With everything that is going on at the moment, some of us may be starting to feel quite stressed, and this may be showing on our skin. In some cases, we may not have even recovered from the festive season. Just as our bodies can become stressed, so can our skin, and there are things we can do to help destress our skin, which will also help destress our bodies.
- Drink plenty of water. Our bodies are made up largely of water, and keeping ourselves hydrated assists in repair and detoxification.
- Cleanse your skin every night, and never wear your makeup to bed. Wearing your makeup to bed can cause the products, and any build up from the day to work their way into your pores, and clog them. Your body and skin do a lot of their detoxification and regeneration at night, and not cleansing and removing makeup can delay this process, as the skin won’t have access to all the nutrients it needs.
- Make sure you follow up with a good night cream and eye cream. Both of these products will provide the skin with the regenerating nutrients it needs.
- Check up on what your using on your skin, are you using skincare that is past its use by date? Are you using products that are past their open shelf life? Open shelf life is indicated by this little symbol on the back of the jar/bottle. This open jar type symbol with a number with the letter M indicates the number of months you should keep the product after you have opened it. Once products are exposed to the outside environment, they can grow bacteria, and degrade like any food which has past its use by date.
- Also check the purity of products you are using on your skin. Are you using products with parabens and phthalates? Due to their chemical structure, these chemicals (look for names on the ingredient list which end in “paraben” or “phthalate”) can mimic oestrogen when they are absorbed into our bodies, and cause disruption to the endocrine system. Other things to look out for are animal fats, which are not ideal, as you often won’t know where they are sourced from. Animal fats are usually seen on ingredient lists as fatty acids such as oleic, palmitic, stearic, palmitoleic, linoleic and myristic acid. These animal fats are often manufactured by boiling down the hard fat from animal carcasses, and may contain many impurities, which can lead to impurities in the skin. If you see these ingredients on your product’s ingredient panel, it is well worth checking on the origin of these fatty acids.
- Stressed skin can lead to breakouts. If you do need a spot treatment, there are many great ones on the market, which tick all the boxes. Look for a nice gentle one, with ingredients like a gentle salicylic or glycolic acid to break down any pore blockages and gently exfoliate and remove impurities. Weekly treatments can also assist with this, and prevent the return of any impurities. If you don’t already have a treatment regime, its a good idea to consult a beauty therapist for a regime which is best suited to your skintype.
- To assist your skin in destressing itself, exercise can also play an important role, as can keeping yourself happy. Exercise allows you to sweat which improves the skin’s detoxification process. There are plenty of affordable options to exercise at home, both now and into the future. Contact us for more information, or why not check out our membership option, with both live and on-demand options.
- Finally, relax and take care of yourself. Staying calm also helps to stop you from frowning and forming wrinkles, which can lead to the skin looking more stressed than it really is. Why not check out a meditation class to help with this?
If you feel you need more, we’re offering virtual consultations to help you take care of your skin at home. We also suggest checking our our options for on demand and in person yoga classes above.
