What is the main precaution you should take before switcing to a new face product? If you said, “do a skin patch test”, then full marks to you!

We all have different skin types – dry, oily, normal, combination – is it even clear which you are. And different genetics, skin tones and skin color. So a product that suits your friend may or may not suit your skin type. If a product doesn’t suit you, it may cause rashes or irritation to the area you applied it.

Prevention Is Better Than Cure

Before selecting a product you should know your skin type first and select the product accordingly. I have seen a lot of people who are their own skin doctors but misunderstand their skin type. For example people believe that their skin type is oily and uses products to get rid of that, but in fact they should consider using water based hydration for their skin.

The best way to test a product is to do a patch test on your face. That patch area can be the skin behind the ear, cheek (an area close to the nose) or the side of your neck. From these three I would suggest the neck. Only a very small patch though – remember we are testing for a reaction so you don’t want your whole neck blowing up with a rash! The neck is a good area because it is also a sensitive area like your face and is as prone to skin reactions as your face – but of course it’s not quite so visible.

The idea is if your neck can tolerate the product then it’s okay to apply it on your beautiful face. After applying the product you should wait for 24 hours at least before considering it safe to use.

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In order to prevent dry skin, you are going to need to retain the moisture in it. Taking a preventative approach can be a lot more effective than using moisturizers or other skin care products. Below we will discuss some of the best alternative ways in which you can moisturize your face and skin.

Alternative Ways To Moisturize:

1. Change Bathing Habits

Instead of having to moisturize your skin more often, you can simply bath less frequently. Over bathing essentially works against your skins natural ability to retain moisture because it drys your skin out. This is especially true when you use hot water. Instead of completely forgetting or stopping to take showers, you can simply start to take cold showers which will end up harming your skins ability to retain moisture a lot less.

2. Drink Water Throughout The Day

This is one of the most underutilized means of which you can moisturize your face without using any products. The more water you drink throughout the day, the more moisture your skin will end up retaining. You should always aim to drink at least 8 ounces of water per day. This will ensure that your body has enough water to spread around your body – including your skin.

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There’s a reason so much biological ingenuity goes into a smile. It’s an important part of human communication.

And whilst the number of muscles actually used in a smile (versus a frown!) is greatly debated, the fact remains it’s a complex process involving muscles, lips and teeth.

Well indirectly teeth of course.

But teeth are a particularly important part of that smiling process. Just ask anyone who feels any kind of embarassment about their teeth. Be it bad, broken, mishapen or heavily stained – if the owner isn’t content with their teeth they will tend to restrict their smile to prevent revealing them.

So the health of your teeth and gums can and do directly translate into your ability to provide a genuine smile. And that affects how you come across to other people. We can all tell a smile that is not genuine – and it makes us uncomfortable, and possible even generate subsconcious feelings of mistrust.

Which is just one more reason to look after your teeth, and even more so, your gums. It’s quite easy to avoid cavities if you have a reasonably healthy diet, clean your teeth twice a day and don’t eat or drink high sugar foods.

But caring for your gums is a little trickier. There’s all sorts of brushing, flossing, water jet spraying and mouth wash usage that goes into trying to prevent gum issues. But I’ve been recently testing something a little different. It’s a replacement for toothpaste called ‘Dental Pro 7’, that also serves the purpose of a very effective mouth wash. You can read reviews for dental pro 7 here.

It’s unusual mostly in that it’s a liquid rather than a paste, and only requires a drop or two on your toothbrush. And it leaves your entire mouth feeling surprisingly fresh and clean. In fact it’s the best toothpaste for bad breath that I’ve used to date!

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Some people may scoff at the apparently ‘trivial’ type of things that worry some of us.

But the world is full of stress, and pressure, and what may seem only skin-deep trivial to some people can genuinely feel like a full blown trauma to someone else.

Take a friend of mine. She’s a beautiful girl, but like a lot of people spends too much time staring closely in a mirror to try and pick out her faults. Instead of standing back and seeing what everyone else sees.

Now apart from this she’s normally a really down to earth, together kind of person.

Except that she read in one of those womens magazines beauty columns about how someones boyfriend had commented that maybe she shouldn’t wear that t-shirt because it showed off her dark underarms…

A seemingly innocent, helpful comment? Or a strange personal preference by said boyfriend? (who cares what color your armpits are..?)

But that was it – my friend instantly became obsessed with what her boyfriend might secretly think about her underarms..! The helpful magazine writer gave tips on how to fix the ‘problem’ including talking about skin lightening creams. No, I’d never heard of these products either, but there are lots of them on the market, and they are really popular. Surprisingly, they also seem to work at whitening darker skins. But that’s another story.

The mere fact that you can buy an underarm whitening cream to lighten dark armpits to me seemed bizarre. It wouldn’t bother me what color my partners armpits were, so it definitely wouldn’t worry me if any of my friends had dark, white, grey, blue or even green armpits. So long as they were happy.

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Were you reading closely..? 🙂