Like everything in life, our skin changes overtime. It’s important for us to nurture and protect our skin as it goes through different changes at different stages of our lives. As the years pass we may notice these physical changes that are happening. But this doesn’t have to be something that causes us grief. We can embrace our skin throughout the years by preserving and protecting it in the best way possible. Naturally.

In this blog we’re going to discuss how to preserve and protect your skin, naturally, throughout the years so that you can maintain a healthy and glowing complexion for years to come!

The Skin is Alive

It’s important to note that in order to preserve our skin in the best way possible, we need to understand how it works. The skin is a living organ. It’s the largest organ in the body in fact. It is capable of many different functions, one of them being absorption.

Just like when we absorb nutrients from our food in the small intestine, our skin also absorbs nutrients from the products we apply to it. The skins ability to absorb varies depending on the type of substance applied to it. Some water soluble ingredients require a ”penetration enhancer” to help larger molecules pass through the layers of the skin. Studies show that natural and organic enhancers are more effective than synthetic enhancers, for example organic soy lecithin.

This demonstrates the importance of using natural and organic skincare, as they have better penetrative ability than synthetic ones. This will allow for deeper layers of the epidermis to be nourished and protected, and the skin will gain more benefits from the active ingredients.

Protect From The Outside

To preserve your skin it’s important to protect it from the outside, starting at the top layer of the skin. As stated previously, using eco-certified natural and organic products will have better penetration of all the layers of the epidermis. In order to protect and nourish your skin in the best possible way, you should incorporate a simple, natural and effective skincare regime into your daily routine.

Cleanse – the skin should be cleansed every evening with a natural and organic cleanser suited to your skin type. This will help to remove makeup residue and impurities, and allow for other products to penetrate deeper into the skin. Be careful not to over cleanse as this can strip away natural oils and disturb the skins natural pH, leading to sensitivity and breakouts.
Tone – Using an organic and natural toner, tone the skin after cleansing to remove residual product, treat the skin and restore the natural pH.
Exfoliate – Remove dead skin cells from the top layer of the skin by gently exfoliating the skin with a natural and organic gentle scrub. Use once a week and be careful not to over exfoliate as this will strip the skin, and can lead to sensitivity.
Serum – Apply a serum with natural and organic active ingredients that suits your skin type to the face, eyes, lips and neck. Serums have a different molecular structure to moisturisers, and their active ingredients can penetrate into the deeper layers of the skin.
Moisturise – Moisturising the skin will help to protect, nourish and plump up the outermost layers of the skin, and will provide a barrier that will protect the skin from external stressors, whilst nourishing the underlying skin cells.

Give Your Skin A Workout

The skin on the face is directly attached to the muscles underneath. These muscles are what allows us to make facial expressions. Overtime the use of these muscles can lead to expression lines, most commonly furrow lines, crows feet and nasolabial lines.

Like all the muscles in the body, the muscles lose tone over time. It’s important to train our facial muscles just like the other muscles of the body, in order to maintain muscle strength and tone. Many of us will exercise in order to maintain muscle tone of our bodies, but how often do we think to do that with our faces?

Facial yoga and facial massage are two excellent ways of preserving muscle heath and tone. It helps to lessen the appearance of drooping and expression lines. There are many resources online demonstrating how to perform certain facial exercises and yoga, that will work on specific facial muscles to help improve muscle strength and tone, and create a more youthful appearance. Check out this 2 minute video of simple facial yoga exercise that you can easily include in your daily routine.

The Anti-Aging Powers of Facial Massage

Another important way of preserving your skin over time is having a facial massage. Facial massage can be done on yourself at home, or during a facial treatment. There are innumerable benefits to a facial massage, these include:

Increased blood flow – by stimulating the blood and lymphatic vessels under the skin by massage helps to drain away stagnant tissue fluid containing toxins, a draws in fresh tissue fluid and blood that contains nutrients and oxygen to feed the muscle and skin cells, improving their quality.
Increased muscle tone – facial massage will help to re-educate slackened muscle fibres by stimulating nerves within the muscle fibres, and thus increasing their activity. This will lead to a tighter and firmer appearance of the face, with a visible reduction in fine lines and wrinkles.
Healthy glow – by increasing blood flow to the face the skin tone and colour will improve. This will help to improve the appearance of a dull, fatigued complexion and will boost radiance.
De-puffs – Facial massage stimulates the lymphatic vessels aiding in the drainage of excess tissue fluid. This will help to slim down the face, and reduce the appearance of puffiness.
Reduce muscle tension – Facial massage will help to work on tense muscle fibres, for example the jaw muscles, and will help to ease muscle knots and tension. This in turn will help with conditions such as migraines, headaches, teeth clenching and grinding. When the face is visibly more relaxed it will look healthier, less tired and less swollen.
Reduced stress levels – Facial massage is mentally very relaxing. It reduces the stress hormone, cortisol, significantly. When cortisol is reduced we feel happier, healthier and calm, and our skin in turn reflects that.

At V Claire, facial massage is an integral part of our facial treatments. Our Soin Prestige Total Anti-Aging facial is one of our most popular treatments. It is an hour and a half facial, where we incorporate both lymphatic drainage, revitalising, and deep stimulating massages into our facials to help improve muscle tone, circulation, lymphatic drainage and collagen production.

Nourish From Within

Last but not least is a very important step in the preserving and protecting of the skin. Our diet. What we ingest has a significant impact on every part of our body, including our skin and muscles. Therefore it is imperative to eat a well-balanced, nutritious diet that is giving your muscles and skin all of the nutrients it needs to thrive.

Protein is the body’s building blocks, and is vital for the repair of our skin cells and muscle cells DNA. Foods that contain protein include seeds, nuts, beans, lentils, cheeses and yoghurts, lean meats and eggs. Vitamins, particularly A,C and E are essential for the health of the skin. Vitamin A found in carrots, sweet potatoes, pumpkins and butternut squash help to speed up skin cell renewal. Vit C is necessary for collagen synthesis. And vitamin E is a powerful anti-oxidant and will fight free radical damage, protecting our cells from premature aging and disease.

Unsaturated oils, like organic cold-pressed virgin olive, flaxseed, and avocado oils are excellent for the skin as they contain anti-inflammatory properties and anti-oxidant properties, such as vitamin E and essential fatty acids. Omega 3 oils will help to regulate oil production, improve hydration, help reduce breakouts and slow down the aging-process.

And most importantly, water! Our skin is made up of 64% water. Therefore it is essential that we drink enough water to keep our skin hydrated to the level that it needs. 1-2 litres per day is considered essential for the health of our skin, brains and every other part of our body!

Kickstart Your Skin’s Protection

So there you have it! Preserving your skin throughout the years can be a simple, yet highly effective practice. You’ll notice such a difference to your skin when you incorporate a healthy skincare regime into your daily routine. Along with some quick facial exercises and massage, and consuming a well-balanced, nourishing and hydrating diet!

Here are some of V Claire’s top picks to help nourish, protect and preserve your skin:

1.Centella Hibiscus Cleansing Milk