Are your bathroom cabinets filled with products to fix pesky breakouts? It turns out you might be able to prevent breakouts and aging skin without resorting to chemical solutions. You might be surprised to learn about these four things that are hurting your skin every single day.
Red wine
You’ve probably heard a lot about the benefits of red wine. Red wine contains resveratrol, which is an antioxidant that offers powerful anti-inflammatory benefits. It’s highly soluble in alcohol, which is why drinking red wine is an effective and enjoyable way to get that goodness inside.
However, red wine is high in sugar and alcohol, which are actually hurting your skin. The sugar molecules in red wine attach themselves to proteins in your body, which then creates “advanced glycation end-products.” These nasty little buggers get in the way of elastin and collagen production. In the end, drinking too much red wine will lead to sagging skin and those dreaded jowls. As far as getting enough resveratrol, you can also find it in healthier options, such as peanuts.
Your phone
Can you hear me now? Talking on your phone is actually hurting your skin on your chin and cheeks. Your cellphone harbors more bacteria than a toilet seat. The reasons are pretty obvious after you think about it. Cellphones rarely get cleaned, and your hands are on your phone all the time. So everything you touch winds up on your phone. When you hold your phone up to your ear to hear, it touches your chin or cheek. That bacteria then gets transferred to your face, causing breakouts. If you think about where your breakouts frequently occur, your chin is probably top on your list, and the likely culprit is your phone. You can help avoid the whole thing by cleaning your phone more often, and keeping it at a distance when you’re on the phone.
Your sunglasses
If you think about when you wear your sunglasses – on hot, sunny days – you might have already figured out why sunglasses are hurting your skin. They sit on the bridge of your nose, and underneath those nose pads, your skin is warm and sweaty, and your pores are opened. The bottoms of the eyeglass frame sometimes hit the tops of your cheeks, too. If you don’t make a practice of regularly cleaning your sunglasses, bacteria comes into contact with your skin, causing acne. Wiping the lenses on your sunglasses won’t prevent this. You have to wash the entire frame. An easy way is to simply dip your sunglasses into hot, soapy water and dry with a lint-free cloth. Ditto with regular eyeglasses.
Your pillow cases
Now that mom isn’t doing your laundry anymore, are you washing your sheets at least once a week? If not, you’re exposing your skin to dirt and bacteria from your bed pillows. For an average of eight hours every night, your face is smushed against invisible bacteria and dirt that clog your pores and lead to breakouts.
Launder bed linens a minimum of once a week. Put them in a separate load so you can wash them in the hot water cycle without worrying about shrinking your clothes. You can be extra safe by washing pillowcases twice a week.
The easiest ways to prevent bad skin are right under your nose. If you remember these four things that hurt your skin and make changes right away, you could see improved skin in just a few weeks!
