When I talk about skin I tend to get a little excited. Some might say I’m a little obsessed and although I want everyone to have Enzyme treatments and use certain ingredients on their skin, I feel an absolute responsibility to educate people. So when they are looking to have a facial treatment or buy a new moisturiser, they know what to look for and what questions to ask.
The skin is a complex organ, which in my opinion is treated with little thought or respect.
We throw on a serum or a cream out of a jar that promises the world, to be left disappointed and looking for the next miracle ingredient and now with a cupboard full of different ‘anti-ageing, hydrating, oil controlling, blemish removing, pigment fading’ products. We push them to the back and trot off to the shop to get our next wonder product.
I know you’re thinking that these expensive products you’re purchasing from our main department stores must be the best, however, most of these high-end products only contain 20% active ingredients. Yes they feel amazing when you put them on your skin, but that’s half the problem – they are sitting on the skin instead of penetrating to the deeper layers to make a change!
Have you ever thought what ingredient is doing what? Next time you’re pumping a miracle serum onto your face, turn to the label and check the ingredients. If the active ingredient you are looking for is not listed in the first five ingredients, it’s probably not going to help your skin in any way.
If I asked most of you what active ingredient your current product contained (Vitamin C, Vitamin A, Seabuckthorn, are a few of my faves) I’d guess you wouldn’t know.
Your skin needs a certain group of ingredients to not only protect it, but also feed it and keep it healthy.
I know most of you don’t want to hear this, but it takes more than one ingredient daily. It’s like building a house with only a hammer! Remember your skin is the body’s largest organ, and it works hard all day. Could you just eat broccoli and think that you have obtained all the right vitamins and nutrients?
When a client walks through our doors at MSB, with red, inflamed, dehydrated skin and then proceeds to tell me “I really like my products”, are we talking about packaging and marketing? Or the fact that these products have caused severe trans epidermal water loss (TEWL) and have left your face flashing like a beacon, or that you are still congested after scrubbing your face silly with the latest exfoliant? Your skin has it’s own little ecosystem and knows how to function so we need to be supporting it, treating it with ingredients it recognises. Not snake venom!
Which leads me to talk quickly about the gut. Skin and gut, gut and skin – they are 2 peas in a pod – Tarzan and Jane, Marge and Homer, Bonnie and Clyde…. Do you get the idea?
So without a healthy gut you will NOT have good skin.
I could feed your skin with every essential ingredient, rebuild with every treatment known to man but it won’t get anywhere. My best results come from my clients who cut sugar and processed foods, eat fermented foods (like sauerkraut) and take two wonderful supplements being; probiotics and prebiotics, and Essential Fatty Acids. 70% of our immune system is in the gut. The probiotics establish good bacteria and the prebiotics feed the good bacteria. Essential Fatty Acids help to improve the uptake of nutrients and release toxins by strengthening and repairing all cell membranes in the body. They also regulate hormonal imbalance, support metabolism, reduce congestion in the skin and most importantly, waterproof your skin from water loss!
At MSB we use Circadia and Divine Women products. Most cosmetic facials and creams work topically on the surface of the skin. They may exfoliate, hydrate and plump up the skin for a short period of time, but we all know our skin tends to go back to it’s old ways eventually. However, Circadia treatments and products – which by the way contain 80-90% active ingredients – work with the internal functions and structures of the skin. These treatments and products address what is presenting on the surface of the skin, but also work on skin function.
Imagine you are looking through the top of the skin – it’s like a factory, and so whatever is on the surface of the skin is in direct relation to something that is going on in this factory. So we not only need to remove what we don’t like but we need to address why it got there in the first place.
One thing I get asked regularly is if a chemical peel is good for your skin.
The answer is we are not onions! You can’t keep peeling away and expect your skin to improve if you are not rebuilding underneath. Enzyme treatments rebuild the underlying structures, so if we are lovers of peeling – which everyone knows, I am – we MUST begin with rebuilding treatments (Firming Peptide) before, so the new skin coming through will be strong and healthy.
Firming Peptide Mask by Circadia, works on the circulatory system, brings fresh oxygenated blood and nutrients (food for the skin) to the cells. This then causes reverse osmosis – a back flushing, in and around the cell and through the capillary loop and then lymphatic drainage back down into the major lymph ducts at the root of the neck. The Firming Peptide Mask is resetting the skin or “factory” to function optimally so when we remove all of those things we don’t like on the surface we have a stronger, healthier skin coming through to replace.
My top 10 tips for great skin are to
- Lower your stress levels!
- Cut processed foods and sugars
- Drink filtered water
- Eat fermented foods
- Take a probiotic & prebiotic (At MSB we recommend The Beauty Chef products)
- Take an Essential Fatty Acid Supplement and evening primrose oil (we recomend beauty boosters)
- Find a foundation that doesn’t occlude your skin
- Have a Firming Peptide Mask by Circadia
- Invest in Good Home Prescriptives
- Love the skin you are in
Should you have any skin questions please email us at [email protected] or visit our website because, skin is in…!
Rach xx