When skin suddenly feels tight and looks dull, with fine lines and wrinkles more apparent than ever, it’s easy to panic. But, while it might be easy to assume that the stress of the past year has irredeemably accelerated the ageing process, it’s far more likely that such skin issues are simply down to dehydration. And while that’s not ideal, the good news is that it can be put right.
Unlike dry skin, which tends to be a long-term issue caused by your skin not producing enough oil, dehydrated skin is down to lack of water and is usually temporary.
“Skin hydration is absolutely paramount to maintaining a healthy skin barrier and ensuring that skin cells shed at a normal pace,” says Dr Cristina Psomadakis, a London-based dermatology registrar. “Adequate hydration is one of the key elements of a fresh-faced glow and minimises the appearances of cracks, flakes or wrinkles in the skin.” In other words, hydration is key to maintaining skin is in tiptop condition.
So what causes dehydration in skin?
We lose about half a litre of water through our skin on a daily basis. But that varies greatly with climate and exercise. And while it stands to reason that if you’re getting your sweat on, you’re losing water, cold weather – and the sort of lifestyle that goes with it – can be just as much of an issue as hot weather, when it comes to drying out your skin.
“Cold weather, indoor heating and hot showers can all wreak havoc on our skin and cause it to lose moisture and become dry and flaky,” says Psomadakis.
“It is really important to be proactive and try to protect our skin before it suffers from seasonal assaults. This usually means swapping to a richer moisturiser – or moisturising more frequently.”
The top layer of the skin – known as the skin barrier – is the body’s defence against everything the outside world has to throw at it. It not only stops stuff getting in, but it’s also the layer responsible for protecting your skin and holding in moisture, and it has to put up with a lot of abuse in daily life.
Stress, pollution, blue light from devices and infrared radiation can also compromise our skin barrier. When the barrier is damaged, the mechanisms that usually help keep skin hydrated and plump don’t work as effectively, resulting in dry patches, tightness, redness and dull skin tone.
And it’s worth remembering that skin health doesn’t just work from the outside in. What you eat and drink can also have an impact – as you’ll know if you’ve ever felt desiccated after a big night out. Alcohol – and caffeine too – can take moisture out of your body, and that will show on your skin too.
Psomadakis recommends swapping to a richer moisturiser (or using moisturiser more frequently), making sure to wear sunscreen even on cold days and limiting the amount of active or exfoliating ingredients and swapping them for gentler ones instead.
Drinking a few more glasses of the stuff isn’t going to do anyone any harm, but there’s no guarantee that all of the H2O you drink is going to make it to your skin. So what’s the answer? Putting water on the skin doesn’t seem to make much sense, either, given how tight skin can feel without body lotion after even a lukewarm shower.
That’s where you need to look to smartly formulated skincare. Vichy Minéral 89 is a hydrating serum that’s made up of 89% water – and not just any water, it’s volcanic water that’s rich in 15 essential minerals. That’s right, all waters are not created equal. Vichy’s volcanic water travels 4,000 metres underground through the volcanic region of the Auvergne in France and, on the way, picks up a load of minerals including iron, manganese, potassium and silicon. This very special water has been clinically proven to help strengthen the skin’s natural defence mechanism and speed up cell surface renewal. But to reap all those benefits takes some clever formulating – after all, if getting water into your skin was as easy as slapping it on the surface, you’d blow up like a balloon every time you had a bath.
Crucially, Vichy Minéral 89 pairs this mineral-rich water with hyaluronic acid, which is increasingly being viewed as the secret ingredient when it comes to radiant, hydrated skin.
“Hyaluronic acid is a sugary substance that we make naturally in our body – it is found in the skin, eyes, joints, even the umbilical cord,” says Psomadakis. “As people grow older, they lose some of the hyaluronic acid found on the epidermis, the upper layer of our skin.”
Hyaluronic acid, which is a very safe ingredient for all skin types, can be natural, or synthetic, and comes in different sizes. While smaller molecules with lower molecular weights can penetrate the skin, higher molecular weight hyaluronic acid is a larger molecule that sits on the surface drawing water to it, helping to smooth and plump the skin.
The hyaluronic acid in Minéral 89 is of natural origin, and is a larger molecule, perfect for counteracting the sort of winter dehydration that your skin is likely to be suffering from. As such, Minéral 89 is the only serum to get the British Skin Foundation stamp of approval, which means the foundation has checked over its research and agrees that it stands up. No wonder beauty editor Funmi Fetto described the easy-to-use serum as being “like a glass of water for your skin”.
Drink up!
Save 25% on Vichy Hydration Essentials now at Lookfantastic. For a limited time receive a 3-month free trial to Headspace Plus when you purchase Minéral 89 Serum*.
*Save 25% valid until 10 February 2021. Headspace offer valid until 16 February 2021 on LookFantastic.com. After your 90 days free trial, the subscription renews automatically at £49.99 for an annual subscription to Headspace Plus. You can cancel at any time. This offer is for new or existing free Headspace users only. Credit card details needed to redeem. Offer can be redeemed until 30 June 2021.
from Lifestyle | The Guardian https://ift.tt/3iKyDYO
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