7 Steps to Brighter Skin You’ll Love

Dull, lackluster skin is a problem for many of us. If you have been noticing more dullness to your complexion than usual, there are plenty of reasons that could account for this change and possible mistakes that you could be doing to complicate the issue. Let me illustrate a few likely reasons for a sluggish complexion and the steps to brighter skin.

Common Destroyers of Brighter Skin

One of the prime reasons your skin’s radiance may have dulled is due to aging. Unfortunately, our internal clocks slow down the process of how our skin slough offs dead cells to stimulate the production of fresh cells like it did in our younger days. Instead of radiant skin, the result is a paler, drab complexion from that accumulation of dead skin on the surface. Without proper cell turnover, the skin with all that buildup doesn’t reflect light in the same way and is more likely to have dark spots.

Hormones that have gone wild from puberty, menopause, disease or certain medications also can be another explanation for playing havoc on the skin. Depending on what is going on internally, you could be suffering excessive oiliness that clouds the surface and accentuates pores to developing melasma and dark patches.

Environmental stress from pollution and the sun can dull, thin collagen to accelerate aging, and wreck  glowing skin with wrinkles and unwanted sun spots.

Another reason for a loss of luminous skin may revolve around your diet. After all, you are what you eat. If you don’t nourish your skin properly with the right nutrients, vitamins and trace minerals, then your complexion suffers.

The same principle holds true for water. Dehydrated skin shows on your face since water is the essence that purifies and enables blood flow to feed the skin. Without enough water, brighter skin is replaced with more dullness and chalkiness.

One that you may not want to think about is your makeup. I love makeup just as much as you do, but unless you are a chemist and understand every ingredient on those labels, you want to always remove all traces of makeup before going to bed. Silicones for that smoothness we want are one example that is so tiny that they can embed themselves deeply into the pores. Therefore, you need weekly exfoliation to keep up with those minute traces that could still be lingering despite thorough cleansing.

Still another culprit that may keep brighter skin at bay is stress. When you are upset and agitated, your brain pumps too high levels of cortisol, the stress hormone that changes blood flow and the skin’s ability to renew itself.

Consider missed sleep as another robber of brighter skin. When you stay up too late and try to operate on less sleep, your health and skin pay the price. Your body needs those set seven to nine hours a night to repair itself. Otherwise, your beautiful skin is replaced by more episodes of dark circles, dullness and drier skin due to a disrupted sleep cycle for blood circulation.

Champions of Glowing Skin

One of the best things that you can do to bring back dazzling skin is to exfoliate. Doing so once or twice a week at the most can usher in the healthy glow you miss. Exfoliation is critical because it paves the way to shrug off the old skin and replace it with fresh, younger cells.

Hormone problems can sometimes be solved just by tackling the ongoing skin issue such as an overly greasy complexion by turning to a different cleanser for oily skin, blotting tissues and oil-absorbing masks. You might also want to visit your doctor or a dermatologist to get checked out or change a medication.

Another help to restore vibrant skin is powering up your skin care for extra brightening effects. You might want to replace the facial cleaner that you are using now with one that has alpha hydroxy acids that can help. The reason that ingredients like fruit acids can make a difference is that they can gently dissolve through the skin barrier to brighten it.

Speaking of skin care, you might want to shop for specific ingredients in your skin care formulas. For instance, niacinamide is one that can give the complexion a healthy boost of radiance. Others are antioxidants, especially vitamin C and E for protecting, boosting glow and smoothing.

Your kitchen can be an asset for luminous skin with all the helpful ingredients that are available for DIY beauty recipes.  One excellent DIY Illuminating Facial Mask that I make with strawberries can surely help for brighter skin.

Dazzling skin can also be your new reality sooner by changing your facial cleansing habits. Instead of just using your hands to wash your face, try using a facial-cleansing brush or a wash cloth for sensitive complexions. A facial-cleansing brush can work harder and deeper than what your hands can do to polish the surface for luminescent skin.

You also may want to change your makeup to illuminating formulas that can introduce light to your complexion for this purpose. Something else to consider is trying a tinted makeup primer. BB and CC creams to brightening concealers that can multitask with skin care can also be wonderful alternatives that can reverse dullness as well.

If you keep these skin care tips in mind, I can promise that your skin will benefit in a beautiful way.