The Best Skincare Lessons We Can Learn From French Girls

Traveling to France can teach you a lot of things, especially when it comes to skincare. French girls seem to have the worst habits– drinking wine in the middle of the day, chain-smoking cigarettes, eating decadent food, but even so, they somehow manage to look effortlessly put together while maintaining clear skin. These are tried and true skincare tips straight from French girls, so you too can have glowy, gorgeous skin that doesn’t need any makeup.

Don’t Use A Towel When Washing Your Face

Even if you use a different towel every day of the week to dry off your face post-cleansing, you’re still not doing your skin any favors. Your towels have been washed with detergent and fabric softener, so traces of those chemicals get onto your skin and can irritate it. Try washing your face in the shower and letting your skin dry naturally, or using a cotton pad to gently dab away excess water. The fewer irritants that are on your skin, the better.

Stay Away From Harsh Exfoliants

If you have acne, it’s easy to get in the habit of thinking you need to scrub, scrub, scrub to get rid of pimples and excess dead skin. However, this can actually make your skin worse. The more gentle you are on your skin, the sooner it will get better.

Don’t use any walnut scrubs or exfoliating masks, they leave little tears in the skin which can actually make it more susceptible to pimples as bacteria can more easily penetrate the layers of skin.

Do A Double Cleanse After A Long Day

This skincare tip takes a little extra time, but it’s worth the effort. Throughout the day, we expose our skin to pollution, sun damage, and makeup products that clog our pores, so it’s essential to get all of that off at the end of the day.

Try oil cleansing to take your makeup off, and then washing with a gentle cleanser. Or just use your regular cleanser twice to get off all of the dirt and grime. One wash usually doesn’t do the trick!

Be Patient

Wanting products that make your skin better in an instant is such an American concept. Our culture is obsessed with having things get done right away, instead of going with the flow and letting things happen when they’re meant to. Let go of the concept that a specific product will make your skin better overnight, and don’t freak out if your drying lotion doesn’t immediately get rid of a pimple. French girls don’t obsess over, making everything perfect. Adjusting your attitude will actually help your skin, as stressing over everything only makes your hormones go crazy, which makes acne worse!

A Quick Post-Gym, Pre-Class Skincare Routine

Don’t Use Soapy Cleansers

American girls are very attracted to cleansers that suds up while washing your face because it seems like the soap is getting rid of all the gunk. But soapy cleansers actually mess with your skins pH balance and strip your skin of the healthy bacteria it needs. Use cleansers with natural ingredients, and your skin will be very happy.

Less Is More

We love to overwhelm our skin with products here in America, but the French prefer a much more pared-down skincare routine. A gentle cleanser, makeup remover, and moisturizer is really all you need to get gorgeous, glowing skin. French girls love micellar water for this very reason, it cleanses the skin while moisturizing it at the same time, so you get all the benefits of multiple products without layering on too many things at once.