The latest skincare science and new hero ingredients are working hard to help you keep your youthful glow. Nothing in the name of beauty is ever easy, but scan the skincare shelves in shops today and you'll notice more products than ever targeting problems such as age spots, uneven patches, dullness - or simply put, skin that has lost its radiance.
"Uneven tone on your face can age you twice as much as the lines around your eyes," says Paul Matts, research fellow with Olay skin care. In fact, skin tome can add or subtract as many as 12 years to or from people's perception of your age, according to Matts and a team of biologists. Add to that the Global Truth in Beauty Survey published in 2007 by Clinique , in which women around the world, from Asians to Australians, ranked uneven tone higher than lines as their biggest skincare challenge - and you could say patchy skin is the new wrinkle.
Environment & lifestyle
We know that drinking plenty of water and having a balanced diet can help skin tone, but when we cannot stop the march of time. "most women atart seeing tonal changes in their skin by their early 30s," says dermatologist Jean-Francois Trenblay, the medical director of an aesthetic medical institute in Canada. If you are a sun worshipper, smoker or city dweller (where pollution is high) or are chronically stressed, you may notice dilated blood vessels, brown spots and dullness (which result from loss of collagen) even earlier than that, according to Tremblay. Collagen adds structure to the face, but when free radicals caused by a lifetime of exposure to sunlight and pollution break it down, it stops reflecting light, making skin look dull.
Here's what happens when you go outside without sunscreen: UV rays initially dry the skin but eventually they change the DNA of your pigment cells, causing them to overproduce melanin (brown spots) by middle age. Too much sunshine can turn today's tan into a web of spider veins and rosy patches across your cheeks and nose by the time you're in your 50s and 60s.
Pollutants can cause damage too. When airborne particulates penetrate sensitive skin, they may dilate tiny blood vessels in the face and set off an inflammatory reaction, making skin itchy and red.
Hormones can also do a number on your skin. Pregnant women may experience increased pigmentation in areas where they've sustained sun damage, or they may develop melasma, also called the 'pregnancy mask' due to the patchy, dark pigmentation that shows up on the cheeks, forehead and chin. Meanwhile, post-menopausal women experience low sebum production after their oestrogen level drop, which can make skin dry and sallow.
Skin fixers
Thankfully, scientists and skincare companies are scrambling to meet the demands of consumers for whom healthy-looking skin and even pigmentation is a top priority.
RED, IRRITATED SKIN
For flushing that is persistent, but not as sever as rosacea, skincare companies, including Dermalogica and Aveeno, use ingredients such as soy and white tea. These extracts are gentle and effective at keeping inflammation and redness at bay, while daily use of a sunscreen with SPF15 or higher has been shown to keep capillary walls strong and leak-free.
"I also tell my patients with reactive skin to avoid all axfoliants and at-home microdermabrasion kits," says Tremblay. "They will only irritate skin further."
DULLNESS
So long as your skin isn't reactive, exfoliation is still the best way to keep your skin looking fresh. Try Dermalogica Daily Microfoliant (a gentle scrub with a skin-brightening complex of rice bran, salicylic acid, grapefruit, green tea and licorice). For those who prefer a visit to the dermatologist, prescription retinoid creams helps stimulate collagen production and improve the complexion. These creams contain retinioc acid, a vitamin A derivative.
SUN DAMAGE / BROWN SPOTS
The latest creams designed to help with age spots contain ingredients that block the formation of melanin, the pigment responsible for age spots, before they appear.
In 2006, Procter & Gamble unveiled the Olay Definity skincare line with N-acetyl glucosamine and niacinamide (vitamin M3), two ingredients that work together to help normalise pigment overproduction in UV-damaged skin cells.
Today, many companies have incorporated melanin blockers into their age-spot treatments, daily moisturisers and night-time skin care. Products in Vichy's Bi-White line contain procystein, a molecule that is purported to stop skin-damaging free radicals in their tracks and reduce melanin production by almost 25 percent.
Meanwhile, Estee Lauder, Shiseido, Dior and RoC are all making full use of a range of other ingredients, including stabilised vitamin C, licorice and mulberry extract, that are said to prevent the appearance of age spots.
"Uneven tone on your face can age you twice as much as the lines around your eyes," says Paul Matts, research fellow with Olay skin care. In fact, skin tome can add or subtract as many as 12 years to or from people's perception of your age, according to Matts and a team of biologists. Add to that the Global Truth in Beauty Survey published in 2007 by Clinique , in which women around the world, from Asians to Australians, ranked uneven tone higher than lines as their biggest skincare challenge - and you could say patchy skin is the new wrinkle.Environment & lifestyle
We know that drinking plenty of water and having a balanced diet can help skin tone, but when we cannot stop the march of time. "most women atart seeing tonal changes in their skin by their early 30s," says dermatologist Jean-Francois Trenblay, the medical director of an aesthetic medical institute in Canada. If you are a sun worshipper, smoker or city dweller (where pollution is high) or are chronically stressed, you may notice dilated blood vessels, brown spots and dullness (which result from loss of collagen) even earlier than that, according to Tremblay. Collagen adds structure to the face, but when free radicals caused by a lifetime of exposure to sunlight and pollution break it down, it stops reflecting light, making skin look dull.
Here's what happens when you go outside without sunscreen: UV rays initially dry the skin but eventually they change the DNA of your pigment cells, causing them to overproduce melanin (brown spots) by middle age. Too much sunshine can turn today's tan into a web of spider veins and rosy patches across your cheeks and nose by the time you're in your 50s and 60s.
Pollutants can cause damage too. When airborne particulates penetrate sensitive skin, they may dilate tiny blood vessels in the face and set off an inflammatory reaction, making skin itchy and red.
Hormones can also do a number on your skin. Pregnant women may experience increased pigmentation in areas where they've sustained sun damage, or they may develop melasma, also called the 'pregnancy mask' due to the patchy, dark pigmentation that shows up on the cheeks, forehead and chin. Meanwhile, post-menopausal women experience low sebum production after their oestrogen level drop, which can make skin dry and sallow.Skin fixers
Thankfully, scientists and skincare companies are scrambling to meet the demands of consumers for whom healthy-looking skin and even pigmentation is a top priority.
RED, IRRITATED SKIN
For flushing that is persistent, but not as sever as rosacea, skincare companies, including Dermalogica and Aveeno, use ingredients such as soy and white tea. These extracts are gentle and effective at keeping inflammation and redness at bay, while daily use of a sunscreen with SPF15 or higher has been shown to keep capillary walls strong and leak-free.
"I also tell my patients with reactive skin to avoid all axfoliants and at-home microdermabrasion kits," says Tremblay. "They will only irritate skin further."
DULLNESS
So long as your skin isn't reactive, exfoliation is still the best way to keep your skin looking fresh. Try Dermalogica Daily Microfoliant (a gentle scrub with a skin-brightening complex of rice bran, salicylic acid, grapefruit, green tea and licorice). For those who prefer a visit to the dermatologist, prescription retinoid creams helps stimulate collagen production and improve the complexion. These creams contain retinioc acid, a vitamin A derivative.
SUN DAMAGE / BROWN SPOTS
The latest creams designed to help with age spots contain ingredients that block the formation of melanin, the pigment responsible for age spots, before they appear.
In 2006, Procter & Gamble unveiled the Olay Definity skincare line with N-acetyl glucosamine and niacinamide (vitamin M3), two ingredients that work together to help normalise pigment overproduction in UV-damaged skin cells.
Today, many companies have incorporated melanin blockers into their age-spot treatments, daily moisturisers and night-time skin care. Products in Vichy's Bi-White line contain procystein, a molecule that is purported to stop skin-damaging free radicals in their tracks and reduce melanin production by almost 25 percent.
Meanwhile, Estee Lauder, Shiseido, Dior and RoC are all making full use of a range of other ingredients, including stabilised vitamin C, licorice and mulberry extract, that are said to prevent the appearance of age spots.
"Mild age spots are best treated with a prescription retinoid cream," says Tremblay, But "the most highly pigmented spots disappear with fractional lasers like The Pixel. It's safe on all skin tones - white, black, Asian and Middle Eastern - and that's a significant advancement.
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