Answering Some Common Skincare Questions

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We’re always happy to answer questions when our clients and customers ask for our expertise, and we often have the same questions asked time and again by different people. That’s why, we thought it would be a good idea to put together a post containing some of the most common questions we get asked, to help all of our readers:

Where in my daily routine should I use a clay mask?

Well, this question is quite simple – you shouldn’t! Obviously, we love clay masks, but they don’t need to be used on a daily basis by anyone, even those of us with the oiliest skin. We recommend using a clay mask once a week as a treat for your skin to help balance oil and calm redness, but any more than this and you could dry your skin out too much.

Do I need to moisturise if I have oily skin?

YES! People with oily skin often make the mistake of thinking that they don’t need to moisturise, but actually, excess oil production is actually a rebound effect caused by dry skin. Dermalogica Matte Moisturiser SPF15 will balance the oiliness of your skin while adding a healthy dose of moisture, and will even protect your skin against the sun.

I like in the UK, the sun is a rare treat – do I really need SPF every day?

So many people in the UK fail to wear daily sun protection because they think the sun isn’t strong enough here to affect their skin, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. The UK sun is more than strong enough to damage your skin so using something like Decleor Anti-Pollution Hydrating Fluid SPF30 will give you sun the protection it needs.

What is my skin type?

The best person to determine your skin type is you and no-one knows your skin as well as you do. It’s a pretty simple process to work out if your skin is dry, oily, sensitive or a combination of several skin types. Our blog post will help you to decide what your skin type is, to allow you to buy the best products for your skin.

What can I do to brighten my skin?

Dull, lifeless skin is one of the most common complaints of our customers, and it’s something that often takes a combination of products to improve. One of the best pieces of advice that we can give is to invest in the Dermalogica PowerBright TRx Treatment Kit, which contains a selection of miniature products to brighten the skin and improve skin tone, so you can see if they work for you before buying the full-size products.

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Struggling with Acne? You Aren’t Alone.

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acne, bad skin, beautiful women, Beyonce, breakout, Britney Spears, Cameron Diaz, celebrities, celebrity, depression, Eva Longoria, flare-up, isolation, large pores, loneliness, mental health, not alone, photoshop, pimples, spot, spots, uneven skin, Victoria Beckham

Having a skin issue like acne can affect not just your skin, but also your mental health. The condition can be tricky to deal with and can leave sufferers feeling frustrated, isolated and depressed. It’s important to remember that you aren’t alone in your struggle with acne, and some of the most beautiful women in the world also struggle with their skin. Here’s a list of five celebrities who also suffer from acne and other skin issues:

Victoria Beckham

 

By LGEPR – Victoria Beckham, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19900209

To look at Mrs Beckham’s skin these days, you wouldn’t know she struggled with acne for so long, but she dealt with bad skin way into her twenties. To keep her skin in tip-top shape, she swears by a strict regime of exfoliation and moisturisation, and insists that products containing glycolic acid are what have made all the difference to her face.

Cameron Diaz

By https://www.flickr.com/photos/greg2600 – https://www.flickr.com/photos/greg2600/26307333616/, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=76482897

It’s hard to believe that someone as goddess-like as Cam has ANY problems, but she’s human like the rest of us and her acne was an issue even in her thirties. She credits clean eating with helping her skin to get better “I hadn’t needed to be angry at my skin or feel bad about myself. I had just needed to LISTEN TO MY BODY. Acne was my body’s alarm system, it was a way of telling me [to stop eating fast food]”

Eva Longoria

By Georges Biard, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=40665890

Eva Longoria, star of Desperate Housewives, says that her hectic lifestyle is partly responsible for her issues with breakouts. “Because I fly so much, hydration is important. When you have good skin, everything else kind of falls into place. Also, I use blush with shimmer in it. That way, your skin glows and people notice it.”

Beyonce

By Rocbeyonce – https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:FWT11.jpg / https://www.facebook.com/shawntok, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=49895196

While it may come as a shock that Queen Bey has anything even remotely close to being a flaw, the ex-Destiny’s Child singer deals with pimples, uneven skin and large pores. The vasy majority of images that we see of Beyonce have been retouched in some way, giving us slightly unrealistic expectations of what celebrity skin is really like.

Britney Spears

By Glenn Francis – Britney Spears, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=26447539

Britney is perhaps one of the most well-known famous acne sufferers, not least of all because the girl is NOT afraid to step outside with a bare face. Whether it’s a conscious effort to give her skin a break from make-up with she’s having a flare up or just a normal woman having a “can’t be bothered” day, we applaud Britney for putting her best face forward, no matter what.

5 Skincare Mistakes That Are Making Your Acne Worse

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acne, acne prone, acneic, cleanser, comedones, complexion, Dermalogica Matte Moisturiser SPF15, dry, exfoliating brush, exfoliator, face, facial, inflammation, moisture, oil, pimples, redness, rinse, rinsing, sebum, skin, spots, squeeze, squeezing, sunscreen

Photo by Ayo Ogunseinde on Unsplash

Acne is a struggle for a lot of people, and dealing with it usually takes a multi-pronged approach which is different for everyone. There are, however, a lot of mistakes that acne sufferers make which could be making the condition much worse. Here, we look at five of them.

Too Much Abrasive Exfoliation

When you have acne, there’s a tendency to want to over-clean your skin, but using products which are too abrasive can actually exacerbate things. Use a gentle exfoliator a few times a week, and if you’re afraid of being too rough with your hands, try an exfoliating brush, which works to clean pores without irritating your skin.

Squeezing Pimples

We know that pimples can feel unsightly, but squeezing them can do more harm than good. As well as causing inflammation and redness, there’s the risk of scarring and even introducing bacteria, which can cause infections in your face. Opt for a spot treatment which will kill the bacteria and reduce the redness, instead.

Poor Rinsing

Something that a lot of us are guilty of is failing to rinse products off of our faces after washing. This means that not only has the dirt not been washed away, but residual product is left on our faces, which can cause irritation and spot formation. Be sure to rinse your skin thoroughly after washing; about 30 seconds should be enough.

Failing to Moisturise

If your skin is shiny or has an oily feel, it doesn’t mean you should avoid moisturising. After washing, your skin’s relatively dry as a result of the cleansing process. All cleansers, even water, take out some level of moisture. Using a moisturiser will replace this, protect your skin and prep it for makeup – we recommend Dermalogica Matte Moisturiser SPF15 which also contains a sunscreen for extra protection.

Forgetting to Use Sunscreen

While we’re on the topic of sunscreen, skipping it is a bad idea. Sunburn may dry your skin out temporarily, but the damage from drying your skin out so drastically can actually cause your acne to worsen in the long-run. For optimum protection apply a facial moisturiser that contains sunscreen of SPF15 or more every day.

The Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Skincare

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base, clean, cleanse, combination, comedogenic, complexion, daily, dry, grime, hydration, make-up, normal, oily, perfect, pollution, primer, sensitive, skin type, skincare, SPF, spots, sun protection, sunscreen, unbalanced, water

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Whether you’re a young person who’s just started to take care of their skin, or an older person who’s steadfastly refused to deal with skincare before, being an absolute beginner can be a little intimidating, especially when you consider the vast amount of products available. We decided to put together some tips that we thing every skincare virgin should know, so that it doesn’t feel so daunting.

Take your make up off every day, no matter how tired you are

When you leave your make up on, not only are you leaving potentially comedogenic (that’s blackhead-forming, to you and me) products on your face, you’re also leaving the days dirt and grime. This can cause your skin to become dry, red, sensitised and generally unbalanced. Elemis Pro-Radiance Cream Cleanser is a great cleanser for most skin types as it melts make-up and removes the daily pollutants that can dull the skin.

SUNSCREEN!

Baz Luhrmann said it years ago, and it’s still as true as ever – “ALWAYS wear sunscreen”! The fastest way to age your skin is with prolonged, unprotected sun exposure, and this can be highly damaging even beyond the signs of ageing. Decleor Anti-Pollution Hydrating Fluid SPF30 is the perfect daily SPF for normal to dry skin and leaves skin feeling hydrated and comfortable.

Barely anyone has ‘perfect’ skin

We know that the slew of airbrushed images that we’re bombarded with makes it easy to believe that loads of people have perfect skin, but it’s actually very rare and we guarantee that almost every single person you asked would say they have at least one bugbear with their own complexion. Using a primer is a good place to start to get a flawless base before you apply your make up, allowing you to fake it all the way!

Know your skin type

When it comes to skincare, using the right type for your skin type is hugely important. If you have dry skin and are using products for normal skin, they won’t be powerful enough to keep you hydrated. If you’ve got normal skin, products for oily skin could dry you out and if you’ve got sensitive skin, anything perfumed or too rich will have you red and itchy. Use our guide to work out your skin type before you buy anything.

Drink plenty of water

You can use all of the moisturisers and skin-fixing products you like, but if your body is severely dehydrated then the source of your dryness isn’t going to be fixed. The old ‘eight glasses a day’ thing isn’t necessarily the right amount for everyone, but if your urine is almost clear and the skin doesn’t feel papery, you’re probably hydrated to a decent level.

Dealing with Acne Scarring

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acne, azelaic acid, base, damage, Elemis, Elemis Dynamic Resurfacing Gel Mask, Elemis Herbal Lavender Repair Mask, Elemis S.O.S. Emergency Cream, enzyme, glycolic acid, irritation, Jan Marini, Jan Marini Bioglycolic Bioclear Cream, Jan Marini Bioglycolic Bioclear Lotion, keratolitic agents, oily skin, primer, proteolitic enzyme, redness, relief, resurfacing, Salicylic Acid, Scar, scarring, sensitised, sensitive, soothing, Subtilisine, surface, unbalancing

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Finally getting your acne under control to the point where you don’t have breakouts any more can be life-changing, but the sad fact is that for many people, even after the spots have gone, you can be left with scarring and lesions. There are things you can do to improve the appearance of acne scarring and we’ve got a whole bunch of products which can help.

Elemis Dynamic Resurfacing Gel Mask

Acne scarring can often change the texture of your skin, leaving you with skin which lacks smoothness. This gel mask from Elemis uses Subtilisine, a skin compatible, bioactive micro-encapsulated enzyme that catalyses the breakdown of proteins into polypeptides to dissolve dead skin cells. It also contains protease, a proteolitic enzyme with keratolitic agents to improve cell renewal. It actively resurfaces your skin and leaves scarred areas noticeably smoother.

Jan Marini Bioglycolic Bioclear Cream

This cream contains a powerful combination of three separate acids (glycolic acid, salicylic acid and azelaic acid) which dramatically improve the appearance of acne scarring, as well as pigmentation, rosacea and fine lines and wrinkles. Because it’s such a strong formula, drying may occur, so we recommend using it alongside a rich moisturiser to maintain balance.

Elemis Herbal Lavender Repair Mask

Although scarring is what’s left after the acne has gone, often skin which is damaged by acne can still suffer with inflammation and redness, and is often easily irritated. This gentle mask from Elemis contains lavender, which soothes the skin and reduces irritation, calms redness and rebalances the complexion, giving your skin a more even tone.

Jan Marini Bioglycolic Bioclear Lotion

This product from the Jan Marini Bioglycolic range is a lotion version of the Bioclear cream, which is light and less oily, making it ideal for normal to oily skin. It contains the same combination of glycolic acid, salicylic acid and azelaic acid which will totally resurfance the skin without unbalancing oily skin and leaving you with excess sebum.

Elemis S.O.S. Emergency Cream

This cream from Elemis works in a number of ways; as well as providing the skin with an intense dose of moisture, rebalances inflamed or hormonal skin conditions and provides soothing relief with protection. It’s also a great base for make-up, as it acts like a primer, giving skin an velvety finish.