If there is one thing you always like to see when you look in the mirror, it is skin that looks beautiful and healthy. But as you know, unless you are one of those people born with exceptional genes, having great skin can involve plenty of work and trial-and-error along the way. If you are ready to leave the trial-and-error behind and discover the best ways to take care of your skin, here are four tricks you can use that will soon have everyone you meet asking you for your skincare secrets.

Wash Your Face

Yes, this sounds simple. However, despite what you’ve heard about this celebrity or that celebrity not washing their faces, choosing to wash your face will almost always guarantee healthy skin. By washing your face when you first wake up and just before you go to bed, you remove dirt, oils, and bacteria that accumulate in your pores. If you don’t do this, the result is having pores on your face appearing much larger than normal.

Use Exfoliation Treatments

Whether you do this yourself or instead like to visit a day spa to have this and other skin rejuvenation treatments done by professionals, exfoliating your face will work wonders as the years go by. To get the best results, you should rely on alpha-hydroxy acids, known as AHA. Very gentle, they allow you to dissolve dead skin cells without having to use hard scrubbing on your face. As an added bonus, AHA also draws moisture to the skin, keeping your face looking and feeling fresh.

Get Your Beauty Sleep

Yes, they don’t call it “beauty sleep” for nothing. When you get a restful seven to nine hours of sleep each night, your skin has time to restore, rejuvenate, and repair itself. Specifically, your skin produces new collagen as you sleep. To maximize how sleeping will impact your skin, go to bed at the same time each night and sleep in a cool environment of about 65 degrees.

Drink Lots of Water

While you may like to drink plenty of coffee or perhaps have a glass or two of wine now and then, neither of these will help your skin. In fact, alcohol and coffee will dehydrate your skin. To keep your skin hydrated, drink plenty of water, which most skin experts recommend to be about one gallon per day. When your skin gets dehydrated, lines become more noticeable, as do dark areas around your eyes.

Once you make these four tricks part of your skincare regimen, your skin will look better than you ever imagined.