On Style: Skin...

Keeping your skin looking fresh and vital is really all about a routine and the right diet. In my experience, you can eat what you want as long as you make sure you’re getting the right minerals and vitamins into system, one way or another.

To ease the stress of long-term planning, I would suggest taking an all-in-one vitamin supplement in the mornings, such as Berocca. Better still are Tesco’s own brand of the same effervescent tablets, which can often be found in a 3-for-2 deal, and are half the price of the named article to begin with. Twenty tablets per pack come in at about £1.50-£2, or 10p a day.

If you suffer from Acne or the incessant emergence of whiteheads, talk to your doctor about the possibility of being prescribed Minocycline – an antibiotic that is issued in 56-day packs and should clear up your skin in no time.

Now on to the fun stuff…

There are all sorts of tinctures and potions available these days that claim to give you skin as soft an smooth as Aphrodite’s left arse cheek. Attractive a possibility as that might be, finding one that works for you and your skin type isn’t as easy as simply buying the most expensive thing you can find and persevering. If it’s not right to begin with, it isn’t going to get any better, and while a cleanser unsuited to your skin type might keep your face clean, just as soap and water would, it won’t give you the healthy, glowing look you expect/deserve after shelling-out so much of your hard-earned cash.

You should probably get your skin looked-at by a cosmetics professional. Clinique do a good analysis service to ascertain your skin type, with a view to selling you a bag-load of their not ineffective products. Hold off before purchase and test the market…

The way to do this is to ask for samples – try everything. Pop in to Boots and get an armful of sachets, before working through them all over the following weeks. Which feel nice on your face? Which ones leave you with a tightness that won’t quit? Which ones aid the reduction of blemishes? Which ones smell nice etc.? Once you’ve identified your top brands, go back to the store and talk to their representatives.

A little charm and boldness should see you get a good deal – the cost of these items means the company’s can afford to lure you to their camp with freebies and the like. Stock up on as many moisturiser testers as you can and keep the miniaturised versions of your kit aside for an overnight bag so you’re never caught cracking-up after a day off the juice.

As for brands, it really is up to you. If I could offer my personal recommendation, it would be for Biotherm. Their moisturisers are second to none, and with a range of scrubs to guarantee a clean shave and eye treatments for that twinkly look, they do have most of what you could imagine. Clinique too are good, and less expensive and ubiquitously available. For a dirt-cheap alternative, the Body Shop has a great range that might suit your skin (if you’re lucky).

But here’s the rub: with these things you get what you pay for. Clothes you can modify and combine with other items to fill in the gaps and create a viable outfit out of very little. You can’t hide the imperfections in your skin. If you’re intent on getting the girl, think of this:

James Dean was sexy as hell and all he had was good skin, gravity-defying hair and a white T-Shirt; Baron Silas Greenback of Danger Mouse fame wore one of the snappiest three piece tweeds in the history of super-crime and he was definitely a virgin by virtue of his warty, toad-like skin*.

I believe that point has been well made.


* He was actually a toad, so was, unlike you, screwed from the offset.


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