What’s your problem?
As a skin care professional , people are always looking to me for advice on a variety of skin conditions. This time of year everyone seems to have the same complaint: dry and flaky. With little or no moisture in the air skin can get this kind of cruddy, sluggish look to it as the outer laters dry up. Dry skin is caused by lack of sebum, the skin’s natural oil. There is a difference in dry skin and dehydrated skin. While dry skin lacks oil,dehydrated skin is lacking in water. The sypmtoms are similar in dry or dehydrated skin. Often dehydrated skin is caused by external factors and can be easily and quickly improved by just drinking 8 glasses of water per day and avoiding dehydrating substances such as excessive alcohol or caffiene. Dry skin takes a little more work to make improvements, since the cause of truly dry skin is genetic, it’s a skin “type.” Fair-skinned people seem to be more likely than others to have dry skin, especially as they age.
One size does not fit all.
The thing about skin care that most people don’t understand is that it isn’t an exact science. Every single person has a different reaction to skin care products and regimines. Your skins ability to repair itself can depend on things such as, diet, environment, allergies, medications, even heritity. I always encourage clients to try different things and combinations to see what their skin likes. Whenever I try a new product or routine on my skin I always give it at least a week or two and see how my skin reacts before I make a decision on the product. Now if you have a severe reaction or irration then of course you’d want to discontinue whatever that potion is immediately. If you have underlying health issues or conditions that may have an effect on your skin, you should consult your doctor for severe skin problems. If you search the internet for dry skin you get about a hundred of the same articles. And every year about this time you’ll see lots of advice in “beauty” magazines that all say about the same thing…no hot baths, use your moisturizer…go see your derm…blah blah…I’m trying to give some more specific remedies that I’ve actually tried or that I have seen really work on my clients.
Dry Skin symptoms and treatments.
If you are a naturally dry skin-type your skin will stay dry for long periods of time or all day after washing. Prolonged bouts of excesive drynes in the winter months probably leave you with a chapped angry look that you don’t find necessarily attractive. A moisturizer or lotion that has an thick, occlusive quality will help hold moisture in but in a lot of cases, will feel too think and gunky. I recommend my clients use 302 Body Treatment Intensive lotion (can be used on face or body). It’s a little thicker than the 302 Recovery Lotion but moisturizes without the “spackle” quality that a lot of heavy moisturizers have. It also has a yummy citrusy-minty smell that’s very light. If you still feel that is not enough and need more moisturizing , I recommend coating the skin with a thin layer of Jojoba oil after cleansing in the evenings. You can usually find it at the health food store in the skin care section or sometimes in drug stores. Don’t use so much that you could fry an egg in the oil slick on your forehead! Just a dime size amount on your entire face is plenty. Applied nightly after cleansing the skin can help soften the skin and hold in moisture at the same time. If you feel too oily or slippery after you apply it just blot your face with a tissue. Doing this nightly for a few weeks during the winter or just when your skin is overly dry is a good way to get through the frozen months with your skin still looking subtle. Another option would be to mix a few drops of Jojoba in your hand with one pump of 302 Recovery Lotion or 302 Body Treatment and apply it to the face when you are feeling too dry. I would also recommend a light exfoliation with the ultrasound machine for dry skin in the winter. And I emphasize “light”, just enough to get rid of a tiny bit of dead skin on the surface so that the skin can more easily absorb products applied for moisurizing. Also the Ultrasound treatment provides a deep penetration of a serum into the skin using sonophoresis. For someone with dry skin an infusion of this type using a non-acid Vitamin C serum can give the skin a nice boost of moisturizing. For experienced 302 users, a Signature Vitamin B Treatment will increase blood flow and really perk up skin that has been unresponsive to moisturizers. The vitamin b treatment drastically stimulates circulation and boosts metabolic activity in skin for up to a week afterward. (This treatment is not recommended for clients who have any kind of inflamation or acne present.)
Oily Skin Symptoms and Treatment
Now you naturally oily skin types are a whole different story. If your skin is naturally oily, usually when you wash your face in the morning you end up oily before lunch and your one of those people who is needing to powder your nose all the time…This can be an especially hard thing to deal with in the winter because even though the weather has you feeling dry applying more moisture can end up clogging your pores since the pores tend to be a little bigger in oily skinned individuals. Clogged pores just lead to acne eventually, which oily skin types are prone to enough already.
Oily skin is actually a blessing in my opinion. It means you will end up with less wrinkles in the long run, so I don’t like the idea of just drying up the oil. What you need to do is get your skin functioning correctly again. I recommend staying away from all exfoliating acids such as alpha or beta hydroxy. Benzoyl peroxide is another one to stay away from. In the long run they’ll do you more harm than good. If you are oily and have no acne breakouts I would recommend using 302 Recovery Lotion for a moisturizser as needed. I say “as needed” because many oily skin types use too much moisturizer. Only use it if you feel or look dry, this may be every day or may not. While Recovery Plus is designed for any skin type, oily people tend to love it’s light, gel-like texture that soaks in without leaving any slippery feeling. Another good product for oily skin types is 302 Calming Mist. It’s a calming spray that is moisturizing and soothing. You can use it in combination with Recovery Plus Lotion or by itself depending on how much moisture you need.
Acne and Dry Skin
Sometimes in the winter, even though you are feeling dryer than normal you find your face breaking out even worse. And you might notice more of what I call “underground” acne. That’s when you get those mean, painful, cyst-like pimples that sometimes don’t even come all the way to the surface, they just sit there and look red and swollen and miserable. Sound fun? These can mean the skin isn’t function normally. The skin is an organ and has it’s own systems and functions just like your kidneys would. If somethings not functioning correctly it tends to look sick or inflammed. Those “underground” pimples, I believe in some cases, are a result of an infected and impacted sebaceous (oil) gland combined with a build up on the surface of too many dead, dry skin cells. Often the whole mess is compounded by an evil hormone of some kind… whether it be the garden variety female once-a-month thing or good old fashioned stress. So what’s a girl (or guy) to do?
If you are acne-prone or if you have current acne breakouts I would suggest Recovery Lotion (RX), which has a similar texture and feel as Recovery Plus but has some added calming and soothing ingredients. Also the use of 302 Acne Mist is a nice thing to add to your routine if you have acne, no matter what time of year it is. This spray used twice a day on bare clean skin has an outstanding result on acne. It contains Epigallocatechins (I didn’t even try to sound that one out!) that come from green tea and have been found to provide an anti-bacterial effect equivalent to 4% Benzoyl Peroxide. It also contains natural sapponins which reduce discomfort and redness and enzymes which reduce or even eliminate the formation of pimples! It also has a light moisturizing effect as well. This is by far one of my favorite 302 products.
If you have oily and/or acneaic skin and are having increased dryness in the wintertime, a little exfoliation will help also. Use a facial brush once a day or every other day when washing your face instead of a wash cloth. A light, even scrubbing with a brush will help get the skin completely clean, while removing any debri like dead skin so that moisturizers can soak in more effeciently. An Ultrasonic facial as mentioned earlier with an infusion of vitamin C will add a nice boost of light moisture and help the skin look more alive during the winter months. For acne sufferers, an additional infusion of Vitamin A serum with the ultrasound device will help with breakouts without over-drying the skin. A great non-drying spot-treatment for acne is 302 Ointment-rx, a natural, fragrance free, neutral ointment barrier cream designed for burns, rashes and open wounds.
Nutritional and Medical Considerations
Eating a balanced diet that includes vegetables (especially yellow and orange ones for the vitamin A), fruits, seeds and nuts and eating quality protein from vegtable sources and Increasing your intake in raw foods can show a significant improvement in dry skin conditions. Fish oil and flax seed which contain Omega-3 fatty acids are great for all the connective tissues in your body including your skin. And while I love my potato chips or some good ole french fries, oils that are heated either in processing or cooking are proven to have a destructive effect on the skin, so try to limit those fried foods. They are yummy but they are bad for the rest of your body too, moderation is key.
I have tried many products over the years and found many that work and many that don’t. Clients ask me all the time about specific products they have bought or are thinking about purchasing and I’m always happy to weigh in with my opinion based on what I know about the ingredients of a product. I try not to pay too much attention to the actual marketing of any product since lets face it, they all claim to be miraculous! I try to do as much research as I can on the ingredients and delivery system of the skin care products I use or am thinking about using.
If you’d like to pick my brain…just give me a call!
You can find more information about me and my business at:
http://www.skinessentialswichita.com/
