The Four-Fold Path to Silky Smooth Skin

1. SLEEP. There's a reason it's called "beauty rest." Allow your body to heal and replenish itself. There's no substitute for this.

2. HYDRATE. Drink lots of water and eats foods with a high water content, like fruits and vegetables. Limit your intake of caffeine, alcohol, and carbonated beverages, as these dehydrate you.

3. EXFOLIATE about every other day. Allow time for a new layer of skin to grow before you scuff off the old one. Use something rigid, with a rough surface, but that won't tear the skin. A sponge is too soft. A pumice stone, except for callouses, is too abrasive. I use a stiff loufah, like this one:

4. MOISTURIZE as often as needed, but especially right after bathing. I have sensitive skin, so I use unscented lotion. With unscented lotion, you also don't have to worry about a lotion fragrance clashing with a perfume fragrance. Eucerin is my favorite lotion. It's thick and creamy. It's a little on the expensive side, but worth it for healthier skin. Also, I find when I use a better quality lotion, I don't need to apply it as often. As a variant to moisturizing with lotion, you can smooth some unscented bath oil all over your skin and then pat dry with a towel. This will give you a nice glow.

Treasure your skin! It's one of your first lines of defense against infection. It's integral to comfortable handshakes as well as to intimacy. And unless you're a weather-beaten Captain Ahab, or good friends with a plastic surgeon, it's usually a reliable indicator of age, too. So don't take your skin for granted!

"I shall not easily forget Admiral Baldwin. I never saw quite so wretched an example of what a sea-faring life can do; but to a degree, I know it is the same with them all: they are all knocked about and exposed to every climate, and every weather, till they are not fit to be seen."
- Sir Walter Elliot on sailors, Jane Austen's Persuasion