Our faces are one of the first things people notice about us, and is our main means of identifying eachother. Unfortunately they are also one of the most exposed parts of our bodies, enduring wind, rain, sun and all sorts of other onslaughts on a daily basis.  It is because of this that good facial care is essential if you want to maintain good skin and a youthful, healthy complexion.

A lot of maintaining great looking skin is common sense, however with the stresses and strains of modern day living it is easy to forget the basics that give your skin a fighting chance. Before you turn to the many skin care creams and potions that are on offer, you should take a look at what you are putting in your body on a daily basis to help your skin stay healthy and be able to regenerate. Diet is such an important part of our bodies processes, but is also something that is so easily neglected. Processed foods, sugar, caffeine and alcohol all contribute to the aging process, starving our bodies of the nutrients we need and loading them up with free radicals that can run riot and damage our cells without anything to stop them.

Making sure you eat fresh fruit and vegetables on a daily basis is a great start to keeping your skin healthy. Then of course there is water. We all know that we should drink water, but so many of us neglect to do so, managing maybe only one or two glasses and day and for some people that is an achievement. Try and drink at least a litre of water a day, preferably two - if you find water "boring" then adding some fresh fruit juice to it, or if you have to some squash (although this will make it high in sugar) to give it some flavour.

Keeping your skin clean is also very important. The amount of pollution our skin is exposed to on a daily basis means our pores gets clogged and our skin is unable to regenerate as effectively as it should, this can lead to spots, and a dull complexion, even worse in those that smoke as the skin is not only being attacked from the outside by the actual cigarette smoke itself, but is also being robbed of vitamins and nutrients from the inside by the chemicals being inhaled. A good face wash used daily, with a weekly or fortnightly exfoliating scrub and cleansing face mask, depending on how sensitive your skin is, will give your skin the chance to breathe and regenerate, leaving you with a glowing, healthy complexion. Those of you that wear make up should be sure to remove it every night without fail - sleeping in make up is guaranteed to leave you with blocked pores and unhealthy skin the next day.

Following just a few basic rules of facial care can mean your skin has a lovely, healthy glow which in turn can help turn back the years giving you a youthful complexion.