Why Skincare Is So Important
It’s pretty simple! To keep your skin looking and feeling healthy and to enhance your natural beauty. Isn’t that the goal? While a skincare routine may sound high maintenance, in reality, the steps to healthy skin are not only necessary, they are easy to implement. Investing early in the health of your skin , with regular skin care, will not only better nourish and protect it, but also keep you looking and feeling your best throughout the years.
If you are older with mature skin, starting a regimen at any time in life will benefit your skin. It’s never to late to improve what you have. Most of my clients are 60 and older. Some have never used anything on their skin before working with me. Skincare is not just about preserving and protecting it is also about healing and correcting. Of course, the earlier you start the better. A simply routine should start as early as teen years.
The primary skin types are dry, oily or combination skin. While your skin may get drier in winter and oilier in the summer, the majority of the time it should be relatively consistent.
Next it is important to know what makes up a healthy skincare regimen.
The basics are the types of products to keep your skin clean, healthy and protected. And then if you need correcting and healing we go further.
Why Cleanse?
Actually, it’s just a great way to start you day! Cleansing in the morning will help eliminate any unwanted excess oils from oily prone skin and start with the hydration process for dryer skin.
Cleansing at night will rid your skin of all the dust, pollen and other environmental pollutants that you were exposed to throughout your day which you pick up in the air. Not to mention it will rid your skin of excess oil, sweat and dirt if you had an active day.
Think of it like this, if you go to sleep without cleansing your skin, all those environmental toxins are sinking deeper and deeper into your skin, interrupting your skins natural rejuvenation process which occurs at night.
Clean skin is the first step to healthy skin, ridding it of surface toxins and excess oil.
For Normal to dry skin: Oil cleanser, Brightening Cleansing Water or Hydrating Cleanser
For Oily skin: Oil cleanser, Brightening Cleansing Water or Exfoliating Cleansing Nectar
Why a Toner?
Toners contain ingredients that replenish and restore nutrients to your skin and can diminish redness and dry patches
For all skin types: Brightening Cleansing Water acts as a toner
Why Hydrate?
When hydrated properly and regularly with key ingredients like hyaluronic acid your skin will maintain more of a healthy balance. HYDRATING is KEY to ALL SKIN TYPES! Even the oiliest of skin needs hydration.
Oily skin is typically out of balance with redness and inflammation which makes it very sensitive. If your skin is acneic you will most likely be using products with AHA’s or enzymes to help unclog pores. These ingredients take the skin out of its natural balance by stripping the skin of natural oils that are needed thus drying the top layer of the skin. This will push more oil up to the top of your skin in a response to the surface being dry and can create unnecessary breakouts. Hydrating your skin will help to bring back the balance so sensitivity does not occur.
Normal to dry skin needs hydration to help your skin appear plumper and healthier, reducing the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles and again to balance your skin. As we age we lose hyaluronic acid naturally, so the skin becomes dehydrated more easily. Most skin that is considered sensitive is simply skin that is lacking proper hydration. Other causes of dehydrated/dry skin are; harsh weather, especially winter and dry heating indoors during the winter. I recommend stepping up your hydration during the winter months. Key ingredients like Hyaluronic acid help to plump the skin and aid in balancing the skin. Hyaluronic acid is in our skin naturally but diminishes with age.
What is Hyaluronic Acid?
Hyaluronic Acid is a sugar molecule that occurs naturally in the skin. It helps to bind water to collagen so the skin can appear plumper, dewier and more hydrated. Applied topically Hyaluronic Acid acts as a powerful humectant, meaning it draws water to itself. Hyaluronic Acid is known to hold 1000 times its weight in water.
Every skin type needs at least one of these products:
- For all skin types: Hydration X3 Serum
- For normal to dry: Hydrating Night Cream
- For Extremely dry skin: Hydrating Cream Extreme
Why Treat?
This is where it really gets exciting!! Here is where specialty products come in to feed your skin key ingredients like antioxidants, peptides, amino acids, and minerals to help it look and perform its best. Feeding your skin key specialty ingredients can help create healthier, younger looking skin by aiding in the healing process to help reverse the signs of previous damage and aging. They also can assist in elastin and collegian production and aid in making your skin stronger.
What are Antioxidants?
Antioxidants are ingredients that help protect the skin’s surface from oxidative damage caused by free radicals and environmental aggressors like UV RAYS and Pollution. Antioxidants have great anti-aging benefits. The most popular antioxidants are Retinoids or Retinols (forms of vitamin A) and vitamin C. When speaking of the skin these vitamins need to be applied directly to the skin.
Antioxidants exist in virtually every Kelley’s PlumPretty Skin™ product. Listed are products that focus on higher percentages of Antioxidants.
- For younger skin and Acneic: Cloud
- For dry and/or mature skin: Hydrating Night Cream, Hydrating Cream Extreme
- For most skin types: Vitamin C Night Cream – acts as a brightener and free radical defense
What are Peptides?
Peptides are amino acids that make up certain proteins needed by the skin. Collagen is made up of 3 polypeptide chains, so adding peptides can stimulate your skin to make collagen. More collagen can lead to firmer, younger looking skin. Used daily, peptides can give the skin a smoother look by plumping up the tissue around fine lines and larger pores making them appear smaller. In my opinion you can’t have too much of these!! They are fabulous!!
For all skin types: Peptide serum, Peptide Cream, Skin Transforming Serum, Peptide Eye Cream, Transforming Eye Cream
Why Exfoliate?
It is an essential step for all skin types. Exfoliating will rid the top dead skin cells from the skin leaving a more prepared surface to enhance the absorption of your skincare products. It also will leave the skin looking brighter and can help prevent clogged pores, resulting in fewer breakouts. Depending on the product you choose and the condition or needs of your skin you can exfoliate as much as every night to once or twice a week.
For all skin types: Enzyme Night Crème, Exfoliating Cleansing Nectar, Exfoliating Enzyme Scrub, Enzyme Fruit & Flower Mask, Pore Perfecting Peel-Off Mask
Why Protect?
You need to PROTECT TO PRESERVE!
You can use as many products as you want religiously and get as many facials as you want but if you do not protect your skin from the sun you will accelerate premature aging. Also, If you don’t have a clear understanding of sun protection ingredients you can easily be using a product that doesn’t really protect your skin from the most harmful UV damage. Most sunscreens today are full of ingredients that only block UVB RAYS, while the UVA RAYS are proven to be the most harmful.
Let me explain. There are 2 different types of UV RAYS from the sun, UVA and UVB. The UVB RAYS BURN you. They are the short wave-length rays that do not penetrate below the superficial skin layers. They are the rays responsible for giving your skin color from the sun.
The UVA RAYS AGE you. UVA RAYS ( long-wavelength) account for approximately 95% of the UV Radiation reaching the earth. The UVA RAYS cause all the serious long term damage to skin that we cannot immediately see. They cause Hyperpigmentation (freckles and sun spots) and the breakdown of elastin and collagen, premature aging and worse of all irregular cell growth, SKIN CANCER.
To adequately protect your skin from harm of both UVA and UVB rays it is imperative to wear a sunscreen with Titanium Dioxide or Zinc Oxide. These two ingredients create a layer on the surface of the skin that reflect the sun back into the atmosphere and block the rays from penetrating the skin.
It is also very important to note the VU RAYS are present even through foggy and rainy days.
Bottom line, sun exposure accelerates the aging process by breaking down the skin and causes SKIN CANCER. DO YOUR SKIN A FAVOR AND WEAR YOU SUN PROTECTION everyday!
For all skin types: BB Cream