Do you Really Need a SKINCARE ROUTINE? Part 2
Madeleine Arena
The next three important steps in creating an effective skincare routine are to renew, to protect, and to prevent.
Your skin sheds billions of cells every day. However, sun damage, dry skin, oily skin, genetics or a variety of skin disorders can cause the skin’s natural shedding process to slow or stop. Adding an exfoliant as the third step in your regime can help renew your skin, making you look younger.
For maximum efficacy of steps four (protect) and five (prevent) you’ll need to add products formulated with ingredients that protect from UVA and UVB sun rays, reinforce and maintain the skin’s structure, and restore damaged cells to normal function.
Choose products that contain ingredients from these four essential groups:
1. Broad Spectrum Sunscreens
It’s critical that your daytime moisturizer contain these active ingredients, which will differentiate it from your nighttime moisturizer. The single most important step you can take to prevent pre-mature aging, not to mention preventing skin cancer, is to wear a broad spectrum sunscreen with an SPF rating of at least 30. Broad spectrum means that you’re protected from both UVB (burning rays) and UVA (aging rays). Look for these active sunscreen ingredients to ensure you’re getting sufficient UVA protection: Titanium Dioxide, Zinc Oxide, Avobenzone, or Tinosorb.
2. Antioxidants
Antioxidants help your skin heal, produce healthy collagen, resist the harmful effects of the environment, reduce inflammation and free radical damage. These ingredients include: various forms of vitamins A, C, and E; Co Enzyme Q-10; superoxide dismutase; glutathione; green tea and grape seed extracts, to name a few. While it’s not always true, in this case, if a little is good, a lot is definitely better, so look for a product that’s rich in these ingredients.
3. Skin-Identical Ingredients
Improve skin texture, retain water, protect from the environment, fight infection, and help repair and maintain the skin’s outer and inner barrier structure. Choose a product that contains some of these ingredients: ceramides, lecithin, glycerin, fatty acids, polysaccharides, hyaluronic acid, collagen, elastin, proteins, amino acids, cholesterol, and glycosaminoglycan.
4. Cell-Communicating Ingredients
Help prevent wrinkles by reducing cellular damage. Cell-communicating ingredients can tell a skin cell to look, act, and behave more like a normal, healthy intact skin cell would. This is a developing area of skin care. Look for products that contain these ingredients: niacinamide, retinol, synthetic peptides, lecithin, and adenosine triphosphate.
Next month I’ll cover specialized treatments, as well as the specifics of a daily routine.
Madeleine is the author of the skin care chapter published in
Tick Tock, Stop the Clock ~ Getting Pretty on our Lunch Hour
Filed under: "Books about beauty", Ageless beauty, Anti-aging, Skin care Tagged: "avoid facial wrinkles", "facial wrinkles", "get rid of facial wrinkles", anti-aging, Lois W. Stern, Madeleine Arena, skin care, Stop the Clock Getting Pretty On Your Lunch Hour", The Skin Source
