What is the number one ingredient you must have in your skin care?
Have you ever wondered what the best ingredient is in skin care? I’m here to educate you with the number one ingredient that you must have in your skin care!
Are you ready? Let’s go…
Retinol – what is it?
Retinol is the number one essential ingredient that you MUST have in your skin care.
Retinol is a derivative of vitamin A, it is a wonder ingredient that’s hailed as the overnight miracle worker.
Retinol helps to tighten skin, reduce age spots, clear acne and balance uneven skin tone. But what is it that makes Retinol so amazing?
It’s a type of Retinoid
Retinoids work by increasing the speed of the skins cell turnover. This is GREAT because this process naturally slows down by the time you hit your 20s. As we age, our skin renews much slower than it used to. This leads to our skin looking dull, lacklustre, saggy and not very luminous.
So, what causes our skin to look like this? Lack of collagen is the number one reason why we have these symptoms. When we apply a retinol, it gets absorbed into the skin and actually helps make changes at a cellular level – it actually helps speed up the collagen production again, which leads to improvement of your skin’s texture overall! Great news for all of us over age 20!
It’s an antioxidant
Retinol is an antioxidant, which means it slows down and can help prevent damage to cells caused by free radicals. Understanding free radicals involves a little chemistry; but don’t worry, I’ll keep it super simple!
Retinol reduces free radical damage
Free radicals are atoms that have unpaired electrons, making them unstable. Electrons like to be in pairs to make them stable again so the free radicals take the missing electron from healthy cells in our DNA. The role of the antioxidant here is to give the atom the electron it needs to become stable again without it needing to take it from our cells and thus damaging them – pretty awesome right?
We are exposed to free radicals EVERYWHERE – environmental factors like the UV rays from the sun, tobacco, fried food, pesticides and pollution are all things that can cause free radicals in the body.
The more anti-oxidants we have, the more chance we have at fighting these free radicals. Retinol gets absorbed into the skin
It exfoliates dead skin away
Because retinol helps to increase the speed skin cells renew, it means that the dead skin cells on the surface of the skin are shed much faster. If you suffer from acne or clogged/congested skin pores, this is a must! Once the dead skin cells are shed, the skin looks clearer and glows more.
What are the best Retinol based skin care products?
I have two go to retinol based products, that help treat spots and wrinkles, and also improve skin moisture and firmness
Arbonne intelligence counter spot essence
Because it treats spots and wrinkles in one step and helps you wake up to even better skin. It’s controlled release, which means it keeps delivering the retinol goodness to the skin all night! YES PLEASE!
Genius Nightly Resurfacing Pads & Solution
Because it’s clinically proven to improve skin moisture, elasticity and firmness in just 2 weeks! It reduces the look of dark spots and fine lines for skin that feels smooth, even toned and beautiful. I LOVE IT!
Retinol is the must have ingredient in your skin care
Retinol has many advantages that I have touched on in this article.
However, you should know that it needs to be used properly. Retinol can make your skin more sensitive to sunlight, as well as causing dryness. You should use a sunscreen daily anyway but especially so when you’re using retinol (as per my previous blog about the importance sunscreen). You should also be using a suitable skincare range to help the skin from over drying
Retinol has many advantages that I have touched on in this article.
However, you should know that it needs to be used properly. Retinol can make your skin more sensitive to sunlight, as well as causing dryness. You should use a sunscreen daily anyway but especially so when you’re using retinol (as per my previous blog about the importance sunscreen). You should also be using a suitable skincare range to help the skin from over drying