If your skin looks like this, you probably need to exfoliate.

Tue, 13 October 2009 3:31PM

It seems odd, to see a photo of Miss AMBER VALETTA on the red carpet with less than perfect skin. And you know, it’s all relative, because mostly we are used to seeing Red Carpet walkers sassing skin of the the-glow-from-your-face-is-distorting-my-vision, variety. But when I saw this, I thought it was a good reminder that some gentle exfoliation can make such a difference.

Here’s Miss VALETTA at the Hollywood Style awards yesterday, and well, I’m sorry to say it, but I think her skin could do with a little more plumpiness. The tone is good, but the texture looks like it could do with a little boost, a bit of a epidermal Red Bull.

Now here’s where a lot of us birds go wrong.

We think: ‘I need more moisture and collagen and so forth in my skin in order for it to glow with fat, happy skin cells and thus look younger and more full of health and vitality.’

And then we: Apply a mask that promises such things. Just cleanse that face and pop that mask on, thinking, ‘Oh clever ME. I have thwarted that dry, tired skin! I shall use this thwarting time to enjoy a spoonful of yoghurt from the fridge, send one SMS and then eat a Lindt ball even though I was trying to be healthy today.’

And then: We are happyish with the results, but to be honest we’re hoping for better. We’ve definitely had better results from hydrating/collagen-boosting masks in the past/salon. We may even kick the leg of a sofa in annoyance.

Little do we realise: In order for any kind of mask to Do Its Job Properly, you need to prepare the skin. Gently slough off all those dead skin cells sitting on top, so that the skin-plumping, hydrating ingredients of your mask can penetrate. Otherwise it’s just kind of adding to the build up. Now, I’m not suggesting you must get out the salon strength glycolics or do a full on peel, just a light exfoliation will suffice. (I went a little anti-exfoliation a little while back, then I spoke to a very clever skin genius man a few weeks – blog to come – who reminded me how crucial exfoliation is, especially for women like me who wear sunscreens and primers etc everyday).

Using a gentle scrub like: Simple Kind to Skin Smoothing Facial Scrub, a couple of times should do the trick.

And then your skin will looks little more like this lady’s, instead of Amber’s:

Posted by: Zoe Foster

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Tags: amber valetta, exfoliation, hydrating mask, kate winslet