14 Ways for How to Improve Skin Texture
A soft, smooth, and even texture is one of the hallmarks of healthy skin, but the road to achieving it can sometimes be—no pun intended—a bumpy one. While it’s perfectly normal for skin to have texture, a coarse or uneven complexion can be frustrating, especially when it refuses to go away. Fortunately, it’s nothing that an effective skincare routine can’t fix. If you want to make sure your skin looks and feels its best, you’ve come to the right place. Below, we list our top tried-and-tested tips on how to improve skin texture so you can be on your way to rocking that silky-smooth skin of your dreams.
What is Skin Texture?
Skin texture is the general term used to describe the condition of your skin’s surface and how it feels to the touch. Healthy skin is smooth, supple, and soft, which means it gets enough moisture and hydration, has balanced sebum production, and has steady cell regeneration. However, several factors can alter the skin’s texture over time and cause it to feel dry, rough, and bumpy. This is referred to as textured skin.
What Causes Textured Skin?
Sun damage: UV radiation is the number one culprit in premature skin aging. It wreaks havoc on both the surface and deeper layers of the skin, breaking down collagen and causing DNA mutations in skin cells. Environmental stressors: It’s not just the sun that your skin takes a daily beating from. Pollution, dirt, and smoke all contribute to free radical damage and oxidative stress that negatively impact your skin. Aging: Our skin texture undergoes a natural transformation as it ages. As elastin and collagen production slows down, the skin begins to lose firmness and moisture. At the same time, fine lines and wrinkles become more noticeable. Dryness: The lack of proper moisture and hydration weakens the skin’s natural barrier, making it more prone to irritation, sensitivity, acne, and other skin conditions that lead to textured skin. Dead skin cells: When old skin cells build up on the skin’s surface, they cause your skin to look dry, dull, and uneven. Lifestyle: The health of your skin’s microbiome is affected by certain lifestyle choices, such as smoking, lack of sleep, alcohol, and diet, which can accelerate skin aging and raise the risk of inflammation. Acne: Breakouts, especially the persistent kind, can leave the skin with pronounced scarring, bumps, and indentations. Genetics: Skin conditions can often be attributed to genetics, which means there’s a good chance you’ll inherit the same skin struggles your parents or grandparents had. Skin conditions : Chronic skin conditions can make skin look and feel patchy, scaly, thick, rough, and bumpy.
How to Improve Your Skin Texture
1. Cleanse
Every skincare routine starts with a good cleansing to wash away all the day’s dirt, dust, and product residue and prevent them from building up on the skin’s surface. Ideal for blemished or aging skin, an enzyme cleanser like Osmosis +Beauty Purify Enzyme Cleanser—featuring kiwi, kumquat, pineapple, and papaya—can rid your skin of impurities while delivering gentle exfoliation to reveal a more radiant-looking skin.
$44.00
Beauty Insider Tip: Massage one pump of this rich cleanser onto damp skin and rinse thoroughly.
2. Exfoliate Regularly
Thorough and gentle exfoliation is key in ridding your skin of dead skin cells, promoting cell regeneration, unclogging pores, and refining scars, dark spots, and blemishes. Try the Dr. Dennis Gross Alpha Beta Universal Daily Peel, a two-step exfoliating system that delivers instant and long-term anti-aging benefits. Infused with AHAs, antioxidant vitamins, and green tea, it visibly refines the appearance of fine lines, wrinkles, hyperpigmentation, uneven texture, and pores.
17 reviews
$92.00
Beauty Insider Tip: The step 1 pad features a potent blend of exfoliating AHAs and BHAs to renew and exfoliate the skin’s surface layer, while the step 2 pad is infused with retinol and resveratrol to deliver maximum anti-aging benefits.
3. Refine Enlarged Pores
Large and visible pores can be a hotbed of acne-causing bacteria. The solution? Gentle exfoliating pads like the First Aid Beauty Facial Radiance Pads with Glycolic and Lactic Acids. Designed for daily use and works for all skin types, including sensitive skin, it features high-performing AHAs that smooth and even out texture irregularities and shrink enlarged pores while prepping the skin for your other skincare products and makeup.
$38.00
Beauty Insider Tip: These exfoliating pads can be used once or twice daily, morning and/or night. To use, wipe the pad across clean and dry skin and follow with a moisturizer (and SPF during the day).
4. Boost Moisture and Hydration
Dry and textured skin needs all the hydration it can get, and there’s no better way to quench parched skin than a deeply hydrating serum that can fill in the dents and cracks left by dead skin cells. Your best bet? The PCA Skin Hyaluronic Acid Serum. Best for all skin types, including sensitive skin, it’s infused with ceramides, niacinamide, and a hyaluronic acid complex to deliver long-lasting hydration down to the skin’s deepest layers. It plumps fine lines and wrinkles, improves moisture retention, and fortifies the skin’s natural barrier.
316 reviews
$125.00
Beauty Insider Tip: Use this serum day and night to get the most out of its 24-hour hydration boost.
5. Go for a Chemical Peel
Your body’s natural cycles and processes slow down as you age, and that includes shedding off old skin cells to make room for new growth. This can lead to a dull-looking complexion, clogged pores, and uneven skin texture. One way to prevent this is with an in-office chemical peel treatment. Alternatively, you can try an at-home peel to achieve your desired results. Opt for a gentle chemical exfoliator like the Caudalie Vinoperfect Glycolic Peel Mask, formulated with glycolic acid and natural AHAs, which visibly reduces the look of dark spots, refines skin texture, and supports natural cell renewal.
7 reviews
$42.00
Beauty Insider Tip: For best results,
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