How To Proactively Prevent Wrinkles
You’re never too young to start taking care of your skin. The skin is the largest organ of the human body, and it requires just as much care as any other organ. Your skin needs vitamins, hydration, nourishment, and protection from the elements to remain healthy.
Healthy skin generally looks better than skin deprived of the things it needs. Taking care of your skin can help delay the onset of the signs of aging or minimize their appearance when they naturally do occur.
While there is no fountain of youth, there are plenty of things you can do to keep your skin looking youthful for as long as possible.
Factors That Contribute To Wrinkles
While the simple act of aging can contribute to wrinkles, their appearance can largely be impacted by a wide variety of factors. Meeting your skin’s needs and adequately protecting it can help preserve your skin’s smooth appearance while reducing the visibility of aging signs that have already started to appear.
The sun’s UV rays are a dangerous enemy of your skin. UV rays can cause skin cancer, a condition that one in five Americans will experience at some point in their lives. This statistic alone should be powerful enough to inspire you to limit sun exposure and properly protect yourself from UV rays.
Even if sun exposure doesn’t cause you to develop skin cancer, it will contribute to skin photoaging. Dark spots, fine lines, drier skin, and rough texture can occur due to frequent sun exposure or the use of tanning beds.
So, maybe that tan won’t give you the youthful glow you’re after, but it can damage your epidermis and dermis.
Your skin needs vitamins, minerals, protein, and healthy fats to sustain itself. If your diet is lacking in any of the above, so is your skin. Healthy fats like omega 3s help fortify your skin’s lipid barrier, the layer of oil your body creates to naturally protect your skin and seal in moisture.
Your body needs proteins to generate new, healthy skin cells. Vitamins like vitamin A and vitamin C can help protect and heal the skin while promoting an ideal moisture balance.
Water makes up 60% of the volume of the human body. If you aren’t getting enough water, the effects will manifest in how you look and feel. Dehydration is severely detrimental to your whole body as it can lead to premature signs of aging.
Dry skin loses its fullness, and creases or lines may appear when the skin’s natural plumpness diminishes.
Exposure To Environmental Stressors
The air is full of pollution, smog, and smoke. Everywhere you go, billions of invisible particles are floating around in the air. You breathe them in, and they land on your skin. These particles are volatile, and they’re looking to steal electrons from other cells.
When they land on your skin, they’ll rob your skin cells of the electrons they need to remain healthy. This can cause premature cell death and skin damage. Your skin can’t find and maintain a healthy balance when its cells are in a constant state of damage and destruction.
Of course, internal stressors can also affect premature aging. The stress hormone cortisol can break down skin cells, contributing to the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles.
Failing To Take Care of Your Skin
Failing to take care of your skin can lead to acne, forehead wrinkles, peeling skin, clogged pores, and overactive sebum glands. All of these conditions can negatively impact the way your skin looks and feels over time.
Clogged pores may become permanently enlarged, causing the skin to appear aged or lax. Dry skin can leave behind a parched texture marred with fine lines.
The prescription and over-the-counter creams, serums, and cleansers contain skin-happy ingredients like hyaluronic acid, alpha-hydroxy acids (AHAs), or moisturizers that can help address these skin conditions before frown lines between your brows or blemishes appear.
Feeding Your Skin From the Inside
Your body wants to repair and nourish your skin. It heavily relies on adequate nutrition and hydration to do so. Your body needs water alongside a steady supply of veggies, fats, and berries that provide skin-happy vitamins and nutrients. Healthy habits and lifestyle changes can go a long way for your skin health.
Start by keeping a close eye on your water intake. Water intake varies slightly based on biological gender, body size, and level of activity.
Get your minimum every day, and increase your intake when participating in an athletic or outdoor activity that may cause you to sweat. Drinking more water than necessary won’t improve your skin. Just focus on getting what you need.
You also need to utilize a well-balanced diet to ensure your nutritional requirements are being met. Speak with your doctor or a nutritionist to establish a healthy way of eating.
You don’t need to go on a special diet. Simply making more informed and intuitive choices can help you meet micronutrient and vitamin goals while building muscles, helping your skin, and promoting overall health.
Protecting Your Skin From the Outside
Hydration and proper nutrition support your entire body. Protecting your skin from the outside through topical skincare products directly addresses your skin care concerns and prevents damage to your skin’s surface.
Protect Yourself from the Sun
You should wear sunscreen every single day, specifically broad-spectrum SPF 30. The sun’s UVA and UVB rays still pose a significant threat to your skin's elasticity, pigmentation, and collagen production.
Even sun exposure through your windshield, while you’re driving, has the potential to allow free radicals to damage your skin.
Prescription anti-aging medications like retinol can help slow how your skin ages over time, but proper sun protection is key to protecting your skin's elastin and collagen from breaking down in the first place.
Gently Cleanse Your Face
Your skin has a special microbiome. Microorganisms live on the surface of your face. Good microorganisms work to keep your skin healthy, and harmful microorganisms damage your skin. Your skin seeks to create the perfect balance, and caring for your microbiome makes that process easier.
It's essential to cleanse your face to prevent the build-up of dead skin cells, dirt, and grime, but the skin care products you use matter. Harsh cleansers, particularly those containing sulfates, can strip away your skin’s microbiome. In response, your skin may become too dry or too oily.
Caldera + Labs’ The Clean Slate is formulated with a patented probiotic ferment filtrate that helps support your skin’s health without damaging your microbiome.
Use a Serum
Your serum is the most beneficial part of your skincare routine. Serums are highly concentrated with active ingredients, and their thin consistency is intended to help your skin drink up the vitamins and botanicals responsible for providing those benefits.
Caldera + Lab’s The Good is designed to hydrate the skin, reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles, promote even skin tone, and help the skin look firmer and smoother. Place a few drops in your palm and gently massage it into your face.
In addition to improving the way your skin looks, The Good can also protect against damage from free radical exposure.
The Good contains over 3.4 million antioxidant units per drop. These antioxidants will take damage rather than allowing your healthy cells to be harmed by pollution or environmental stressors.
While a moisturizer can provide hydration to the skin, its most important function is as a skin protectant. The moisturizer sitting on the surface of your skin behaves like a barrier between your skin and the environment, preventing pollutants from reaching the skin and keeping your skin’s hydration sealed within.
Caldera + Lab’s The Base Layer moisturizer provides your skin with environmental stressor protection, adaptogenic nourishment, and the benefits of plant stem cell technology.
Establishing a Skin Care Routine
You should be caring for your skin twice daily: once in the morning, and once at night.
Caldera + Lab’s 3 step skin care routine makes it easy to proactively address the visible signs of aging in your skin. Don’t forget to combine it with a balanced diet, plenty of water, and sun protection.