Lifestyle habits contribute to your flaky skin, but do you even realise that some of your daily activities are ruining your skin? From trying out thousands of skin products available on store shelves that promise to rejuvenate your skin to paying no heed to a healthy diet, you are constantly harming your skin in more ways than one without even realizing it.

These hidden habits are tarnishing your healthy glow, and in this article, I'll tell you how to be a little proactive by taking measures that could cut down any sort of skin issues in the first place.

Here are five habits that are currently ruining your skin and of course how to stop them so that you can have clear, smooth, amazing skin no one wants pimples, acne, wrinkles, and sun damage. 

Not Wearing Sunscreen.

If you're going to be out in the sun, make sure that you're applying sunscreen, especially to your face to protect it. Not only is it going to protect you from sun damage in those sunspots, but also wrinkles. If you're outside for long enough and you don't protect your skin. You might even get skin cancer. 

It's best to use a broad-spectrum sunscreen of SPF30 or higher and re-apply it every two hours when outdoors.

Forgetting To Wash Your Face At Night.

Throughout the day, your skin absorbs dirt and impurities from the environment. Some of these impurities can't be removed with water alone, so it's important to use a cleanser that contains surface-active substances before bed. If you don't cleanse your face at the end of the day, the dirt, oil, and cosmetic products that have built up could remain on your skin and clog your pores.

Quick tip: After you wash the face, we move all of the natural oils suitable for the skin. Make sure that you apply a good moisturizer to rehydrate your face before you go to bed. 

Squeezing Pimples.

We know, there’s something too irresistible about squeezing a spot out of existence. However, you should resist picking your pimples if you don’t want to end up with some nasty scars and acne hyperpigmentation. Squeezing zits just pushes bacteria deeper into your skin (and transfers new germs from your fingers), causing inflammation, irritation, and scarring. For these reasons, it's best to let a pimple run its course and fade away on its own.

It also applies when you can’t stop touching your face all the time. With all that is happening, you shouldn't be touching your face anyway. Not only because of everything going on but also because you're going to end up getting your face contaminated all day.

Smoking.

Studies suggest that smoking cigarettes can adversely affect the thickness and density of the skin. In particular, skin elasticity on the forehead of people who smoke may be lower than that of non-smokers. Every time you light up, you inhale over 4, 000 toxic chemicals that cause oxidative stress and inflammation in your skin. Long-time smokers develop wrinkles earlier in life because the chemicals in tobacco smoke deprive the skin of oxygen and damage collagen and elastin molecules. Quitting smoking isn’t easy, but for the overall health and well-being of your body and skin, it’s surely worth it.

Bad Dietary Habits.

We know for a fact that foods with high carbs ruin the skin fast as good as it tastes. Eating foods like dairy, soy milk, ice cream and butter, yogurt, bread, and chocolates all the time will make your skin pointier which means you're going to have more pimples or acne breakouts. Don't be one of those people that say, “I can't eat anything because of my skin.” Just make sure that you're eating a healthy balanced diet. That's the most important word here. Balanced diet. That is all you have to do.

Pro tip: Consume more green leafy vegetables, peppers, broccoli, citrus fruits, berries which have antioxidants and nutrients that fight wrinkles causing free radicals. Foods containing vitamin E [oats, brown bread, wheat germ, nuts], and Omega-3-fatty acids [flax seeds, fish, sunflower seeds and olive oil] slow the aging process. Regular intake of green tea and ginger has shown marked anti-aging properties.

In conclusion, our skin is incredibly efficient in taking care of us and fighting off environmental pathogens and aggressors that could potentially do great damage to our organs. However, our skin isn't immune to the damage we perpetuate, which is why it's a good idea to be gentler towards it and avoid habits that could be ruining our skin.