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I don't use any expensive skin care products but I do take care of my skin and always have.
By "take care," I mean I wash it well with a mild cleanser every night. I exfoliate with raw, crystallized honey (this also is chock full of vitamins and natural antibiotics and antioxidants). I use BB cream as a light foundation and it has sunscreen in it - I've been using a light foundation with sunscreen since I was in my twenties.
My grandmother had beautiful, smooth, lush and very fair skin. She used simple products, washed her face and moisturized it every night, and used sunscreen and protected her skin from the sun every day of her life. I think she's a good example to follow. Oh and she also ate lots of vegetables and worked hard during her working years and got some good aerobic exercise every day by walking at least 20 minutes a day till she was well into her 80s. She had very little wrinkling or sagging even after living with cancer for three years up to her death at age 87.
Two concessions I've made after a lot of research (but they aren't expensive) - I use vitamin C serum and a nighttime moisturizer with retinol in it at night. I've been doing that for about 5 years now.
The vitamin C serum is $11 and lasts about 3 to 4 months. That's $3 a month. The retinol moisturizer costs $21 and lasts at least 3 months. So that's $7 a month. The moisturizer costs about $10 and lasts at least 3 months - that's about $3 a month. The raw honey costs about $7 for a jar that lasts about 3 months - that's less than $3 a month. The BB cream is $11 for a jar that lasts about 4 months - that's $3 a month at the most. So all together I spend less than $20 a month on skin care products and I'm good with that.
Oh, and I use moisturizer with a sunscreen in it but I also sit outside for at least 30 minutes a day or work in my yard most days. I take Vitamin D, (and a multivitamin) and drink a cup of milk a day and also eat yogurt or cottage cheese nearly every day. My grandmother was a huge believer in plenty of calcium, and sun in moderation such as getting outside and walking or working in the yard every day (with facial protection).
At age 55 I have very few lines and no real wrinkles or sun spots. I have noticed that my skin around my eyes tends to get darker if I'm tired but that's about it. I eat well and get enough sleep most of the time though, and I also drink a lot of fluids. I think eating healthy fats and drinking lots of fluids is just as important in building healthy skin as anything we rub on the outside.
For those of you who have never used sunscreen, how is your skin holding up after age 50?
I've never used sunscreen, even once. I do use coconut oil as a very very mild protection. I am 68, live in Florida, and my skin has fewer lines and wrinkles than most my age who never see the sun. I get about an hour of sun every day while I ride my bike for the Vitamin D, but I never go "tanning." I do always have a medium tan. I have brown eyes and am Spanish, so this helps. I am also very healthy, and all my doctors tell me how good I look (healthy, and younger than my age).
Frankly a lot of it is genetics, and the type lifestyle one leads. I have been drinking tons of water for decades, before it became "popular", so I am always hydrated. I also do not smoke, and drink alcohol moderately. I exercise daily. For those who like or need to use sunscreen, not saying you should not continue, but my skin hates stuff on it and I prefer not to use anything but natural oils. LOL, at 68 my oily skin STILL gets small blemishes from time to time and the sun helps dry them up!
For those who never leave the house before slathering sunscreen on every inch of exposed skin, how are your vitamin D levels?
I do sit outside with my bare legs exposed in the sun. Though I've kind of been out of the habit lately, I've probably had enough recent exposure to make enough vitamin D.
I am mid 50's and spent way too much time in the sun as a teen. I stumbled across pure coconut oil 10 yrs ago and use it daily. Its been fantastic. It doesnt clog, and is very nourishing to your body overall. Whatever you use remember it goes into your organs immediately! Petroleum products travel from skin right into your immune system! Skin is called the largest organ in the body so I say use something really clean and natural. I grew up putting petroleum on my body, never knowing it was so disgusting;-( I also like a sugar, lemon juice scrub to get the gunk out of my pores. Its awesome too.
Well, it could be due to genes but my stepmother who is about 14 years younger than my mother has always looked much older that she actually is. She has never used any kind of moisturizer on her face. Her mother and half sisters have the same kind of skin that prematurely wrinkles. My mother has great skin with hardly a wrinkle and she is 82 years old but she has always used moisturizer. Fortunately we all inherited the tendency to not wrinkle much. I wonder if my mother had never used moisturizer what her skin would look like these days.
As for me I started using moisturizer later in life, probably around 40 but now I always wear sunscreen on my face and chest if I will be out in the sun more than 10 minutes. I use a 50 SPF on my face and lips and a 30 everywhere else. Unfortunately as a teenager growing up in Florida in the 1970's I rarely used sunscreen and I am paying for it with some of those brown spots on my face and body.
I've always had oily skin, so the benefits of that are that I'm a wrinkle free old lady. I do have a lot of uneven color, like some redness, so I use a tinted moisturizer to even out the skin tone. It has an spf factor, but at my age, I really don't care about sun exposure very much.
I used to spend $58. on the tinted moisturizer from the dermatologist, but I found an adequate substitute at the drug store for $14.
I don't use any of that stuff. I'm allergic to it. I can use petroleum jelly on my face and that's about it. Everything else will cause worse problems than any problem I was attempting to treat.
I cant use that either.. or vaseline so stick with doublebase cheap and cheerful.
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