5 ways your grooming routine might be ruining your skin

Mistake #1: Taking showers in water that’s too hot

Showering with piping hot water might seem like a great way to keep clean but in reality all it does is strip away skin’s naturally-occurring oils, leaving it feeling dry, tight and irritated.

Instead, try turning down the heat a little, limit your time under the nozzle and apply a body moisturiser after showering to help keep skin hydrated.

Mistake #2: Over-scrubbing

Using a face scrub is a great way to re-invigorate dull-looking skin and help prevent ingrown hairs but over-scrubbing can irritate skin, making it red and sensitive. So always be gentle (you’re not sanding down a piece of wood after all) and limit your scrubbing to once or twice a week.

Mistake #3: Pressing too hard with your shaver

Electric or battery-operated shavers are precision tools, carefully designed to take the hard work out of shaving, so for the best results let the shaver do the work, only gently pressing the heads against the skin. Use quick but gentle circular motions with your rotary shaver and you’ll achieve great results in no time.

Mistake #4: Using the wrong moisturiser

Moisturisers are crucial for keeping skin hydrated and healthy-looking but for the best results you need to match the moisturiser to the man. Opt for rich, nourishing creams, balms or moisturisers especially formulated for dry skin if your skin tends to be dry and flaky and always choose lightweight, oil-free, mattifying products if your skin tends to be greasy or prone to spots. Oily skin still needs hydration, remember, but the last thing you want to do is to add more grease.

Mistake #5: Applying eye cream wrongly

You only need to apply tiny amount of eye cream for it to be effective (a grain of rice-sized amount is plenty) and it’s best applied with a gentle tapping motion, using the tip of your ring finger.

Apply around the edge of your eye socket and up towards the outer tip of the eyebrow, avoiding going too close to the eye itself – make that common mistake and you’ll (quite literally) have a bathroom blunder to cry about.