5 Habits To Follow To Wake Up Looking Beautiful

Remember the days when you could look like Miss Fresh face with minimal effort and maximum results ? When you took your skin for granted and skipped sunscreen and moisturizer and played in the great outdoors throwing caution to the winds ? Well, childhood and teenage may have bid us goodbye but great skin and looking beautiful never have to!

As we age, our bodies and skin require a little more effort and a little more time invested, to look its best but it isn’t difficult at all to spare a few extra minutes each day. Believe me, a few extra steps each day will ensure that you wake up refreshed, rested and naturally radiant.

1. Take off every scrap of makeup before you retire for the night :

Makeup clogs pores, dries out your skin and ages your skin by 8 days for each night that you sleep without taking your makeup off. Use a good quality makeup remover like Clinique’s Take The Day Off Balm or the more budget friendly Maybelline makeup remover to wipe your skin clean.

Follow this up with a gentle cleanser to clean your skin and prepare it for moisturising.

2. Use an overnight cream / serum :

ALL of us need a night cream. It could be a brightening cream, a moisturizer, an anti-aging cream, a blemish remover, a hydrating serum or anything else. Products generally work best when applied overnight on the skin because you are less prone to touching your face or wiping it off.

If you’re using topical lighteners or scar removal creams overnight, limit their use to thrice a week max and use a good moisturizer for the other nights; anything more often will just dry out your skin because of the high chemical and steroid content in such creams.

You could also use an overnight eye mask or under-eye cream to wake up without puffiness and heavy bags under the eyes.

3. Keep a bottle of water by the bed :

Okay I’m not an advocate of the brigade that goes crazy on how hydrated you need to be, but I’ve seen a definite change in my energy levels the next day and digestion when I’ve followed keeping some water by the bed and drinking it if I wake up during the night.

If you’re one of those people who doesn’t have midnight sleep disturbances and gets a sound sleep, drink the entire bottle as soon as you wake up and after squeezing a fresh slice of lime to it. This gives a fresh blast of Vitamin C to your system while also regulating your metabolism.

4. Eat a light dinner and ensure adequate time between your last meal and bedtime :

Fried foods, heavy carbs, complex dairy products and processed foods are best avoided during dinner time. Unlike the rest of the day, your body finds it more difficult to digest these foods during sleeptime. Eating a heavy dinner is also a proven cause of weight gain.

Eat a light dinner consisting of lean meat or protein, salad and simple carbs. Avoid carbonated drinks or alcohol especially.

Allow at least a gap of two hours after your last meal before you retire for the day.

5. Relax !

All the diets, workouts and products you use can never work if you’re super stressed and over-worked. Take time out for yourself each week and go for a nice clean up, a spa or spend time with some trusty DIYs at home to relax your tired muscles and rejuvenate your skin. Keep your monthly salon appointments and eat healthy as much as you can.

Scented candles and calming music can do more good than you think as well, so go ahead and incorporate these easy-peasy lifestyle tips to look and feel better each day !