Our skin works incredibly hard every day to protect our bodies from UV rays, harsh weather, injuries, pain and other external factors which cause stress. If you want to have great skin, it is crucial that you make your skincare regime an essential part of your morning and evening routine so that the process becomes a habit that’s as frequent as brushing your teeth! In today’s world full of zoom meetings and video chats, healthy, vibrant skin is something we all want. 

Here are a few tips for having Video Call Ready skin that will help not only boost your confidence, but also give a few practical tips on making your end of the call visually appealing. We will take a little longer on this first step as it is with your skin, the last four are just a few brief suggestions on lighting, position and other things to remember on a call. 

1) Take Great Care of Skin - Yes, it really is noticed!

Several years ago, Forever made a forward-thinking move to revitalise and reinvent many of its skin care products. The result was the Sonya Daily Skincare System for oily and combination skin, and the Infinite by Forever Advanced Skincare System for dry and mature skin. With our flagship ingredient aloe as the top ingredient in many of our skincare products, these products can be mixed and matched depending on your skin type.

Understand Your Skin Type

But first, seek to understand and identify your skin type. Dry skin is usually tight, flaky and sensitive, while oily skin is usually shiny and can have ‘troubled’ areas. Both skin types are easily identified. However, combination skin, which has the largest demographic of 18-45 year olds, are individuals who don’t know what their skin type is as weather, stress, and hormones can cause fluctuation between dry, oily and normal patches in different seasons.

The Sonya Daily Skincare System

The Sonya Daily Skincare System has four products to restore balance to combination skin, leaving it feeling hydrated and soft. For all ages from 12+, this range contains a high concentration of aloe and a hydra-infused, gel-based system that gently targets skin to improve its overall look and feel and its lightweight textures absorb into the skin quickly.

Sonya Refreshing Gel Cleanser is a soap free formula that supports combination and oily skin as it doesn’t leave skin feeling tight and dehydrated. Wash away dirt, debris and make-up with a slight lather created from a combination of ingredients like apple amino acids and Acacia Concinna, a climbing shrub native to Asia. Cold-pressed Baobab oil, which has vitamins A, E which moisturises the skin and leaves skin feeling soothed and moisturised. Use twice daily on the face and neck.

Sonya Illuminating Gel’s purpose is to even/brighten the overall appearance of the skin tone and texture—to give it a natural glow. A quick absorbing gel and highly concentrated, which helps to even skin tone and brightens skin’s overall appearance, reduce appearance of large pores, and softens the appearance of age spots. Use twice daily on face and neck after you cleanse.

The Sonya Refining Gel Mask promotes healthy skin tone and supports fluctuations of combination skin. Growing by 300% globally, sleeping masks are an emerging trend that nourishes your skin while you sleep as our body and skin perform differently at night while we rest. Use 2–3 times a week after applying Sonya Illuminating Gel and before bedtime and rinse skin the next morning.

Sonya Soothing Gel Moisturizer is great for all skin types but especially useful for combination and oily skin as it’s hydra-infused, gel-based formula balances the moisture of water/oils in the skin. Scientifically advanced linoleic acid and hydrolysed collagen, ensures it goes into the skin where it’s needed, and phytic acid is a powerful support for combination skin, to improve the look of your complexion. Use twice daily on the face and neck after applying Illuminating Gel or for added moisturising after applying Refining Gel Mask.

Infinite by Forever Advanced Skincare System

The Infinite by Forever Advanced Skincare System has been designed to work together for mature or dry skin to give you beautiful skin from the inside out and the outside in. The four products target the appearance of skin ageing with formulas that work together for a complete daily routine.

With over fifteen skin conditioning ingredients, Infinite Restoring Crème absorbs fast to leave skin feeling moisturised and smooth. This moisturiser combines science and aloe with powerful botanicals, including acai and pomegranate, and vitamin B3 to help even out skin tone and texture. Use daily to reinforce the skin’s natural barrier, replenish parched skin and further reduce the appearance of ageing.

Infinite Hydrating Cleanser is full of potent, naturally derived ingredients like apple extract, apple amino acid and cocoa fatty acids that increase skin hydration and gently wash away dirt and oil without drying. This mild, milky cleanser will leave skin feeling hydrated, soft and clean to lay a solid foundation for the rest of your anti-ageing routine.

Infinite Firming Serum targets the signs of ageing with a clinically proven three-amino acid peptide that complements the natural process of skin to increase firmness and to reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. Paired with powerful natural ingredients and our patented aloe, Infinite Firming Serum is a rich serum that makes skin feel smooth and firm, and your complexion appears visibly younger.

Focus on nutrient skincare with Infinite Firming Complex, Forever’s first exclusive beauty supplement. This supplement is an inner conditioning complex that helps target the appearance of premature ageing and it’s been specially formulated to assist beauty from within. We’ve combined vitamin C to help with healthy collagen formation in the skin, biotin to maintain healthy hair and skin, and we’ve even added extra marine collagen.

For best results, apply the Infinite Hydrating Cleanser, Infinite Firming Serum and Infinite Restoring Crème every morning, and then repeat this process every evening before bed. We also recommend you take two of the Infinite Firming Complex tablets in the morning every day.

Forever’s Targeted Range

Instead of creating too many products within those two systems, Forever established a range that sat in between the two that would provide a compliment to each skincare line. The Targeted Range purposed to hold products that customers could pick depending on their needs, concerns and preferences offering ‘extra’s that can be used on a daily or as needed basis.

Here are few products from The Targeted Range:

Thanks to peptide technology, collagen and other powerful ingredients, Awaking Eye Cream smooths and firms delicate under-eye skin to help reduce the appearance of wrinkles, dark circles and puffiness. This non-greasy formula can be applied as needed and targets the upper eyelid and the delicate skin around the eye, resulting in plumper, firmer skin around the eye area. Hydrating properties reduce water loss, and eyes appear rested, alert and renewed.

Combination skin fluctuates between dry and oily when the skin is out of balance because of pH levels or  because the acid mantle, the delicate top layer of the skin, is damaged. Forever’s Balancing Toner addresses both by bringing skin into balance to refresh, rehydrate, and balance. It’s designed to remove excess dirt, minimise the appearance of pores and hydrate the skin before moisturising, and after cleansing. It also contains a unique blend of seaweed extract and a form of hyaluronic acid, dubbed the ‘molecular sponge’, thanks to its water attracting properties.

Smoothing Exfoliator helps your skin look brighter by removing debris and dead skin cells. Jojoba beads gently roll across the skin to remove debris while sustainably sourced Korean bamboo powder, a large granule that doesn’t scratch the skin, sweeps the skin to remove dead skin cells. Enzymatic extracts resurface the skin from bromelain (from pineapple), papain (unripe papaya) and moisturising lemon essential oil. Regular exfoliation paves the way for other products to perform as it removes the barrier of dead skin cells, and is recommended 2-3 times a week in a skincare routine, though with men, it can be used daily to help promote a closer shave. 

Forever’s award-winning Aloe Bio-cellulose Mask provides potent, energising hydration using forward-thinking technology and natural ingredients. Its bio-cellulose fibres fit the contours of your face to deeply moisturise and to ensure every impressive botanical penetrates the fine lines and wrinkles traditional sheet masks cannot reach. Through a process unique to Forever, Aloe Bio-Cellulose Mask’s formula fuses pure aloe and seagrass with the bio-cellulose fabric to soothe, soften and condition skin. This environmentally friendly, biodegradable mask has also been enriched by a moisturising serum of green tea and horse chestnut that rejuvenates dull skin by combating the signs of ageing and reducing the appearance of redness. 

Hydrating Serum exponentially enhances the efficacy of your favourite Forever moisturisers with its hydrating and moisturising botanicals and oils. It boasts of four different forms of hyaluronic acid to provide a protective dense film on the skin surface and rapid absorption into layers of the skin. Helping to replace and reduce essential water loss in the skin, this new formula as helps shield against environmental stressors. Layered under your moisturiser, the Hydrating Serum also uses coconut fatty acids and shea butter that gives a light, easily absorbed feel to help your skin feel plump and hydrated while combating environmental stressors and signs of premature ageing.

And here’s a few more video call tips for the skin. The camera can highlight things like oil on your face, so I recommend blotting it prior to the call, especially in the afternoon when your oil production is at its peak. Use Balancing Toner to wipe off excess oil topped little swipe of Aloe Lips for a lovely smile. 

2) Remember lighting makes all the difference

Bad lighting can cast unflattering shadows or make you look poorly. This is easily solved by a few tricks such as: during the daytime place your device in front of a window (not behind you) to let the natural sunlight brighten your whole person and background. If you can’t do that, get a small flexible lamp with various settings that you can place in front of your device. This is great, especially at night. And if you have a little extra in your budget, buy a beauty lamp that vloggers use as it mimics natural light.   

3) Remove the Clutter behind you

Although our homes are often the environment for video calls these days, some places are better to take a call than others. Dark, cluttered or even a light on behind you can be distracting. A white or simple background is best, while wearing solid colours that bring out a healthy skin glow helps YOU to be visible, and not everything else, when on a video meeting. 

And of course, don’t forget to make sure you have adequate Wi-Fi in your area where you will be taking the call. I added an inexpensive Wi-Fi extender to my office so that I don’t have calls that drop or freeze.   

4) Avoid low angles, prop up your device and check how you look prior to the call in the webcam on your phone, computer or tablet.

Seen too many people’s nasal cavities in a zoom call because they have their device at an awkward angle? Prop your laptop on a book or place your phone in a stand at a better angle so that your video has a great, natural shot of your head and shoulders. Cookbooks are great for putting under a laptop to give it just the right height, and always check how you look in the webcam prior to the call for bra straps that might be showing, a collar that needs straitening, or messy hair that needs a little fix.    

Whether it’s a video chat with your nan or a zoom business meeting with a customer, Forever offers such a wide variety of products that you can help your skin glow with radiance. Start off with the basics of either the Sonya Daily Skincare System or Infinite by Forever and then add Targeted complementary products to create a great routine.