Your #1 Skincare Mistake

Recently I started a great new skincare series with Caterina Marra-Vazquez, she is an Esthetician and Brand Manager at Tribeca Beauty Spa in New York. Her advice is so straight forward and no nonsense! Recently she shared the best change you can make to make your skin look better. If you have a skincare question you want her to address, make sure you let me know me!

What is the number one skin care mistake that women are making? How would you fix it?

I think the number one skin care mistake that women make is taking really hot showers. I guess I’ve been so attentive to “skin-related” details since I became an esthetician, because I never really knew how hot people took their showers until one day I was on a girl trip for my sister’s birthday. We were six women in two rooms, so three of us shared a hotel bathroom. I was so shocked when I walked into the bathroom after my cousin– it was so smoky from the steam I couldn’t see in front of my eyes. I said “Just how hot do you take your showers?” and she said “Very hot, I love the feeling”. Over breakfast I brought it up again so the whole party could hear and everyone (except for me) agreed that they love hot showers and find them relaxing.

While I can see how a hot shower can be relaxing, I trained myself to take slightly warm showers because piping hot water really sensitizes your skin and dries it out. Further, if you have any skin condition, like eczema, aggravated acne, rosacea, etc. hot water is only making the condition worse. In fact, showering everyday with very hot water can actually give you a condition like eczema.

The best way to fix this is to train yourself, as I did, to take mildly warm showers. Lower the temperature each time you shower until you find a temperature you can live with that doesn’t make you cold but doesn’t heat your skin either. It took me about a month to get used to warm water instead of hot. I have been doing this for so many years now that when the shower spits out hot water I actually feel like my skin is being burned. It is totally doable. I would drop it slowly and shower for one week at the new temperature then the following week lower it again only slightly so you don’t feel much of a difference, and so forth. By week five or six you are guaranteed to be comfortable in cooler water.

Caterina Marra-Vazquez is an Esthetician and Brand Manager at Tribeca Beauty Spa