Five Rules to Live By: Routine Beauty
Good beauty behaviour to make a habit of while time is on your side
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Routine Beauty
Good beauty behaviour to make a habit of while time is on your side
Shop Must-HavesBusy lifestyles don’t leave much room for a laborious beauty regime. But, when time is no issue, you can stand to invest in those often-avoided beauty chores. Make them part of your routine now, and before long, the benefits will have you hooked. Read on for the future fixtures you know you should probably already be doing…
1. Care for your Scalp
Good hair health means really getting to the root, and intensive hair care will get you nowhere if your scalp is in bad shape. Regular exfoliation and specialist scalp treatments will re-balance and clear up any sensitivity, while banishing dead skin cells that can build up and slow hair growth. Target your head’s hardest-to-reach area with the occasional scrub and try a scalp mask to detoxify deep inside the follicle and provide relief from dry, itchy skin or flakes caused by excess sebum.
2. Clean Your Tools
With a restored focus on hygiene, it’s time to pay attention to your most reached for beauty tools. Cosmetic brushes and sponges need regular washing to banish bacteria and stale makeup that can clog pores, while hairbrushes call for suds to prevent product buildup that can irritate your scalp. Use a gentle shampoo and massage into the fibres, then rinse until the water runs clear. A toothbrush will help you get between the bristles of your hairbrush. Then just leave to dry naturally for good-as-new tools that needn’t come with a warning.
3. Embrace the Purge
Some skin supers have a tendency to cause havoc short-term. Known as purging, and linked to retinol, vitamin C, AHAs and BHAs, this mass breakout can be a knock to your regime – and your confidence. Skin takes time to build up tolerance to potent formulas, but it’s a temporary evil worth sticking out for the long-term effects. Schedule a trial period while downtime is plentiful, and any bumps will be your secret to keep. Just exercise caution about layering pH-sensitive skin care – often, these formulas simply aren’t compatible.
4. Experiment!
We can all be guilty of falling to the same, faithful makeup look when we need to be out the door, fast. Call it habit, but with the seasons changing and the gift of more time on our hands, now is your moment to diversify your makeup wardrobe. Test out a few new ideas and perfect your technique behind closed doors. Whether it’s a flawlessly-applied lip, pristine eyeliner or lit-from-within skin, trawl tutorials online and be your own makeup artist – the worst messes can be wiped away without a trace.
5. Remember to Exfoliate
It’s never going to be the most thrilling step in your regime, but when it comes to body exfoliation, you get back what you put in. By boosting circulation and lymphatic drainage, a scrub or dry body brush used regularly can minimise cellulite and gently dust away dead skin cells that can leave limbs dry and blotchy. With sandal season around the corner, don’t forget the soles of your feet too. Think of this as an investment, and an occasional chore that maintains the health of the body’s biggest organ.
