My Facial Facts: Is Your Skin The Best It Can Be?

 I know there are SO many products out there and I understand that although you may want to be proactive and take care of your skin, you also don’t want to break the bank in developing your beauty regimen.

Let me inform you on the key products that should be the standard in your bathroom cabinet. Having these essentials will ensure you’re delivering the adequate ingredients to your skin, without investing too much time or layering too much product.

Consider this your Skin Care Basics 101.

The top 5 products you should be investing in are…

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There is new and groundbreaking technology revolutionizing the skin care industry and you may be seeing it here for the first time.

Skin care enthusiasts, listen up: This is the way the skin care and anti-aging market is headed and you definitely want to come along for this ride.

What am I referring to?

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Dry skin indicates that the condition of the skin barrier needs a little help, mainly because your skin doesn’t produce enough oils.

The lipid barrier is a naturally-ocurring barrier that consists of a mixture of oils and ceramides. Think of it as the ‘bouncer’ in your skin. It decides which ingredients to let in, and what to keep out. It makes the skin stonger, and the healthier it is, the more hydrated your skin will be, and the less irritated it gets.

It’s naturally acidic in its pH and this is to keep harmful bacteria and irritants out! When this barrier is weak or insufficient (which tends to be the case often with so many barrier-debilitating procedures such as strong peels, microdermabrasion, lasers, etc), it lends the skin to be more sensitized and more ‘reactive’ to products. It can also give way to more inflammation in the skin, which in turn accelerates aging, and increases the occurance of acne and pigmentation. (Click here to read more on inflammation)

This lipid barrier is very much influenced by diet, stress, hormones, prolonged exposure to water and cold, dry weather. If you live in a cold state or country, you know this first-hand.

Clients during winter-time in Colorado always have the same complaint: dryness.
This is due to the harsh, dry cold outdoors and then the heat inside every home
and business.

This constant fluctuation in temperature affects the fats that lubricate the skin
and begin breaking them down. Aside from this, it can cause the weakening and
breaking of small capillaries, causing redness and a ‘flushed’ look.

You are also more prone to developing wrinkles with dry skin.

What is Your Course of Action?

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I can tell who owns one by the way someone’s skin looks or by the concern the client describes regarding improvements they’d like to see.

For the person obsessed with the ‘stuff’ they see in their pores, the horrible red marks and scarring are a dead giveaway because I KNOW those are self-inflicted wounds from a little night-time ‘surgery’.

For the person that doesn’t necessarily pick, but takes mental notes of everything they see wrong, talk about their ‘pores being too big’ or something so minute that even when I’m using a professional magnifying lamp in a treatment session, I can’t quite see what they’re talking about…

…and by the way, this is because their mirror magnifies the skin at least 7 times more than what mine does!

When you think about it, is that normal?

I’ve spent thousands upon thousands of dollars on training, I have over 17 years of experience and the magnification I use as a working, professional esthetician (because it’s what sold to us) is a fraction of what’s available to consumers.

I feel we’re in a society that’s obsessed with more: the more burning during an exfoliation or peel, the better it must be.

The more aggressive procedures you can get done, the better results it must give.

The more visible and magnified the skin is, the better to disect it with and really get down in there.

Do you see what I’m saying?

We’re on this trend of more and stronger, and as a TRAINED professional, it makes me a little nuts because I find clients self-diagnosing on things that aren’t even visible to the nake eye.

Although you think these mirrors are helping you see better, what they’re really doing is creating an illusion of what you now think your skin looks like.

I’ve learned that the general public will harm themselves in the name of beauty and youth if you let them! This is an entire blog post in itself, and I will definitely write more about it later, but until then, let’s get back on track.

Mirrors. Magnifying mirrors.

I’m going to give you the most AMAZING advice for which you will thank me later:

Ready?

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