Good skin care is essential if you want to have a youthful look well into your golden years but that doesn't mean that it has to cost an arm and a leg. Sure, you can pay for expensive creams and cleansers, go to spas for the latest skin care techniques, but there's also a lot you can do that costs very little. One of the most important things you can do to keep your skin looking great is to make sure that you don't overexpose it to the sun.

Either avoid the sun altogether or use a high SPF sunscreen if you will be out in the sun for longer than 15 minutes. Another important thing you can do is make sure to remove your makeup every night. This costs basically nothing and only takes a few seconds.

Use a gentle makeup remover like cold cream and don't tug at your skin but gently pat away the makeup. Exfoliating and moisturizing your skin is important and there are many products on the market for this. Some of these products can be very expensive but if you don't want to spend a lot of money on wrinkle reducers, masks and moisturizers, here's some great skin care tricks you can use that won't cost you much - in fact, you probably have the ingredients for most of them right in your kitchen. - Make an oatmeal paste out of 2 tbsp oatmeal, 1 tbsp lemon juice, 4 tbsp plain yoghurt, 1 tbsp chopped parsley, and 1 tsp olive oil.

Massage this into the skin and let it stay on for about 5 minutes. This is a great treatment for irritated skin and works wonders if you have an oily complexion. - Beat 1 egg into 2 tbsp of milk. Wash your skin with a gentle cleanser and dab the egg and milk mixture on your face. Leave on for 5 minutes and rinse with warm water.

- Remove blackheads by rubbing your skin with baking soda. You can also use this on your whole body for a smooth silky feeling - just rub on in the shower and rinse off. - If you have oily skin rub fresh tomato on your face and rinse off immediately. Some people are sensitive to tomato so you might want to test a patch on your arm first before you try it on your face! - If your skin is really dried out, try rubbing olive oil on it.

This is a great natural moisturizer but can be a bit greasy so it might be best to rub in the olive oil and rinse your face in warm water. You could also try putting some olive oil in your bath to moisturize your whole body. Rubbing it on your body and washing it off in the shower is also an option, but be advised that this makes the shower floor VERY slippery and you will need to be careful and also be sure to clean out the shower thoroughly so the next person doesn't slip.

-make a facial mask out of egg yolk mixed with honey, leave it on for 20 minutes, and rinse off. This is great for sensitive skin. Honey gives a tingling/ticklish sensation, so if you are sensitive to that, use the egg yolk alone. Egg yolk is also very effective for treating eczema - use it instead of soap. - If your skin is dry try making an avocado mask - just mash up an avacado and smooth on your face.

Let it sit for 20 minutes and then rinse off. Don't be alarmed if you get some goes in your mouth by mistake because it makes a great healthy snack too!.

Lee Dobbins writes for http://www.bodycarezone.com where you can get more articles on caring for your skin and your body.