7 Things Every Woman Needs to Do for Her Skin

Most women wash their face three to four times a day, says Emmy Graber, MD, a dermatologist and assistant professor of dermatology at the Boston University School of Medicine, but studies show that twice a day is optimal. The more you wash, the more likely you are to strip your skin of natural oils. What's more, Graber says that some of the exfoliating particles found in scrubs (like pieces of fruit pits) can cause microscopic scratches on the skin. And microbeads that are gentler on the face can be bad for us in other ways (they've recently been found to pollute the ocean, and increasingly, the Great Lakes and may boost the level of toxins in the fish we eat). Graber says that a washcloth does a fine job at sloughing off dead skin cells, dirt and makeup.