How to improve skin texture?

After going for skin counselling at Fancl, I learnt a bit about my skin texture and I shall share some tips that I learnt from the BA.

How to improve skin texture:
1. Avoid rough scrubs (with beads)
Scrubs buff away the top layer of our skin. Our skin dermis (top part of our skin) has multiple layers and the scrub would remove the top most part which consists of dead skin cells, and hence exposing the not fully matured skin cells below, bringing them up to the surface. This is a viscious cycle as constantly exposing these immature skin cells would contribute to bad skin.

2. Avoid chemical peels and microdermabrasion.
Similar to scrubs these remove the top layer of your skin and works to remove an even deeper layer compared to scrubs.

3. Reduce the use of cotton pads
The use of cotton pads with force will cause unnecessary pulling and stress on the skin. This causes friction between the cotton pad and the skin, and in the long run, pulling off the top layer of the skin, similar to scrubbing. The constant pulling will also cause wrinkles. Instead, use hands to lightly pat lotion into the skin (note: this applies to Japanese style skincare, as the Japanese believe that double cleansing is enough for clean skin and will not need an additional step for toner/exfoliating and hence their second step is a lotion.)

4. Supplements
Supplements like Hyaluronic Acid (eg Fancl Hyaluronic Premium) and collagen (Fancl's Tenseup EX, Meiji Collagen powder, H2O+ collagen drinks and even newer brands like DHC collagen drinks and taut) would all serve to plump up skin and improve skin texture as they serve as building blocks to healthy skin.

Here are some tips that I learnt from my skin counselling session at Fancl. I hope this helps! Cheers and here's to porcelain smooth skin!

Please note that these tips are based on Japanese skincare ideas, which sometimes go against the Western skincare - eg. Japanese don't have toners in their skincare regime, they use a lotion instead. Lotions have different properties like moisturising and whitening which are very different from toners. They don't use scrubs as they believe that cleansers should remove all dirt and excess sebum for the face, hence no need for extra exfoliation or toners (like Clinique Clarifying Lotion, which is a mild exfoliant). This is also the reason why double cleansing is important in Japanese skincare routine.