Your skin is the first thing people notice. As you age, your skin naturally ages as well. But have you noticed that there are people who don’t look their age? Some of them look as if they are in their 40s when they really are nearing their 60s already, while some look like they are 10 years older than their actual age.
What causes it? Are you really just predisposed to have certain type of skin due to genes or can factors like lack of sleep and stress really age you? And how do you ensure your skin looks youthful?
Nicole Kidman, Marcia Cross, and Ashley Greene are just some of the celebrities who have enviable porcelain-looking skin, thanks to their parents’ DNA. The skin is primarily made of proteins like collagen and melatonin, which when blend together with your parents’ DNA, results to your skin color and skin type or in other words, your genetic makeup. So if one of your parents has a porcelain skin type or some skin disorder, you or your siblings most likely have it too. But this is just the foundation and does not determine how you will look when you reach your mom’s age because there are lifestyle factors to consider, which oftentimes affect more than your genes. For example, identical twins can have 2 vastly different skin age; one looking like a grandma while the other looking like a hip mom when they both have the same skin type growing up. You can Google pictures of identical twins to see it for yourself.
What makes the difference? Skin regimen, exercise, sleep, habits all play into the account.
Skin needs a skin care routine. Just like your body, it needs to be cleaned every day. Perspiration, sebaceous glands or sebum, air pollution are all absorbed by your skin’s outer layer or the epidermis. Knowing that all these impurities are stuck on your face, wouldn’t you care to get rid of it? A simple act of daily cleansing for about 15-20 seconds with mild or appropriate facial cleanser for your skin type can already do a lot of good for your skin. After washing your face, follow it up with facial toning to keep your facial muscles and pores tightened up and closed so that your skin won’t droop or sag when you age. In a way, you are manually putting the pores back to its default condition because your skin loses elasticity and finds it difficult to bounce back on its own. To seal your cleansing ritual, hydrate your skin with moisturizer to keep your skin firm and supple and prevent early skin deterioration. Dabbing on anti-wrinkle eye cream and other anti aging products that can lighten the under-eye circles, reduce eye puffiness, diminish the crow’s feet and similar others are great preventive measures too. Anti-wrinkle creams remove old and dead skin cells around the eye area and give collagen back to your skin. Though these anti-aging creams promise to reduce the appearance of creases, it’s important to know that some of it may not be as effective as advertised.
Get enough shut-eye Lack of sleep also plays a major factor in skin aging. When you do not get enough sleep, you are cutting down the time of your skin to replenish and repair damaged cells. This is immediately evident as you notice dark circles and puffy under eye, and over time, wrinkles start to materialize. So if you don’t give the much needed rest your skin needs, it will naturally age.
Cigarette, booze over tanning, sun exposure, lack of exercise These unhealthy lifestyle all speed up the skin aging process. Smoking obstructs the oxygen flow down to your skin and drains up the vitamins essential for a healthy skin glow. Lack of exercise is another factor that blocks the blood circulation to your skin. Don’t you notice how “red” and healthy you look after exercise even as little as 20 minutes? That’s your blood circulating inside and if there is proper circulation every day, your skin will thank you for it and it’s going to show. The UVA and UVB rays you expose yourself with every morning are not only the main cause of skin cancer but it also ages your skin. Avoid too much sun exposure but if you can’t help it, at least dab on some SPF sun block lotion.
If you can afford it, you can always go under the knife or go through series of facial treatments. But whatever it is that you choose, you cannot skip your daily facial ritual at home. Though you cannot freeze your looks forever, it does not mean that there is nothing you can do to delay the aging.
