What You Are Doing Wrong in Your Daily Beauty Routine

What if I told you that the few, minuscule bad beauty habits that you’ve accumulated over the years were sabotaging your entire daily beauty routine? And what if those few bad habits were the reason you struggled with limp hair and problem skin?

Bad habits are so common, so normal, that there are actually entire books written specifically on tactics and methods to destroy them. But sometimes they are so ingrained into our daily routine that we don’t even notice their presence… until it’s too late.

Bad beauty habits have the potential to destroy all of the hard work and effort we put into our appearance. They can wipe out our good work and leave us looking (and feeling) dull and lifeless.

But not anymore! In this article you’re going to discover and eliminate your bad beauty habits. You’ll say sayonara to dull skin and lifeless hair. Instead, it’s hello to glowing complexions, shiny hair and radiant beauty.

You go to bed with makeup on

Makeup Beauty 3

Tut tut. This should have been the first beauty rule you learnt!

Going to bed with your makeup on means that you’re allowing oil, grease, dead skin cells and other ick to accumulate overnight. You also increase your risk of developing conjunctivitis and pink eye. Not a good look.

And instead of spending eight hours refreshing and rejuvenating so you wake up looking younger and more beautiful, your body is left dealing with clogged pores, dirt and grease instead.

Make it a habit to take off all of your makeup before you go to sleep each night. Use cotton wool pads to remove stubborn eye makeup and make sure you cleanse twice (once to remove makeup and the second time for a deeper cleanse).

Your makeup brushes haven’t been washed since the 90’s

Fact: if you don’t wash your brushes regularly they will become the stomping ground for bacteria, dirt and oil. Transferring this onto your face is one of the worst things you can do for your skin and can even cause breakouts and irritation.

To keep your brushes clean and fresh, it’s recommended that you wash them every few days and at least once a week, especially if you wear makeup most days. If you suffer from acne or regular pimples, the experts suggest washing your brush every day.

The best way to wash your makeup brushes is to rinse them in warm water and then use a pre-made brush cleaner (you can pick up these from most pharmacies or drug stores), or use a homemade solution. Extra virgin oil combined with antibacterial soap is a good homemade brush cleaner that’s easy to make and use.

Then, once you’ve cleaned your brush, remove any excess water and allow your brushes to air dry. Lay them down flat somewhere safe (preferably in direct sunlight) so the water doesn’t seep back up into the roots of the brush.

You guzzle soda like there’s a global shortage

woman guzzle soda

We get it. You like coca cola. But is your coke a day really worth the associated health risks?

A study by Hannah Gardener from the University of Miami showed that individuals that drunk coke daily increased their risk of heart attack and stroke by 48 percent. It is also suggested that soda is a leading factor in obesity and weight gain and that the excess sugar can cause disturbances to our blood sugar levels.

Now what does all this have to do with beauty? Well, while your body is busy combating the effects of the soda you’re chugging down, it’s not paying attention to the skin. The little whitehead that would have been tackled like a pro footballer on your soda-free days is now setting up a new zip code on your face.

Take care of your body, feed it the right things, and it will take care of making you healthy, happy and beautiful.

You touch your face … all the time

I’ve covered this before in 11 Tips on How to Prevent and Treat Acne-prone Skin, but heck – it’s worth repeating.

Subconsciously, throughout the day, it’s highly likely that you touch your face. A lot. When you’re thinking, when you’re listening, when you’re reading, when you’re talking, when you’re stressed, when you’re surprised… you get the idea?

And while a little self-touching isn’t bad, it is when you can’t guarantee that your hands are clean. And unless you’re journeying to the sink to wash your hands every few minutes – I can almost guarantee that they’re not.

So why not accept our 24-hour don’t-touch-your-face challenge? You’ll be surprised at how hard it actually is… 

You over do it

Are you the type of girl that loves the feeling of being scrubbed to a level of squeaky cleanliness? Do your wash your hair every day, exfoliate twice a day and cleanse your face whenever there’s clean water around?

Hmm?

If you’ve answered yes to any of these questions, you’re over doing it.

Your hair should only be washed two to three times a week, maximum. The more you wash your hair (oh the irony), the greasier it will become. And faster too. Whereas if you can stretch your hair washing to twice a week, it will take far longer for it to become greasy and unmanageable. And in the interim, while you’re adjusting, you can use some dry hair shampoo for those grease-a-rama days.

The same goes for exfoliating. While you might like how good your skin feels after exfoliating, it’s not actually the best thing for it. Beauty experts recommend exfoliating twice a week, and if you have sensitive skin, even less.

Which brings us to cleansing … again, while it’s seem logical to cleanse your face a lot if you want it to be clean and fresh, you can actually over cleanse. Washing your face too often will throw out the pH balance of your skin and can result in dryness and even breakouts. The opposite of what you want to achieve! Instead stick to once or twice a day and your skin will thank you. 

You let your makeup go off

Makeup store

Do you remember when you bought your makeup? Was it a month ago? A year ago? More? 

Because makeup is normally something that we buy infrequently, it’s a lot easier for us to drop the ball and accidentally skip past the used-by dates.

And yes, makeup does have a shelf life.

Putting out of date makeup on your face can cause allergic reactions, skin irritations, breakouts and even eye infections such as styes and conjunctivitis.

So to play it safe and follow the below guidelines.

Replace after:

Mascara: thee to six months
Liquid eyeliners: three months
Powder eye shadows: every 12 months
Eye pencils: every 24 months
Liquid foundation: six months
Face powder: 24 months
Blush (powder): 24 months
Lipstick: 12 months

You condition your scalp

Even if you have the most deluxe, luxurious, incredible conditioner on the planet, it shouldn’t be smothered onto the top of your hair.

Leave conditioner for the very ends of your hair, where it’s designed to work best and treat split ends. At the top of your hair and on your scalp, your body takes care of the conditioning process for you. Your body produces natural oils that leave the top of your head smooth and soft. If you add in a conditioner as well, you’ll only confuse the balance and increase the greasiness. 

You have your hair tied up in a ponytail 24/7

hair tied up in a ponytail

While you might look cute as a button when your hair is up in a ponytail so high that even cheerleaders become envious, on a daily basis those ponytails are doing nothing for your overall hair health.

Constantly tying your hair using elastic hair ties damages your hair. Before long, you’ll find a kink ringing the top of your hair. This kink is actually broken hair from where the hair tie has cut into hair strands. Not a good look.

So to avoid damaging your hair, aim for one or two ponytail days a week. The rest of the time, try to keep your hair down (especially at nighttime) or try other hairstyles that are less damaging. 

Picking, poking and popping pimples

Let’s end on a popper, shall we?

Poking, prodding, picking and popping pimples is one of the most worst beauty habits you can have. You know it. Your beautician knows it. The little whitehead taunting you knows it. And while it might feel satisfying at the time, popping a pimple increases the risk of infection and even scarring.

About.com’s acne specialist even suggests that popping a pimple can lead to the development of a nodule or a cyst. They advise that touching your pimples in any way can worsen the situation and can spread the infection further (hello evil whitehead junior).

So for the sake of your skin, keep your hands to your self. And by that, I mean away from yourself.

So which bad beauty habits are you guilty of?

Bad beauty habits are sneaky little things: they worm their way into your life on those tired and lazy days and before long have become part of your daily routine.

But just like anything in life, you have complete control over how you act and behave. So I guess the better question is: which bad beauty habits are you breaking up with?

About the author

Cassandra Lane

While Cassandra readily admits to being a rampant cupcake aficionada (how could she not be with an almost-brother-in-law that owns not one, but three cupcake shops?) she happily works off her lust of all things sweet and sugary by slogging it out in the gym and outdoors.

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