WE would all love flawless peaches-and-cream complexions.
But unlike Cameron Diaz and Victoria Beckham, who are prone to bad skin days, we don’t have a personal make-up artist on hand.
Big budgets aside, there are plenty of treatments for common skin complaints including open pores, acne, milia and red veins.
Here SUE MOXLEY examines the best ways to tackle your trouble spots . . .
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OPEN PORES: Pores can enlarge through the build-up of grime, excess oil production or simply through ageing.
Whatever the cause, they are a magnet for grease and dirt and will ruin your complexion.
Treat it at the salon: A series of glycolic peels dissolves the top layers of the skin, which reduces the pore size and also cleans any trapped dirt, allowing them to shrink back to normal size.
Glycolic peels at The Harley Street Medical Skin Clinic costs £150 (020 7935 0986, harleystreetskin.co.uk).
Treat it at home: Always keep your pores and skin clean and apply a product that minimises the appearance of open pores.
Try Roc’s Renewex Daily Renovator Cleansing Pads (£7.95, call 0845 600 4477 for stockists).
Clinque’s Pore Minimizer Instant Perfector gel covers the skin in an invisible, breathable film that fills in and smooths out the pore surface.
It can be worn under or over make-up or alone (£12.50, call 0870 034 2566 for stockists).
ACNE: Acne is one of the most common problems for skin and it can take a lot of effort to get your complexion blemish-free.
Treat it at the salon: Omnilux Blue uses a spectrally pure blue light source to clear and control acne.
The blue light penetrates two to three millimetres into the skin, targeting the layers at hair-follicle level, where it kills harmful bacteria.
It takes a series of treatments to work and while initially the skin gets worse, patients can expect to see a 70-80 per cent improvement by the end of a course.
At the Court House Clinics a course of six treatments is £350 (Court House Clinics: 0845 555 5050).
Treat it at home: Clearasil’s Ultra range promises visibly clearer skin and a reduction in redness in just three days.
The Deep Pore Treatment Pads clean deeply and contain a formulation with hydrogen peroxide to target spot-causing bacteria (£4.99 from major retailers).
Use the Rapid Action Treatment Cream on the affected red areas twice a day to clear the spots in three days (£5.99).
In addition to treating the problem areas, you need to look after your skin by reducing excess oils and keeping it as clean as possible.
Try Olay Daily Facials Clarify Clay Mask which boasts a blend of specially refined bentonite and kaolin clays to act like sponges and absorb the skin’s excess oil (£5.99 from Boots stores).
RED VEINS: Broken capillaries can occur for a number of reasons, including UV damage, exposure to extreme weather or even hormonal changes.
Treat it at the salon: Laser treatment targets and releases its energy in the red pigment of the blood cells.
The energy released generates heat in the vessels for short periods, which causes thread veins to close without puncturing them.
The body then absorbs the closed vessels and gets rid of them over four to eight weeks.
Between two and six treatments may be necessary. At The Harley Street Medical Skin Clinic, one session costs £150.
Treat it at home: Always use a high-factor sun protection cream every day. Try Clarins UV Plus with a sun protection factor of 40 (£25, call 0800 036 3558 for stockists).
You can help cover red veins using a moisturiser with green tones which helps to conceal redness. Try No7 Colour Calming Make-Up Base (£9.25 from Boots).
MILIA: Milia are tiny balls of skin cells which become trapped under the skin and look like little white beads. Eventually they will go away by themselves but there are ways of getting rid of them yourself.
Treat it at the salon: The Priori Advanced AHA Peel contains lactic acid which exfoliates the skin.
The lactic acid also unglues and dislodges the dead skin cells from the outer surface of the skin which covers milia, squeezing out the contents, leaving the skin smoother.
Your skin will get worse before it gets better.
For larger milia that are difficult to break down with the peel, extraction can be done after three peels which involves pricking the top off the milia with a needle, allowing the contents to be removed.
A £35 facial at Swiss Care includes milia removal, call 020 8342 1100.
Treat it at home: Try Olay Regenerist Thermal Skin Polisher, a self-heating, exfoliating mini-peel treatment or Clarins Gentle Exfoliating Refiner (£21, call 0800 036 3558 for stockists).
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