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At Puravida Beauty we want to empower and educate YOU
Many may roll their eyes at our philosophies, but the results speak for themselves. Your body and skin are self-regulating, proving beyond doubt that nature truly knows best. If we supply our bodies with the tools needed to do their job, they can outperform harsh, abrasive skin therapies that can cause significant damage to the skin barrier.
Case in point: exfoliation. Removing the skin’s outer layer will stimulate the growth of new cells and reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles.
Sounds great, right?
Yes and no.
Exfoliation has been around since the ’80s. You would assume if it were a miracle cure, we would be seeing some results by now. We’re not. In the ’80s, we were told to exfoliate every 7 days! This was because the “baby” keratinocytes (a skin cell) made their way up to the surface of the skin in 7 days to become “the roof tile” or the skin we visually see. We now know this baby cell takes between 14 to 28 days to grow up!
When we exfoliate what we are doing is sending our baby Keratinocytes up the layers of the skin without living their life, your baby cells are not getting the chance to go through the stages and phases of life to become fully functioning adult roof tile cells…. So you end up with a bunch of immature teenage cells trying to rule the show… Disaster!!
So put away those exfoliants and feed your skin, nurture your baby cells and see how much change you can make!!
Scrub Your Floor, Not Your FaceLet’s take a look at some of the ways you could be encouraging teenagers to run the show…
Yes, really. Some forgo the use of poisonous chemicals, instead opting to use a very sharp knife to remove skin and the small fluffy hairs. Often, specialists combine this with other treatments, as it does not impact wrinkles. Just Slicing away our “Roof Tiles”, those mature skin cells that are there for a reason.
Unfortunately, the suction aspect of microdermabrasion creates temporary plumping and stretching of the skin, causing it to go lax and sag once the inflammation subsides.This is basically taking sand paper to your skin and inviting the teenagers to run the show. Regular treatments can also cause thickening of the skin, which minimizes product absorption.
This is possibly one of the best-known methods of exfoliation, often using glycolic acid to regenerate skin cells. Did you know acids wound the dermal-epidermal junction, which plumps up the skin to achieve the desired effect of firm, supple skin. L-lactic acid is gentler because of its moisturising properties, and salicylic acid has number of anti-inflammatory properties, but they still cause damage and will not provide a long-term solution
Enzymes are the gentlest option as they target and remove some of the corneocytes and do not cause temporary plumping of the skin. They selectively target cells and leave the fat or lipid piece of the barrier intact. They do not cause trauma to the surface like other methods. This is the only way we work.
My skincare “pet hate” – scrubs are relatively inexpensive and readily available. The reason I dislike scrubs so much is the trauma they cause the skin, especially when regularly used. Scrubs and beads are far too harsh, disrupting the corneocytes and the acid mantle or lipped barrier of the skin. If you do this type of mechanical exfoliation at all, STOP!! “Scrub your floor not your face!”
While some of these practices treat the surface layer of tissues, many of these exfoliating treatments rely on inflammation to go deep into the epidermal-dermal junction, potentially leading to long-term damage. Each time you exfoliate the skin, you are deteriorating its protective barrier and removing vital DNA, which we need for that mum cell to create happy healthy baby cells.
When you are getting these “exfoliating treatments” to renew your skin, you are unknowingly forcing the cells into an emergency response through exfoliation, compelling the skin to repair itself much faster than it wants. I understand that proponents of exfoliation say that process leads to cellular renewal. However, the epidermis is already proactively renewing itself without the use of chemicals and abrasives.
Two things we can probably all agree upon:
1) the skin is a complex organ and
2) we still don’t know all there is to know about the skin.
Current practices oversimplify skincare, lulling many of us into a false pretense of safety and results. I have personally seen far too many people with unhealthy and irritated skin from these aggressive anti-aging methods. I believe that the skin is a self-regulating tissue, organically adjusting according to health, diet, age, and environment. In short, every response from our skin is purposeful and designed for the benefit of the whole organism.
It has been my observation that the skin will slow down or speed up, depending on what the body demands to create a harmonious environment for the good of the organism. I don’t believe that the skin makes mistakes; it’s busy performing thousands of actions a day, and it rarely makes errors. If we understand and accept that nature knows best, then we can work with the skin and not against it, giving it what it needs to do its job.
As we age, our body’s cellular turnover slows down. I believe that this is because the skin has fewer nutrients available to it. Blood is food for the skin, making good circulation vital for its holistic health. Unfortunately, as we age, circulation diminishes. By our mid-twenties, the skin loses 1% of its flow; I believe the skin adjusts its turnover rate based on the lower distribution and nutrition (blood).
In our 40’s and 50’s, skin circulation can decrease by as much as 15%, which directly results in less capacity to maintain cellular activities. At this point, cellular exchange can take up to 35 days to renew itself. As a result, we begin to notice tired, aging, dull skin.
I believe that over exfoliating encourages the slow starvation of the skin, decreasing blood supply annually, which can play a vital role in accelerating the aging process. I believe that excessive exfoliation can compromise the skin’s immune support system, reducing its ability to keep up with repair demands and this can have a long-term, detrimental impact on healthy skin.
At Puravida we have a carefully and thought out skin health joureny plan that will take you through 4 phases- we repair, prepare, rejuvenate and then maintain. Its all about achieving happy healthy skin cells. Customised and tailored to you, your skin and your skin goals. If you are ready to start your skin journey with one of the beauties follow the link below.
