The easiest thing you can do that instantly makes you appear more attractive costs nothing and works for everyone. Are you ready? Just smile. Sometimes people will approach my desk and tell me that I should smile or either they will say something that makes me smile. A smile on your face brightens your mood and therefore makes you seem more approachable. People are just naturally drawn to other happy people. Even if you don’t really feel like smiling, psychological studies have shown that just forcing yourself to smile will lift your mood.

Drinking plenty of water will help your skin look brighter of course as will getting plenty of sleep. Remember there is no cream scrub, mask or anything out there on the market that is a good substitute for a proper nights sleep. One thing that I always use in addition to plenty of sleep is a daily facial scrub. I am a big fan of Aveeno products. I use their daily brightening facial scrub once every morning because it sloughs off dead skin cells and helps me to wake up for work. Sometimes I have problems with darkness under my eyes and Aveeno makes an eye brightening cream that targets this problem. I use it in the morning to diminish the look of darkness but it can also be used at night. The product says the more you use it, the better results you will receive.

For problem skin that is prone to acne I think the idea is to use the least amount of products possible on the skin. That includes washing your face too often. All those acidic ingredients in acne preventing face wash can some do more harm than good. Then you end up with flaky skin on top of pimples. You want to let your pores breathe because clogged pores cause acne. I was recently on an episode of Trading Spaces and going through a bad breakout at the time. The makeup artist had some great tips for me that have had absolutely remarkable effects on my skin. I can’t say enough about the wonderful product known as rice paper.

It is marvelous and saves my pores from the damaging agent known as “loose powder.” My skin is naturally oily so I kept powdering all day long to soak up the shine. The rice paper absorbs all oil, doesn’t clog my pores, and makes my face feel lighter. My face looks much less made up now and the papers come in packs of forty sheets for only four dollars each! I also switched to”oil free,” drugstore foundation and trashed my more expensive Clinique. I just assumed that since Clinique was founded by dermatologists it would be better for my skin, well it turns out I was wrong. I’m not saying it’s all bad, just that particular foundation I had wasn’t oil free. If it doesn’t say the words “oil free,” on the bottle then it isn’t.

So those are my tips for having great skin. Smile, get plenty of sleep, drink water, keep makeup as minimal as possible, use rice paper to blot oil, exfoliate once a day and use an oil free foundation if you use foundation.