Step2 Wash your face no more than twice a day with a gentle cleanser formulated for dry skin. Washing more often can dry your skin.

Step3 Take short baths or showers and use warm rather than hot water. Try to limit showers and baths to one per day. Use soap only where you need it, such as on your underarms and groin.

Step4 Add a few teaspoons of olive oil or lavender-scented oil to your bath.

Step5 Pat your skin dry after washing. Avoid rubbing yourself dry with a towel, which can whisk away essential oils needed for moisture.

Step6 Apply moisturizer while your skin is still damp. Heed the advice of many experts in choosing a moisturizer'less is more when it comes to the ingredient list.

Step7 Understand that moisturizers contain barriers, which keep water on the skin, and water binders, which whisk moisture from the inner layer of skin to the top layer.

Step8 Aim for a comfortable level of humidity in your home or office. Too much heat or too much air-conditioning can rob your skin of moisture.

Step9 Protect yourself from the sun -- use sunscreen and avoid direct sunlight between the hours of 10 and 2.

Step10 Don't -- I repeat -- don't smoke. Your skin is a large organ and it needs a lot of circulation. Smoking impairs that dramatically. That's why smokers' skin looks dull and gray. Instead of having oxy-generated blood delivered to the surface of the skin, they're getting poisons and oxidants.

Step11 Get adequate rest and nutrition.

Step12 Protect yourself from stress -- both emotional and environmental stress.

Step13 Wash your face twice a day and put on the proper treatment product. I'm amazed when women tell me they don't wash their face in the morning. A lot of icky stuff collects overnight -- dead skin cells, dirt, and dust!

Step14 Don't neglect certain areas of the skin. Elbows, heels, neck, and decolletage need moisturizing, and your scalp and the tops of your feet need sun protection.

Step15 Touch your face less and wash your hands more! Don't get too surgical on yourself. It's very tempting to pick, poke, squeeze, and scratch in front of the mirror. But the more you traumatize the skin, the greater your risk of scarring. Apply treatment products and let them work.

Step17 Keep your makeup clean. Replace the sponges in your compact on a regular basis. Now and then, toss the whole works and start fresh -- the average shelf life for cosmetics is 6 to 12 months. Don't buy products so expensive that you'll be heartbroken if you have to throw them away.

Step18 Exercise moderation. More is not always better. Moisturizer, for example, is the most overused product in America. We've been bamboozled by cosmetic companies into thinking every square inch of our body has to be slathered. And it's simply not true. Exfoliators are another thing to be careful with. Used too often, they overacidify and irritate your skin.

Step19 Beware of counter girls. If it were up to them, you'd be in the bathroom for two and a half hours each morning -- putting 80 layers on your face. Keep your regimen simple. And when you do add a new product, do it gradually so your skin has time to adjust. Each skincare or makeup product has an average of 20 to 40 ingredients -- you're introducing 20 to 40 potential allergens to your face every time you try something new.