We have all been settling into ‘new normal’ routines, but how is your skin responding? We look at why we may have seen fluctuations with its condition at this time, and why it may be these 3 influencing factors…
Mind
Anxiety and stress can impact our skin, elevating flare ups such as acne, rosacea, eczema, and psoriasis. In a nutshell, when we experience stress, inflammation and hormonal responses weaken our immune system. This can cause things like sweating, where the skin becomes dehydrated, causing those drier skin conditions, or over production of oil which exacerbates acneic skin conditions.
Reduced sleep due to stress and overactive thoughts, reduces the skins overnight repair time, so during anxious times we recommend; doing something you love, getting some daily exercise, taking deep and mindful breaths and trying some calm and sleep inducing products.
Body
The health of our gut is a direct link to the health of our skin, and therefore what we eat can have a significant impact of its function and appearance. The gut microbiome is the bacteria found in the intestines that influences our overall health, but especially our skin.
We recommend taking probiotics (live bacteria and yeast) to regulate the good bacteria we need for a healthy gut, eating fermented foods and all the green and colourful fruit and vegetables for plenty intake of nutrients and boost with vitamin and mineral supplements.
Reducing sugar, alcohol, processed foods and dairy for many, whilst generally maintaining a healthy balanced diet, will help to provide a glowing skin.
Skin
For many, staying at home is an opportunity for bare skin and a break from makeup, letting the skin breathe, but it does not mean you can skip your cleansing and replenishing rituals.
It is just as important to keep a daily and nightly regimen to support the skins natural function of detoxification and cell turnover, so that a build-up of dirt, sweat, pollution and products applied such as serum, moisturiser and SPF are cleansed to prevent pore blockages.
Post exercise is also a crucial time to spend 10 minutes on the skin, whilst also ideally sticking to 2 x daily routines to avoid over-stimulating your skin.
For facial skincare, we recommend double cleansing morning and evening with a suitable cleanser (the first cleanse removes surface dirt and pollution and second cleanses the pores). Exfoliating 1-2 times per week (2 for drier skin types or conditions), balancing and hydrating the skin with a toner, and replenishing and protecting the skin with a serum and moisturiser.
See body skincare, as a daily ritual too, cleansing the skin with a nourishing wash, more frequent exfoliation for this courser skin, and restoring moisture with a preferred textured body moisturiser; whether a lotion, cream, butter or oil.
For us, natural skincare is your wellness, naturally.
Our team would be happy to provide guidance on any of our skincare products. You can email us with any queries at info@gaiaskincare.co.uk