is too obvious for me to consider it a “secret”, but DO IT, GUYS, SERIOUSLY. Don’t make me tell you again!), I find it’s best to also wear a hat on a really hot day: it keeps my face in the shade, stops my scalp from burning (if you’ve ever burned your scalp, you’ll know how painful it can be – and how difficult it is to use sunscreen on it), and protects the tops of my ears too, which are apparently one of the most common places people get skin cancer. WEAR A HAT.

BUY A SILK PILLOWCASE

I wrote about this at length a few weeks ago, but one of the things that causes the most damage to my skin is my habit of sleeping on my side, and smooshing my skin into the pillow every night. I tried sleeping on my back, and just couldn’t do it, so my silk pillowcase is the next best thing: it’s not a failsafe, and I do sometimes still wake up with sleep lines, but it’s so much better than the cotton pillowcases I’d been using, and which I’ll never go back to.

DRINK AS MUCH WATER AS YOU CAN STAND

I’ll be the first to admit here that I don’t drink nearly as much water as I should – so I’m a fine one to be handing out skincare tips to other people, huh? While I may not be good at sticking to this particular tip myself, though, when I DO manage to do it for a few days in a row, I always notice a huge difference – and once that’s bigger than anything I’ve ever managed to achieve from skincare products, no matter how expensive. So stay hydrated, folks: and I’ll try to do it too, I promise…

So, those are MY skincare tips, but Aveeno would also like to hear yours: I’m tagging the lovely Charlie of CHRWRD to share her skincare secret- and, of course, you. Yes, YOU. You can post your skincare tips on Twitter and Instagram, using the hashtag #AveenoSkincareSecrets, or on the Aveeno Facebook page. Oh, and don’t forget to tell me too, of course!

What are your best skincare tips?

[This is a sponsored post.]