… Don’t you love your face, too? Show your love by giving your face the best skin care you can.
To love your skin properly, reward it with care. Figure out your skin type, match it with your diet and lifestyle to predict what’s best for you.
In fact, customizing a lotion for washing your face is a great way to love your face! Go directly to Oil & Aloe Lotion in Recipes.
Love Your Skin type. Diet. Lifestyle. Customized lotion. Sound like a lot to untangle?
It’s not that difficult—but you must be truthful about the kind of skin you now have.
Your Skin’s Need for Protection
Your skin’s need for protection from exposure is likely to change from year to year, season to season, over your lifetime. In early childhood, we start out with a generous layer of fat in our skin. Its plumpness, often called “baby fat”, is thought to be a sign of health.
As we age, skin looses its baby fat and stretches to accomodate our growth and height. Later, skin begins to reveal our history—all the ups and downs of life and the way we’ve taken care of ourselves can be read there.
Skin is actually a fascinating bodily organ. Not only is it the only single organ we actually see—on everyone—but it has more functions and connections to body ecology than was previously known. Most of these functions support overall health, reflected in your skin’s appearance.
In a post by Dr. Deanna Minich, skin health varies from person to person because of age, lifestyle, and what you eat.
So how is your skin’s need for protection reflected in skin structure? And why is moisture key to skin wellness?
Skin Structure and Body Ecology
Although the term may seem confusing at first, “skin type” is applied to skin structure, not to color or tone.
Our human skin is composed of layers, generally viewed as three distinct ones: the outer layer that we see is the epidermis. The middle layer is the dermis. And the deepest layer is the hypodermis.
Each layer has distinct purposes and tasks. Very basically, skin has a two-way function similar to breathing. The skin allows liquids to sink into it, and sheds certain components of skin that are no longer needed. This is how the epidermis works as our outer layer: it selectively lets liquids—water and oils—pass through, and discards older cells, allowing sweat to rise to its surface.
In turn, the dermis houses sweat and sebaceous glands, as well as other tissues like blood vessels and nerves. Some liquids are helpful in controlling temperature (sweat) while oils, such as sebum, keep the skin from getting water-logged. The deepest layer of skin is the hypodermis which is composed of fat. It lies above muscle and other tissue as a cushion for muscle and skin layers above it.
Together these layers create a matrix or barrier that protects our internal organs and tissues. With healthy skin, we are held in balance even when the exterior environment changes. And we maintain a more consistent internal environment so our body’s systems can function normally.
Otherwise known as “skin type”, human skin is typically characterized as Normal, Dry, Oily, Combination, and sometimes, Sensitive or Mature.
Here, the words “skin type” refer to skin structure.
The words “skin type” are a starting point for discussing skin health, and in this post, I’m using skin type to help define skin structure. It’s important because the layers of your skin are like your bones and muscles, they provide the form that is recognizable as you. When one of the layers no longer contains fat, for example, you look skinnier because there is less bulk in your skin and less fat around your organs. This might be good if you’re trying to loose weight. But as you age, loosing fat under your skin equals sagging skin.
For everyone concerned about their skin, the quality of suppleness is accessible, obtainable, with just a little effort.
Love Your Skin Types: Oily, Dry, Normal, and Combination and more
Knowing your skin type helps you decide which ingredients to look for to support its health. How do you know if your skin is typically dry, normal, oily, or combination? In this article on healthline, there are simple ways to define your skin type, here.
Oily Skin
In many ways having Oily skin is a big plus! People with Oily Skin have fewer wrinkles, for one thing! And despite advertisements that try to convince us otherwise, Oily Skin is evidence that your skin is healthy. It says that the microbiome of your skin is functioning properly and that the oil your skin produces, sebum, is not going to let your skin go dry.
The oily product of our skin’s metabolism is sebum. Sebum and the sebaceous glands, among other things, keep our skins hydrated and supple.
Sometimes you do have an overproduction of sebum. Once it becomes the basis for acne, it would be wise to consult with a nutritionist or medical doctor to look at your diet for an ingredient or food you are eating that might be the cause of excess sebum. Also, psychologically, oiliness can be damaging to self-confidence.
If your skin is oily, you would be less inclined to use a moisturizer with occlusive, or heavy, oil, such as one with coconut oil. In the case of Oily skin, you want to gently wash away accumulated facial oil, particles from the air, sweat, make-up, etc. But also to replenish your skin with healthy moisturizers that include watery and non-occlusive oils.
If you have Combination skin, you’re likely to have both oily and dry areas. So if you have combination skin, one-ingredient-fits-all may not be the best for you.
And yet, some mixtures may be perfect for all skin types. Why? Because the ingredients are balanced between oil and astringent, and offer hydrating protection from a variety of ingredients and botanicals.
What about Dry Skin?
According to writers on cosmetic matters, Dry Skin is problematic in the early months of life (rashes, etc.) and in aging. However, in response to your diet, age, stress level and lifestyle, Dry Skin can appear at any stage in life. In fact, skin changes are evident all the time. This makes skin super-intelligent, it goes on functioning as a barrier anyway, in spite of challenges. But an awareness of what you are eating, your lifestyle and sleep habits, as well as the products you use to clean your face will contribute positively to your skin’s health.
As we know, Dry Skin is susceptible to skin damage. And Dry Skin leaves the gates open for opportunistic bacteria, liquid or gaseous pollution, and toxins to enter the skin, move into its lower layers and be carried off in the bloodstream to the body’s interior.
In fact, Dry Skin on certain areas of the body is a clue. Is this you, for example, with Dry Skin on arms, hands, legs, or feet—especially heels—? Then you have the tell-tale signs of overexposure to a drying substance, likely to the dehydrating effects of showering with bar soap. If it’s not soap, then another substance, perhaps one you use daily at work, is negatively influencing your skin’s health, and causing Dry Skin.
Skin’s constant efforts to keep its layers hydrated, to sweat, to keep you warm, and to defend your body against destructive influences and disease (the major functions of the skin) can be rewarded by care. That translates to loving your skin!
If a deficit of sebum or water should reduce the bulk of the dermis or hypodermis, then the top layer, or epidermis will appear flaky, dry, and possibly itchy. You’ll benefit, perhaps even heal your skin with new habits in skin care. Because what you’re really dealing with is that the lower layers, the dermis and hypodermis are lacking moisture. And they need to recover that moisture to function at their best.
Once you figure out that your skin is dry, you would be less likely to use an astringent or drying ingredient on it daily. If your skin is dry, is it because of exposure to drying heat such as indoor heaters, wind or sun outside, or daily washing with soap?
Combination Skin has both dry and oily areas. It’s more difficult to treat since both types, dry and oily areas are in close proximity on the face.
Finally, Normal Skin has some oiliness, which is not problematic, but instead lends a healthy tone to the skin.
A simple truth about face washing with soap. Soap is very drying!
Over time, if I want to keep wrinkles at a minimum, soap is not a good choice for facial care, nor the care of any dry skin on my body. Instead, I should conserve my skin’s moisture. Allow my skin to breathe. Maximize radiance. Because my ideal skin health can only happen if my self-care is done right.
What to do instead of soap for daily skin care?
If you want to have pure, un-adulterated and toxin-free products for your skin care, then your new habit in skin care may be to your advantage. Making DIY skin care products may be the answer. Lotions you make yourself are both easy and accessible. They can be custom assembled to match your skin type, whether dry or oily, or combination.
A customizable lotion recipe is featured in this post in Recipes.
I love my skin! Discover how easy it is to LOVE yours. In other words, first find out what your skin needs. Then give your skin the reward of care. All it takes is a basic understanding of how your skin works, what it does for you. With the right ingredients, you can encourage the beauty of your skin, a natural phenomenon of nature. Soon, you’ll be loving your skin, too.
NOTES:
If you’ve been exposed to viruses and have touched your face, eye area, nose, mouth, then yes, soap will help you shed the germs. That’s the best advice. And we are always recommended to wash our hands for 20 seconds after being exposed to germs.
After the cleaning ritual to keep germs at bay, apply Toner. Then you can layer on Oil and Aloe Lotion and cleanse your skin as described in this post.
BTW this post is not a substitute for the care you would receive from a medical doctor if you currently have or chronically have a skin condition such as psoriasis, rosacea, dermatitis, or other clinically described dermatological symptoms. Instead please consult with your health care provider or physician. Please be aware that skin health or ill-health can reveal many health issues. Your food and lifestyle speak to you on the inside before they appear as skin problems. Consult with a nutritionist or medical doctor if you have skin conditions.
What are astringent or drying ingredients?
In natural ingredients for face care, an astringent would be witch hazel or hydrosol, in short, a toner. A toner generally is skin-tightening and a pore-reducing ingredient. Astringents are seen as useful for skin that lacks plumpness, sags, or for cleansing acne bacteria from the skin. They can be enhanced with the addition of herbal infusions and hydrosols.
A drying ingredient would be a bar or liquid soap of any kind. But astringents are also drying, if over-used. Make sure that the astringent in your ingredients list is matched with hydrating ingredients. That way you’ll have the benefit of astringent firming and toning, along with hydration your skin craves.
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