Spring is my favourite time of the year. My neighbourhood comes to life with a palette of spring colour and is filled with the beautiful fusion of Jasmine, the ocean and other woody scents.

Winter has come to an end and we feel the warmth of Spring emerging and energising us. It’s a time for renewal and rebirth where our earth comes back to life after the winter slumber. Our back yards and gardens are blooming with beautiful fragrant flowers and plants and animals giving birth to new life, so too, our bodies feel more energised. Our skin is waking and is time to renew and revive our skin. Healthy skin is in.

For some reason, more so at this time of the year, I find that a lot of people are concerned with fine lines, wrinkles, pigmentation and sagging skin. They focus on looking for luxury skin care, beauty salons, and products marketing towards removing fine lines and wrinkles and products that help eliminate them and neglecting the most simple and most important things on how to care for their skin to avoid or slow down these and other skin conditions in the first place.

I’m not saying there is something wrong with this; however, creams and serums offered by the skin care community can only do so much if we don’t eliminate the dead skin. I believe in maintaining our skin health before we start seeing signs of aging or problem skin. I am so grateful now for my mum and grandmother telling me to wear moisturiser on my skin before I went to school in order to protect my skin.

No one is spared from aging, but we can do more to help preserve the collagen with a little maintenance, hydration and choosing foods that help with the resilience and elasticity of our skin but first here is a little timeline on what goes on for our skin as we age:

Around the age of 30, oil glands begin decreasing their output and makes skin drier.

Then, in our forties, the dermis (the thick, inner layer of skin) and the fatty cells beneath the dermis start to thin.

With skin care over 40, production of collagen and elastin (proteins that give skin tissue its structure and elasticity) decline and wrinkles and sags start to appear. The turn-over rate of keratinocytes (skin cells) also slows down, and the stratum corneum (the dead skin cells that lie atop the epidermis, the outer layer of skin) begin appearing rougher, duller and leather-like.

After age 50, it doesn’t get any better. You skin becomes thinner, more fragile and loses its tone and plumpness.

Lets not blame it all on the aging process. Other factors like sun, wind, bad diet, cosmetics, air conditioning, and smoking are all contributing factors. This isn’t to say you are doomed at old age. This just means you need to take care of your skin in your younger years for your skin to age gracefully. It is similar to exercising when you are young to keep your strength as you age.

I get up every morning with the intention to treat my body and mind with love and respect through exercise, eating well and my daily skin rituals.

I exfoliate each day or second day using a very gentle Illuminating Face Mud and massage into my face and hands (let’s not forget our hands) before I get in the shower and let it sit on my skin so the nutrients and vitamin C can soak into the skin.

Just before I get out of the shower I then rinse it off leaving my skin feeling smooth and hydrated.

I then have a quick rinse with cold water before getting out of the shower.

While my skin is still damp I hydrate my skin with Mysticism Mineral Facial Tonic or Vanilla & Rose skin tonic to prepare my skin for either serums or moisturisers.

Remember the most important steps are:

1. Exfoliate to help your skin breath.
2. Hydrate your skin inside and out.
3. Exercise to increase circulation (even if it is just for 30 minutes each day of walking or vigorous house work).
4. Replenish twice as much with other hydrating fluids when drinking Alcohol or Caffeine.
5. Eat foods rich in vitamins and antioxidants including foods rich in omega 3.
6. It Spring! Time to spring clean our minds and our bodies.

Gentle exfoliating to clear the pores of dead skin cells so skin can breathe as well as super hydrating skin, I find, are two of the most important parts of my skin regime.