Even smokers care about how they present themselves to the world. Despite the fact that smoking causes you to stink of tobacco, makes your teeth yellow and makes your skin age prematurely, people continue to maintain this nasty habit. What is strange for non-smokers is that smokers spend considerable amounts of money on perfume, teeth whitening and ant-wrinkle creams. What's the point? Wouldn't they just be better off quitting?

Yes, if you're a smoker you're more than likely just pouring money down the drain. There's the cost of the cigarettes in the first place plus then there's all these expensive beauty products. Beauty products aren't needed anywhere as much if you are a non-smoker.

When it comes to aging your skin, the sun followed by cigarettes are the most damaging. For women it's actually a lot worse because nicotine is far more addictive for women. Meaning they have more trouble quitting. It's also beleived that smoking can bring on the menopause earlier.

It's not just your facial skin that will be prematurely aged either. The skin on your entire body can be aged via smoking. Previous studies on the effects on smoking and skin health were caried out on the face. But of course, this isn't really fair because the skin can also be damaged by the sun. So a study was carried out where skin was tested from the inner arm which doesn't get so much sun exposure.

So whilst you're spending a fortune buying all the latest designer skin moisturizers, if you keep on smoking you'll just put that money to waste.

You may say that there are people who smoke yet still look really fantastic. Sure, this might be true but they also have genetics to thank for that. It's beleived that with most people how they age is 30% genetics and 70% lifestyle. However those people who live so that they're over a 100 years old despite drinking and smoking heavily, it's thought that they are 70% genetics and 30% lifestyle.

So you might be lucky to have good genes that means you can smoke like a chimney and still look fantasic. Or you might be like most people who end up with skin like a crocodile.

So have I convinced you to quit smoking? If I have you might be wondering what to do next. Well, there are loads of good products for quitting cigarettes. You just need to be determined. Research as much as you can about the negative effects of smoking cigarettes and tell yourself you don't want to suffer the negative effects.

Tags: beauty, quit smoking, nicotine, cigarettes, skin