The top 5 beauty no-nos

Not cleansing is one of the worst things for your skin. If there's only one thing you do to preserve your skin, make sure it's regular cleansing. Even if you've crawled in at all hours or aren't wearing any make up. Cleansing is THE flawless skin Golden Rule! Cleansing not only gets rid of make up, but also grime accumulated during the day - pollution, smoke, sebum, dust... If you don't cleanse every day, you're likely to get spots caused by excess sebum, wrinkles at an early age, blocked pores, red patches and a dull, sallow complexion. Your skin, to put it bluntly, will start to suffocate. Opt for a cleanser that suits your skin - lotion, oil, cream, gel or micellar water. Every evening apply your cleanser (with or without a cotton pad, depending on the texture) to your face and neck. Pay attention to your eyes, especially if you're wearing waterproof make up. Keep applying your cleanser until all traces of make up and grime have gone.

If there's one thing we should learn from the start, it's to moisturise our skin. Flawless skin = skin that's well hydrated throughout the day. Drinks, fruits and vegetables hydrate our bodies, but we should also give our skin that extra helping hand by applying moisturising treatments. Skin becomes tight, itchy, rough or dull when it's dehydrated. Hydrating treatments - day/night creams, masks, serums - will balance out your skin's hydration levels by harnessing water on the surface of your epidermis. They restore and boost our skin's natural hydrating mechanisms to prevent it from drying out. Gels are great for normal or combination skin, rich creams for dry skin and anti-ageing formula for mature skin - you'll easily find a moisturiser suited to your skin type. 

Don't even think about slipping between covers if you haven't applied a night cream! Nighttime treatments (creams, serums, masks) work a treat, as it's whilst we sleep that our skin cells regenerate. During the night, our body takes advantage of the fact that we're inactive to repair any damage caused during the day by pollution, smoking, sun, stress and so forth. Indeed, our skin regenerates three times more quickly at night than it does during the day! What's more cell renewal peaks between 2 and 4am. So applying a nighttime treatment helps our skin to do its stuff! Just make sure you use a suitable treatment - don't, for example, apply a product for combination skin to dry skin and vice-versa. Get to know your skin type, learn what it needs and apply treatments accordingly. If your skin feels tight after showering or cleansing, then apply a hydrating night cream. If it itches or stings, opt for a soothing treatment. If you have oily skin, go for one that contains purifying essential oils. Face masks are also a great skin-loving option and, once again, the choice is there - hydrating, purifying, anti-wrinkle, mattifying. You can even find overnight face masks so you wake up to baby-soft skin.

We all know that the sun damages skin: UVB rays cause sunburn and UVA rays prematurely age our skin. And yet we're all guilty of going out on sunny days without using a sunscreen. The best advice we can give you is to always apply a sunscreen, avoid sunbathing between midday and 4pm, reapply your sunscreen every 2 hours or after swimming and keep your sunglasses at the ready. This applies rain or shine, on a beach or in town, even if you're only popping out for a quick snack on a sunny terrace. A one-step solution? Apply a moisturiser or BB cream that contains an SPF. For day to day use, an SPF of 15 will do the job.

We will all get wrinkles, but when and where they appear is a different matter. From 25 onwards, cell production begins to slow down, meaning our skin starts to sag and lose tone. But there's no need to start anti-ageing treatments at this point in time. It's around 30 to 35 that we should up the ante by dealing with this gradual loss of tone. So swap your usual cream for an anti-ageing formula that's ultra-moisturising and packed with antioxidants. As the years go by, incorporate a global anti-ageing night cream as well as an eye contour treatment. And when the time comes, treat yourself to a good anti-wrinkle cream!