Permanent Beauty: Establishing Lifelong Beauty Habits
Permanent beauty, the kind of beauty that comes from taking good care of your body, is not effortless. It takes years of developing positive health habits to perfect a beauty routine. These routines touch on all facets of the body, including but not limited to oral health, skincare, exercise, and sleep.
Oral Health
Your smile is one of the first things a person notices about you when they meet you for the first time. Crimson Ridge Dentistry explains that “If you constantly feel embarrassed by the presence of stains, chips, cracks, gaps, misalignments and more, it can hurt how well you interact with others in both professional and personal settings.” Teeth with flaws can lower your confidence when performing both personal and professional activities. To combat these feelings and save your smile, begin an oral health routine. Implement a brushing schedule. Brush at least twice a day with toothpaste that contains fluoride, and floss at least once daily. Avoid sugary foods and drinks. Have a professional dental cleaning and check up twice annually. Use at-home tooth whitening kits, or consider professional whitening.
Skincare
The skin is the body’s largest organ, and it requires consistent care to maintain a youthful appearance. Dermatologist Bobby Awadalla recommends paying close attention to your diet, because “there is a lot of evidence that drinking plenty of water and eating certain foods can help not only the appearance of our skin but how it functions. Just like we eat protein to feed our muscles after a workout, many foods can help feed our skin.” If your diet is in check but you still have skin concerns, then there are other steps you can take to nourish your skin. After bathing, apply moisturizer or oil to the skin. Make sure to wash your face twice a day, preferably once in the morning and once at night. Apply a moisturizer appropriate for your skin type directly after washing. Before stepping outside, apply either sunscreen or foundation with SPF to protect your face from harmful ultraviolet rays. If you have particularly sensitive skin or acne, you will likely need a more specialized skincare routine.
Exercise
Exercise is an important part of a beauty regimen. You should build an exercise regimen that, at a minimum, requires you to exercise for 30 minutes three times a week. This helps the body maintain strength, flexibility, and a healthy weight. There are plenty of different exercises you can do to target specific regions of the body that you would like to strengthen and stretch. Yoga and pilates are recommended for stretching and toning muscles; running and weightlifting are recommended for strengthening the muscles. Not only will you look great, but you’ll feel great, too—as it’s been scientifically proven that exercise helps fight depression and anxiety. Maintaining and exercise regimen throughout your lifetime will help you feel beautiful, inside and out.
Sleep
Good sleep hygiene may be the most important beauty habit to establish. Sleep refreshes and heals the body, both physically and mentally. Without it, both health and beauty begin to falter. The necessary amount of sleep varies from person to person. Generally for adults, the appropriate amount of sleep falls somewhere in the range of 7-9 hours each day. The benefits of good sleep are hard to overstate; when you sleep the recommended number of hours, it reduces your stress, helps you lose weight more effectively, refreshes your skin, and even more. Implement a regular bedtime and a regular wake-up time that allows you to achieve your sleep goals and stick with them. If necessary, take short naps during the day to refresh yourself.
Finding beauty habits that work for you requires planning, but the payoff is worth it. Put the time in to discover what products work best for you, what exercises you enjoy, and how much sleep you need. Combine these habits with permanently beautiful makeup, and you will reap the beauty benefits for years to come.