Do I still break my own rules sometimes? Of course. We’re not all perfect creatures of habit. Not all of us know when to walk away from the third martini and therefore sleep with our eye makeup still on. We’re human. But today I’m sharing the bad beauty habits I regularly try to escape.1. Using makeup remover wipes instead of washing your face. JUST SAY NO to makeup removing wipes. Ask any dermatologist and they’ll tell you they just don’t do the trick. Your skin needs to be properly cleaned every morning and night. I trust my own two hands to do this (morning) and my Clarisonic to do this (night) and that’s it. My two exceptions? I try to keep a pack of wipes in my gym bag to remove makeup after work and before a workout class so my pores don’t get clogged even more. I like these. The second exception is related to nights where you’ve just had too much damn fun and you simply cannot be bothered to wash your face. (Mostly because your head hit the pillow before you even thought of it, but I try to keep these instances few and far between. I’m not 19 anymore after all…)

2. Speaking of makeup removing, wipe your eye makeup off before you get to washing your face. It ensures you remove any additional traces of eye makeup (I’m looking at you, mascara) when washing the rest of your face. I recommend these. (And if wearing waterproof mascara or eyeliner, these.)

3. Have an oral hygiene routine and stick to it. On the days when I’m feeling particularly determined, I brush, floss and rinse. Every now and then I whiten at my desk. But seriously do yourself a favor and use an electric toothbrush and floss, floss, floss. The last time I went to the dentist she told me it was her best cleaning of the day and I nearly fell out of my chair. But hey…guess what? I’d been flossing and rinsing nearly every night. Keeps your teeth cleaner and whiter. Win/Win.

4. Don’t pick at your nails. When I am stressed, I peel my nails. It is disgusting, I know. If I’m having a rough week, my nails will show it. So recently I’ve decided to stop letting perfectly decent manicures go to waste when the first nail chips (that’s when I mentally allow myself to go at the peeling) and I choose a color that I have at home to get my nails done (or very close to similar.) This way when my first one or two nails chip, instead of peeling my nails or chipping my polish, i cover up the chips with a polish at home and revel in having a manicure that can – usually – make it through the week.

5. Don’t wash your hair every day. And definitely try not to heat style it every day! I understand everyone’s hair is different but I’ve also had to train my hair to not “want” it to be washed every day. Generally I try to wash my hair only 2-3 times per week. But it took a while for it to adjust to this. My tried and true combo is to wash my hair at night, dry it after applying a hair smoothing cream and a de-frizz serum and then sleep on it. In the morning, I apply my favorite dry shampoo (dozens of others pale in comparison to this one, in my opinion), brush my hair and then either curl it with a rod or put it in up in a bun. Not first before applying this miracle that was sent down from the hair gods.

6. And then there’s the one where almost all girls are guilty: picking your face. It is so easy to fall into this rut and want to think we’re “getting” that pimple but it only leads to scabbing and scaring. While I still am guilty of this every now and then – after speaking to my facialist, what I do first instead of popping a pimple, is dabbing this powder on and letting it sit overnight. If the zit is still bad in the morning, then I reassess, but 99% of the time, this powder helps minimize and in 1-2 days eliminate the problematic pore. It deserves the name “magic,” indeed.What are your bad beauty habits? Any good resolutions you’ve found? Share in the comments!