Here's the SKIN-ny

The care and keeping of your skin is a health, fitness and lifestyle concern--and beauty, while it is skin deep in some ways, also goes deeper than we tend to remember.

Skin care products and beauty advice are multi-billion dollar industries world wide, and there's no shortage on tips for us, of every race, age and other demographic you can think of. They cover everything so well, there is even something called combination skin to prevent you from having to use a combination of products for different areas of your skin. Yet most of the basics of skin care and skin beauty are quite universal. So, summarizing the insides and outs of a sensible skin care regime is pretty quick and easy.

(Don't) Pick One Thing: Your Skin

Because you might scar. Other fast facts on what not to pick include: your nose, your toes and the loser. However, close to the act of picking, in the sense that skin cells are removed, is the process of exfoliation, which you should do. It's one of the most-mentioned bits of advice by both dermatologists and beauty editors. One comment I came across in my research said men's skin may retain more of a youthful look overall because they exfoliate daily with a razor. Retinoids are a class of topical products that can be prescribed to you here in the United States to slough off old skin and encourage new collagen production (that is exfoliating) quite well. Retinoids work for anti-aging, acne and other skin conditions.

Dairy foods with Vitamin A are a real boon to skin health. Actually, dietary Vitamin A is considered essential. Oh, and guess what vitamin A is actually called? Retinol. Sound familiar? (see above) Since everything is connected in my world, we should also keep in mind that brightly-colored fruits and vegetables, like berries and carrots and spinach and sweet potatoes, supply beta-carotene which is converted into Vitamin A in the body. In this same class of vibrant veggies and fruits we also find many antioxidants, all central to healthy, attractive skin. Once again we see how important a nourishing and natural diet is to our whole self. That's why we say it's wholesome. And by the way, you don't need supplements or pills for these things in most cases. You can get too much that way.

Since what you put on your plate seems to be as important to your skin as what you put on your skin, we should also reiterate about the essential fatty acids we spoke of last time. Foods like salmon and olive oil help your cells, and thus your skin cells. Other good stuff for skin seems to be green tea, which has anti-inflammatory properties. Deja vu again? We've talked about inflammation before. In a nutshell, Inflammation = Bad. It shows up deep inside as your blood pressure and your physical pain, but it shows on the surface, too, in ruddiness and eczema and blood vessels and such.

Ooh, and don't forget water! Good clean water cures many an ill, and your skin really appreciates your proper hydration. So does your smile, which you know if you've ever had those dry, cracked lips that make it hard for you to smile. No matter what's happening with the occasional pimple, rash or wrinkle, your skin never looks better than when it's decorated with a wide smile. Or your favorite aunt's magenta lipstick prints.

Speaking of lipstick, for more fun girly-type skin tips like how to spritz on your moisture and sponge on your sunscreen, look here for the 50 Best Skin Care Tips of All Time at InStyle.

Finally, don't smoke and don't drink too much booze (I know we've all heard this before...it's the free radicals that do the damage and carrying on like a party animal appears to release your radicals quite a lot). And remember to wear your sunscreen. It's THE number one mantra given by all the smartest sources--protect your skin from the sun. I personally haven't done a great job of that over the years, what with all the baby oil and aluminum foil sun reflecting devices we used to use when I was a teen. But these days, it's so easy, there's no excuse not to take a little extra precaution. Sunscreen comes in a moisturizer and cute hats shade your face. Getting older and showing the lines of my life doesn't bother me all that much, but it's nice to know I can hold off some of the effects of aging, plus keep my skin a little safer from the free radicals I release while searching for my lost shaker of salt on occasion.