Dija Ayodele is a qualified and practised professional facialist and skincare consultant. In her spare time blogs at Dija's World where she talks about skincare. She took time out to share her skincare journey with us. There wasn't a defining point where I thought 'I must start looking after my skin'. I grew up surrounded by women who were always groomed and polished. I remember watching my mum layer product over product on her face or gently using cotton buds to remove every last trace of mascara from her eyelashes. That's just how life was. My mum would massage Oil of Olay Beauty Fluid into her face repeating the mantra 'stroke up and never down.' Twenty five years later, sometimes I catch myself saying the same thing.

In secondary school, my sisters had the defining influence. The only thing available for teenage skin then was Clearasil and I hated it! Now there's a better choice of skincare products for teenage skin. My sisters always had much nicer products (read expensive) in the bathroom and I had a field day nicking their products all the time. I went through a Mary Kay stage when I was 12. The creamy facial cleanser was gorgeous and I loved their pink packaging. I used to go to Body Shop after school to buy Tea Tree Oil Face Wash and Vitamin E Moisturiser. Basics I still use now.

My other source of skincare inspiration was Marie Claire magazine. I'd devour the beauty section and make notes of the products I would buy with my pocket money. It took ages to save up for anything decent but whenever I got a product it was like Christmas came early. At 16 I had a part time job and I could seriously feed my skincare interests. When my friends were buying clothes and shoes, I was busy buying face creams. A love affair with Clinique started and I was sold on the 3 step system. To this day those steps form the basis of my skincare routine.

At university, I became more aware of the long term health of my skin. That prompted an upgrade to more high tech results driven products. Brands like Estée Lauder, Lancôme and Clarins opened up a new world for me. I can safely say my student loan was spent more on lotions and potions than on books. That same philosophy guides my skincare choices now and I'm even more into cutting edge brands. Keeping my skin in optimum health is my primary concern so I always consider how a product compliments my current regime and what future benefits it provides. In my world, happy skin makes for a happy person, so the investment is more than skin deep.

Dija will be launching Facials by Dija in September so watch this space. You can follow her on Twitter.