5 ways to great skin: the expert guide

“It’s as simple as touching your face and asking yourself, ‘where is my skin at today?’” says Dr Sebagh. “Use your fingers to see if it feels oily or if it is dry, flaky or sensitive. There are so many different factors that affect how your skin feels and looks – from air-conditioning and hormones to pollution and travel.” We also know that stress has an impact on our skin (redness, flaking, breakouts) and, according to Dr Sebagh, women are more affected by this than men. “Stress inhibits the blood circulation, so your complexion looks gray and you lose any glow,” he says. “Some days your skin needs more nourishing oil, some days more hydrating water.” So it’s only when you know the state of your skin that you can choose what to use that day.

“Think of a pot of face cream as Ready to Wear, and that you can potentialize it by customizing it to your skin’s needs on that particular day,” says Dr Sebagh. “That’s when it becomes a ‘couture cream’.” Is your skin feeling ultra-dry? “Just add a couple of drops of face oil to your cream,” prescribes Dr Sebagh. Hydration – as in extra water – is pretty much a staple for good skin, however, when traveling or sitting in an office all day, adding a few drops of hydrating serum to your cream is essential. “You can add vitamin C to your cream for more glow and better skin tone, but the real day-to-day difference comes from bespoking it daily with extra oil or hydration, as and when your skin needs it. It makes your skin healthy because it keeps the barrier strong – and that’s what makes a great skin.”

“Air travel is very aggressive on the skin,” says Dr Sebagh. “A lot of women are obsessed with using all these sheet masks and hydrating serums when they fly, but it’s not water they need, it’s oil. I tell my clients to use an oil-based serum when they fly and to layer it on like a face mask. Once they’ve tried this, they always tell me it’s changed their life, because it’s the oil on your skin that stops dehydration when flying.”

“You need to drink water and put water into the skin with hyaluronic acid-based serums,” says Dr Sebagh. But, while many women stop their daily skincare at the serum stage, to keep skin looking plump and dewy, it needs to be sealed with a cream. “I see a lot of super-dry skin on women; what they all need is this water-and-cream combination.”

“Sheet masks are very popular, but, really, you need to ask yourself, how much of an active ingredient is there actually in that mask?” says Dr Sebagh. “You can make your own mask from your favorite active serum – I do this myself all the time.” First, use a skin peel to maximize the absorption of your serum ‘mask’. Then, all you have to do is layer it up with a treatment serum, literally saturating the skin (using layers rather than one big dose works better). Leave to sink in and, after 10 minutes or so, massage what is left into the skin.