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-clog-ging, 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 suffers 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 skin-care products, don’t use sunscreen, endure the constant impact of pollution on the skin without protecting it with effective skincare formulations, and either smoking cigarettes or being around those who do. All these activities trigger a negative response in the 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 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 the 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 sun-screen 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!