To look good in your 40s, you must start looking after your skin when you are in your 20s, says Dr Nirmala Shetty

You may have passed the acne-ridden teenage years but that doesn’t mean your skin needs no further attention. To retain your skin’s youthful appearance for long, the answer is good nutritive foods and a regular skin care routine. So ensure that you eat food that helps the skin look good even while you look after it from the outside with creams and lotions suitable for your age.

Diet Care
Your regular diet should include sufficient cereal, grains, whole nuts and seeds and plenty of Vitamin C as it builds collagen and elastic. Thus, to get your dose of vitamins, incorporate bean sprouts, green and red peppers, a little Vitamin A from parsley, apples, carrots and pumpkins. Vitamin B is needed to avoid a too oily skin and peeling lips.

Skin care
Depending on whether your skin is oily, dry, combination, sensitive or dull — follow this basic skin care routine which will go a long way to help you look like you are in your twenties even when you are well past that decade. Your skin is a living, breathing eliminating and self-regenerating organ. So give it a chance. Over-cleansing, harsh toning or clogging the pores with nourishing cream will not achieve the desired result.
You lay the foundation for good skin in your twenties.

Lines and wrinkles come when elasticity reduces. The skin has a protective acid mantle, which is made alkaline by soap, hard water, face-washes and make-up. Restoring the normal acid balance is an important step towards restoring and maintaining skin tone.

Lines and wrinkles start appearing due to bad posture, lack of sleep, overwork, strain, pollution excess, central air-conditioning, or heating systems, excessive make-up.

Taking care of skin with natural cleansers, toners and moisturisers from the 20s ensures good skin in the 30s. For those who are forced to use make-up, remember to cleanse with natural products like lentils, fruits and coconut milk and give skin a fair chance to breathe some time during the day and of course the whole night.

Give your skin a change. Be observant of its requirements, which alter according to climate, diet or health. Be gentle while applying any mask to your face. Extreme heat or cold is bad for the skin. Clean it regularly, do not clog up the pores with heavy make-up or rich creams, so you eliminate the necessity to deep cleanse it.

Look after your skin the natural way.
Along with the ready cosmetic creams you use, natural methods of skincare help immensely. Here’s a list of few easy-to-make, at-home skincare preparations.

Cleansers
Dry skin: Almond milk, coconut milk and apricot oil can be individually used as natural cleansers.
One tsp of olive oil and one tsp of wheat bran mixed together makes a good exfoliating scrub.
Oily Skin: Buttermilk and honey or honey and a few drops of lime mixed with milk are effective cleansers.

Toners
Regular toning is important as it helps to keep the skin firm yet supple.
A combination of honey and cucumber; or almonds mixed with milk; and buttermilk are good natural toners for the skin.

Astringents
Lemon juice, cucumber juice and distilled water can be individually used as astringents.

Moisturisers
No matter what your skin type, it is important to moisturise the skin regularly. A home-made moisturiser can be made with the following ingredients:
2 tsp lettuce juice
½ tsp almond oil
½ tsp oatmeal powder
½ tsp honey
Mix all the ingredients and apply.

Masks
Those with dry skin should use masks which have oatmeal or bran as a base and those with enlarged pores should use buttermilk and oats.
Face mask
2 tsp orange juice
2 tsp watermelon juice
2 tsp apple paste
2 tsp bran or oatmeal powder as per skin type.
Mix all the ingredients and apply.