16 rules to live by for young-looking skin

16 simple yet wildly effective rules to live by for dewy, plump, perfectly smooth skin--no matter what your age.

1. Even if you're sitting in the shade, without sunscreen you're being zapped by aging rays. Sunscreen, (at least SPF30, every day) not only prevents aging, it gives your skin time away from defending itself, so it can actually repair and undo existing damage.

2. There's wet, and then there's wet: If you want any antiager to work better, get your skin very wet. For instance, if you want your face scrub to exfoliate more than usual, do it at the very end of a shower.

3. Always pat eye cream in with your ring finger--it's the weakest, so the most gentle.

Perfect Your Skin: The right regimen makes all the difference, whether you're treating breakouts, wrinkles or redness.

4. Retin-A, Tazorac, Renova: These prescription-only retinoic acid formulas de-age skin like no over-the-counter cream. It takes about six weeks to see results, but the difference in most people is truly spectacular.

5. For some, retinoic acid is too skin-sensitizing. The next strongest thing is available over the counter: retinol. The most powerful retinol we know of is Help Me by Philosophy. If that's too much for you, Healthy Skin by Neutrogena is nonirritating but still extremely effective.

6. Too much sugar in your diet causes glycation--an inflammation and a disruption of collagen production. Avoid eating sweets, and use a product designed to prevent (and undo) the reaction.

7. Your skin does most of its repair-and-refresh work at night. Lack of sleep shows up on your face as dullness initially, graduating to wrinkling, sagging, and even breakouts as you continue to lose sleep.

There are no falsities to this beauty sleep business. A Lucky beauty editor was recently inflicted with mono (and a 1,000 hours of sleep) and reemerged with her most luminous skin ever.

8. Supplements: Who knows if they work? They might, and that's why we take them--especially those with omega-3, -6, and -9 oils. Since none of us can eat as much youthifying salmon as the experts say we should.

9. Cold really does bring down puffiness. Throw your eye cream in the fridge, or use these already-frosty versions.

10. Unanimous editors' rave: More Lucky staffers mentioned Kiehl's when they were queried about their antiaging routines than any other brand. They love the avocado eye cream, the pineapple papaya face scrub, the...

11. Peptides stimulate your cells to produce more collagen. They retexturize--so your skin feels silkier and looks brighter--and minimize lines. And they don't irritate at all.

12. Smoking is even better (and faster) at aging your face than the sun.

13. Wind and cold are dehydrating. Moisturizer plumps up your skin, making it look and feel smoother temporarily. We have never met a makeup artist who doesn't apply moisturizer liberally before makeup--it really makes a difference.

14. If you overdo it on skin treatments, anti-inflammatory products like Dr. Brandt's Laser Relief will calm your skin back to normality overnight.

Been a little overzealous with your skin care routine? One Lucky editor suggests this calendula cream as a cure all.

15. Tinted undereye moisturizer is a genius invention. Use it alone if your trouble is not severe, under concealer if it's more major.

16. If all else fails, keep your sunglasses on--and not solely for the obvious reason of camouflage. You also shield the delicate and first-to-wrinkle-and-sag eye area from future damage. Eye cream with SPF