Skincare Facts Everyone Needs to Know
WHY YOU MIGHT NOT HAVE YOUR BEST SKIN YET
There are many reasons why you may not have the skin you want: sun damage from not wearing sunscreen daily, your own biology, aging, midlife changes, health issues, environmental assault, using skincare products that don’t contain non-irritating ingredients or beneficial ingredients, and on and on. To one degree or another, all of these factors play a part in the complex and continual process of deterioration that occurs both inside and outside the body.
Over time, your personal biology, the environment, and skincare neglect slowly weakens the skin, decreases skin’s ability to keep itself young, healthy, even-toned, and feeling former, to have fewer congested pores, to be bump-free, to be hydrated, to feel and look smooth, and to be less oily.
Although all the factors mentioned above play havoc with your body and skin due to the problems they trigger, what you put on your skin can have the same effect, and often plays a significant role in what is going wrong. Skincare products that aren’t gentle weaken the skin and inhibit healthy normal-appearing skin.
Understanding what your skin needs for your skin type and your skin concerns are vital, but it’s equally important to know what your skin doesn’t need. That’s critical because the very skincare products you are using may, in fact, be exacerbating the problems you’re trying to fix.
Even after many years of looking at skincare formulations, it still shocks us that many of the products people buy to take care of a specific skin concern actually make it worse. For example, products you’ve purchased claiming to control oily skin often contain ingredients that make skin oilier. Products claiming to be oil-free often contain ingredients that nonetheless make skin feel greasy. Products claiming they won’t cause bumps may contain pore-clogging, emollient ingredients that don’t sound like they would be a problem because we don’t recognize the names on the ingredient label. Products claiming to be skin-renewing contain ingredients that deplete skin. And there’s always the issue of daytime moisturizers not containing sunscreen.
NOT BEING GENTLE IS YOUR SKIN’S WORST ENEMY
I cannot stress this enough: Not being gentle is really, really bad for skin! In addition to the huge daily assault our skin sufers from not wearing a product with an SPF 30 or greater, it is also detrimental to assault skin by splashing it with hot water and applying skincare products that contain skin-aggravating ingredients or have a harsh texture. Those are serious problems and will not help you achieve the best skin of your life. These types of attacks hinder skin’s ability to stay hydrated, help skin replenish itself, keep the skin’s surface intact, among many other complications.
For those with oily skin, it’s especially important to know that not being gentle can trigger an increase in oil coming from the pores and make the pores bigger! That is not good for any skin type!
It turns out that much of what we know about skin aging, the appearance of wrinkles, uneven skin tone, skin renewing, and bumps has evolved from our increased understanding of what results when you don’t use gentle skincare products, don’t use a sunscreen, endure the constant impact of pollution on skin without protecting it with efective skin care formulations, and either smoking cigarettes or being around those who do. All these activities trigger a negative response in skin that leads to cumulative negative results.
SKIN’S SILENT KILLER
It would probably be easier for those who smoke cigarettes to stop smoking if the damage it was causing on the inside showed itself instantly on the outside. Regrettably, that isn’t the case; as we now know, it can take years for the cumulative damage to show up. Interestingly, the same can be said for what happens to skin when you do things that have a negative impact.
People often assume their skincare products aren’t hurting or aggravating their skin because they don’t feel or see any negative reactions. Unfortunately, although we may not see or feel anything, there are serious negative processes taking place beyond where we can see. When the skin’s surface hides the impact of harsh or aggravating skincare products the problems may take a while to show up on the on the surface but they will eventually and you won’t think it’s very pretty.
You can get a clearer idea of how using products that aren’t gentle is causing this hidden, secret damage to skin by understanding what we know about how skin reacts to unprotected sun exposure; that is, when you aren’t seeking shade and are not wearing a sunscreen with SPF 30 or greater.
The sun is a major cause of early signs of skin aging and skin cancer. Yet, other than the (hopefully) rare occasion when you get sunburned, you don’t feel or even see the damage being done to your skin from not wearing a sunscreen rain or shine, until years later. Even more shocking is that the most damaging rays of the sun can come through windows, and it’s for certain you never feel that—now that really is a silent killer!
FRAGRANCE: SMELLS LIKE TROUBLE FOR YOUR SKIN
We are all attracted to a pleasing fragrance. In fact, the frst thing most people do when considering just about any skincare or haircare product is smell it. As nice as it is to have a product with a wonderful aroma, it doesn’t make sense for good skincare. Whether the fragrance in the product is from a plant or a synthetic source, with very few exceptions, what pleases your nose is a problem for your skin.
The way most fragrance ingredients impart scent is through a volatile reaction, which on your skin is anything but gentle, and which can cause a negative reaction that you rarely see on the surface. Research has established that fragrant ingredients in skincare products are among the most common cause of negative skin reactions. Fragrance-free is always the best way to go for all skin types.
Unfortunately, your nose cannot determine from the smell of a product whether or not it contains problematic fragrant ingredients or non-irritating ingredients that happen to have an aroma. Many benefcial skincare ingredients that are completely gentle have a natural pleasant aroma and do great things for skin. Distinguishing between the ingredients that actually do wonderful things for skin and the ingredients that are added to make you “shop with your nose” and cause problems is not easy.
Like anything in skincare, the basic information is on the ingredient label, but because those ingredients read like an advanced college chemistry course, they are often difcult to decipher, especially considering that the skin aggravating fragrant plant oils or extracts are listed only by their Latin names rather than by the more obvious terms “fragrance” or “parfum.”
EVERYONE HAS SENSITIVE SKIN
Most of us, to one degree or another, have temperamental skin; that is, our skin reacts negatively to the environment and can react negatively to what we put on it. Regardless of your skin type or concerns, lots of things upset our skin; some of which we can avoid and some we can’t. However, we can diminish much of the potential harm by using great skincare products that are loaded with benefcial ingredients and are gentle and soothing to skin and by being sun smart as we will explain throughout this book. The sun weakens skin in so many ways it’s devastating for us to contemplate.
No matter how you think your skin reacts to diferent aspects of the environment and to the products you use, we are all vulnerable to what happens from using skincare products that aren’t gentle and are not protecting our skin from the sun.
As mentioned above, whether you know it or not, you have sensitive skin because your skin reacts negatively to many diferent things, and you can’t always tell what is taking place below the surface.
To take the best possible care of your skin, it’s essential you take the same precautions that someone with more obviously sensitive skin takes: Regardless of your skin type, being as kind to your skin as possible along with using outstanding efective and gentle skincare products is nothing less than brilliant.
Whether you think of your facial skin as normal, oily, dry, acne-prone, or anything else, you still need to be gentle and avoid as much as possible things that aggravate your skin, contain fragrance, or have abrasive textures like scrubs. Taking care of your skin gently is a key step to getting and keeping the skin you want!
DOES SKIN COLOR OR ETHNIC BACKGROUND AFFECT WHAT SKINCARE PRODUCTS YOU USE?
It might surprise you to learn that whether your heritage is European, Asian, or anywhere else in the world, you do not require special skincare products based on your skin’s color or your ethnic background. Why not? Because skin color is not a skin type! None of the research on the diferences between ethnicities indicates that skin color has anything to do with the skincare products you need.
Darker skin tones do have some physiological diferences from lighter skin tones, but those diferences don’t afect what products you should be using. Think of it like your diet: Regardless of our ethnic background or skin color, we all still need the same nutritious foods to be healthy.
The exact same concept applies to skin. Skin is the body’s largest organ, and everyone’s skin needs the same ingredients to address dry skin, acne, wrinkles, sun protection, uneven skin tone, oily skin, redness, sensitive skin, and so on. All of these problems afect every color of skin and the skincare ingredients that resolve these issues don’t change because of skin color.
Everyone’s skin also needs the same basic care—gentle cleansing, sun protection, and state-of-the-art products for their specifc skin type. Having darker skin does not stop unprotected sun exposure from damaging skin.
It is also important to avoid problematic ingredients, such as alcohol, menthol, peppermint, eucalyptus, lemon, lime, and natural or synthetic fragrances, because exposure to harsh ingredients will worsen any concern on any color of skin.
Some of you may have read that Asian skin is more sensitive and, therefore, that it is critical that Asians use non-irritating skincare products. Even if Asian skin were more sensitive, it doesn’t mean that those with non-Asian skin, anywhere in the world, should use products with potentially sensitizing or harsh ingredients. Everyone, everywhere, should be gentle to their skin because using skin-aggravating products is detrimental, no matter who or where you are.
Whether you have normal, oily, combination, or dry skin or your skin concerns include sun damage from not using an SPF product daily, the appearance of wrinkles, large pores, breakouts, uneven skin tone, redness, loss of frmness, and on and on, there’s no research showing that diferent skincare formulas are needed based on your race or heritage. Around the world, ingredients that beneft skin and ingredients that are a problem for skin are the same.
Simply put, as far as biology and physiology are concerned, regardless of your ethnic, racial, or cultural background, you do NOT need special skincare products. Let go of this idea—in most cases, it won’t help (and could actually hurt) your skin.