Talk to Me – “It rubs the lotion on its skin. It does this whenever it is told.”

*I apologize up front as I will be using the word moisture in this post.  I hate the word moist, but it is necessary in this post.

“It rubs the lotion on its skin. It does this whenever it is told.” Sorry I just love this quote, but I must say this is NOT me! I have never been one who faithfully uses lotion.  In the winter when my hands become extremely dry and painful I use Neutrogena Deep Moisture hand cream and it works wonders!  Occasionally (and by occasionally I mean once every 3 months) I will moisturize my face with some AVON lotions.  But as for using lotion on a daily basis on either my body or face, I do not do that.

Now when I was younger it never seemed like that big of a deal; my skin was fine.  But over the years I have noticed my skin become dryer and maybe not as elastic.  But still, I do not moisturize at all.  I refuse to wear lotion during the day, as it just feels greasy and heavy and I hate that.  I hardly wear makeup because I just don’t like the feel of stuff on my face for a long period of time.  And even at night my face and skin feels heavy when I put lotion on plus I feel like the blankets stick to me.  (Ok, I KNOW they don’t really stick to me, I am just weird and don’t like to feel constricted when I sleep and lotion makes me feel that way.)

At the beginning of the year I wanted to make a conscious effort to moisturize daily. I bought Vaseline Cocoa Butter lotion and try to remember to use that on my stomach, legs and arms. I mean it is sitting on my nightstand right by where my glasses go…so by “try to remember” I mean “when I feel like remembering”.  I also use an AVON daily lotion on my face. So far, I think I may remember to do the body lotion once every week or so and the face lotion even less.  Baby Steps, no?

I hear all these people on shows talk about the benefit of using lotion daily.  I even googled ‘What are the benefits of using lotion” (yes I did) and they say it re-hydrates dried skin, helps with anti-aging, smooth calluses, feels and smells good, help yourself relax, protects your skin, and makes your skin glow. Ok, sounds good but does it work?

So, riddle me this friends….is it important to moisturize your skin daily?  Do you use lotion?  If so, what do you use and how often?  Is there a big difference between a $5 lotion and a $50 lotion?

And what about exfoliating, do you do that TOO before you use lotion? 

I realize I am not getting any younger and should do what I can now…but does that mean using lotion?   I see my mom, who has beautiful skin and doesn’t really use lotion, and just wonder if it is mostly about genetics or does lotion really help with the elasticity and look of your skin?

*On a side note, I know it sounds really lazy to not just take a few minutes to put on some damn lotion.  However, it already takes me forever to get to bed because I have to pee, not once but twice, before I can fall asleep.  I have my contacts to take out, teeth to brush (and have a routine with that), like to pluck anything on my face that shouldn’t be there, and lets not talk about how long it takes me to set my alarm (I may be slightly OCD in a few areas of my life).  And then we have to shave and moisturize and do all those other daily/weekly things to keep ourselves going.  It is just too much sometimes!