How and Why You Should Begin Your Anti-Aging Routine in Your 20s!

It’s the most frequently asked question in the beauty industry – “what is the best anti-aging skin routine”. 

Chances are, most people asking it are getting on and starting to see the signs of aging.

Do you want to know a secret?

The real best way to fight off aging and keep your skin looking youthful and beautiful is to begin an effective anti-aging skincare routine before these signs begin to appear!

After all, it's only a matter of time before all those late nights, lack of sleep and long days at the office soon start showing on your skin - getting ahead of the game will keep it away for as long as possible and ensure you're ready for any telltale signs that do appear!

In fact, your skin starts to age more quickly at around your 25th birthday, as this is when the beneficial proteins in your skin called collagen and elastin start to slow in production.

Your collagen is there to keep your skin tight and firm, while elastin gives flexibility to your skin, letting it snap back to normal after being damaged or dried out.

When elastin and collagen production start to slow, your skin will start to become saggier and you’ll likely start to notice wrinkles. This means it’s important to start your anti-aging regime early on in your twenties, as this will help prevent the signs of aging for longer.

To get you started, here are our top recommendations for adding anti-aging methods to your daily skin routine:

Use Sunscreen on Your Face Daily

When your skin receives a lot of damage from the sun, you will start to see premature wrinkles and even sunspots and discolouration on your skin. That's without even going into the risks of skin cancer.

So, it’s clearly extremely important that you add sun protection to your skin daily – even if it’s cloudy or raining.

In the summer, use a sunscreen of SPF 30 or higher before you apply your make-up. These days, you can get a lot of primers with sunscreen in them, which can provide a great base for your make-up as well as protecting the sensitive skin on your face from UV rays.

If you already have signs of sun-related aging – which can be common for those of us who like to sunbathe – you can still reverse this through treatments such as microdermabrasion.

Remove Your Make-Up Every Night

Whether you’re exhausted from a long day or work or you’ve been out socialising, when you get home it can feel like a chore to remove all your make-up. However, sleeping with make-up on can cause a lot of problems for your skin.

This includes causing your skin to become irritated and leading to outbreaks of pimples and acne.

Not only that, sleeping with your make-up still on regularly can lead to your face aging quicker. This is because your face is more exposed to free radicals when your wear make-up, which can lead to your collagen levels being stunted, making you look older than you are.

When you sleep make-up free your pores are left open to breathe. Your skin also repairs itself while you sleep, so getting as much sleep as possible is essential. If you want the answer to “how to look younger”, a good night’s sleep is always our first bit of advice.

If you do suffer from poor sleep, this can cause your eyes to become puffy and dark circles to appear. So, once you remove your make-up, use our Dark Circle All-Natural eye serum, as this will tighten up the area around your eyes, preventing fine lines before they appear.

Keep Your Skin Moisturised

The best anti-aging products in your twenties are moisturisers and serums. This is because of the simple fact that the drier your skin is, the more haggard and older it will eventually look. This is why it’s essential that you moisturise your face both morning and night.

In the morning, you should use a moisturiser that contains a sunscreen to protect from the sun. You should also add an anti-aging cream to your morning routine.

Here we recommend our Snail Essence Renewal cream, which works amazingly on younger skin. Ideal for all skin types, snail extract both prevents acne and works as an anti-ageing cream, keeping you smooth and glowing in the long term.

At night time, we recommend a retinol cream moisturiser, as these will help to build the collagen in your face and prevent wrinkles. A serum is also a wonderful addition to your daily skincare routine, as these concentrated products are both versatile and really lock moisture into your face.

For this, we recommend our best anti-aging serum, Niacinamide B3, which works to lock moisture into your face and prevent wrinkles before they take hold. Even better, this cream works for all ages of skin, as it reverses the signs of aging in older skin and keeps skin firm and clear on younger skins. This means you can use it for years into the future.

If you’re new to using serums, read our handy guide on how and when to apply eye and skin serums for maximum effect.

Stick to a Healthy Diet

We all know what it feels like when we over-indulge over the festive period – we feel bloated, yucky and can’t wait to get started on our January detox. Yet, you might not realise that the foods we eat can also have an effect on our complexion.

In fact, certain foods can cause our skin to become spotty, particularly those with high levels of salts. There are also a number of anti-aging foods we can eat to help keep our skin looking and feeling younger. Mainly contained in fruits and vegetables, such as:

• broccoli
• watercress
• red peppers
• spinach
• avocado

When added to your diet, these foods are rich in anti-oxidants and minerals and help to keep the skin nourished and at it's best.

It’s also important to drink lots of water over the day, as water is the number one way we can help keep our bodies feeling hydrated and working as it should, skin included.

Aim to drink at least eight glasses of water a day and limit alcohol and fizzy drinks as much as possible.

Starting an anti-aging regime in your 20s doesn’t need to be expensive or too time-consuming. In fact, by just adding one of two skincare products and keeping our diet healthy, we can help our skin to stay looking young well into our 30s and 40s.

If you feel your skin is already aging or damaged, there’s still time to reverse the problem. Just read our guide on the best skincare ingredients, taking the points into account and your skin will start looking healthier in no time at all!