Skincare Q&A with one of our expert skin therapists!
SUMMER SKIN
1. What would be your top 3 tips to prepare your skin for summer?
Keep Hydrated - Drink water throughout the day to prevent dehydration. It’s true what they say that water does help to hydrate the body and the skin from the inside out.
Vitamin C – This is a key hero product when it comes to summer skin. This incredible ingredient prevents hyperpigmentation (photoprotecting), improves the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles & boosts collagen production for younger, supple skin.
SPF! This is the most important step of your skincare routine. You must always finish your am routine with sunscreen! This is the best preventative measure against wrinkles and signs of ageing.
Some favourite SPF & Vitamin C products are:
Vital C Hydrating Repair Creme
2. When skin is dehydrated or dry during the summer, what do you advise?
Adding hyaluronic acid into your skincare routine will help to hydrate the skin and add moisture back into it. It’s a humectant ingredient that holds up to 1000x its weight in water, making it the most effective hydrating ingredient.
It’s important to void harsh cleansers when your skin is dry or dehydrated. Using strong active ingredients with potentially irritating ingredients can make it worse. Instead, use nourishing, hydrating products that will add moisture back to the skin.
When skin is dry it’s important to protect skin from UV rays to protect and build the skin’s barrier.
3. When skin gets red, hot or flushed when in warm settings, what products would you recommend?
Vitamin C is a great anti-inflammatory product to use on the skin. It will help to reduce redness in your skin and hydrate your skin with its repairing properties.
SKINCARE MYTHS
1. What skin care myth do you wish to squash?
Wearing sunscreen prevents you from getting a good level of vitamin D - You're still able to get vitamin D even if you're wearing sunscreen! We recommend wearing the highest level of sun-screen for ultimate skin protection.
2. Does sun exposure cure acne?
The dehydrating effect the sun has on the skin does more harm that good. It may improve breakouts at first, but may then actually lead to more breakouts later on down the line as the skin can overproduce oil or excess sebum to combat dryness. UVA AND UVB rays can aggravate acne, so it's important that a sunscreen is used throughout the year, rain or shine!
3. Should you use retinol when in the sun or not?
Avoid using retinol in the sun as it can sensitise the skin. Replace your retinol product with a hydrating cream or serum instead, and keep retinol for the PM.
An effective Retinol is one from the Environ collection or the Image Repair Creme
4. Does the higher SPF mean it's better for your skin?
SPF 30 will protect you from around 96.7% of UVB rays, whereas an SPF 50 means from about 98% of UVB rays. There is very little difference between them.
SKINCARE PRODUCTS
1. Is it better to physically or chemically exfoliate?
Regular aggressive physical exfoliation may cause damage to the skin's barrier and contribute to redness, inflammation and even hyperpigmentation. Chemical exfoliators, such as alpha and beta - hydroxy acids (AHA & BHA) gently speed up the skin cell turnover in a much safer way! Therefore, we prefer chemical exfoliation.
AHA Lotion: Sebu-lac lotion, Environ
2. Should you have separate products for AM and PM?
In some instances, different products are necessary for the AM and PM. SPF creams are for AM use only, whereas we may include retinols in our PM routine.
3. How often should you exfoliate?
Chemical exfoliators can be used more regularly than physical, and may be used your skincare routine up to between 5-7 days a week. It’s important to start slowly with a chemical exfoliator, and build up to resistance.
4. What age should you start using retinol?
Collagen production starts to slow down from around the age of 25, so this age would be an ideal time to start using it in your skincare routine.
SKIN CARE TREATMENTS
1. What treatment do you recommend for young skin
The Hydrafacial is a great deep cleansing treatment without being too harsh on the skin! It will help to brighten skin, by de-congesting and de-clogging pores, whilst hydrating the skin and gently infusing essential, nourishing ingredients.
2. What treatment is the best for anti ageing?
My personal favourite would be the advanced treatment Morpheus8, as it strengthens and rebuilds collagen production as it improves the skin's texture. The results are very impressive and great for clients who want to dramatically improve their skin tone and texture.
3. For acne prone skin, do you recommend peels or Microneedling?
Microneedling can cause bacteria to spread on the skin, which may result in more breakouts. It's important to treat the acne with salicylic based peels first to control bacteria and reduce breakouts. Then, you may treat any left over scarring with Microneedling, which will encourage new skin to grow and replace the old skin.