Must Have Basic Skincare Items
These days you'll find Hyaluronic Acid and vitamin C in just about everything. But why?
When it comes to skincare there are two Allstar players that no team can go without. Today I want to get into them, hyaluronic acid and vitamin C. Let me add that these two mega players are given to you as deluxe samples in your aftercare kit when you schedule your DLUX Skin Glow or MicroNeedling treatments with us.
Believe it or not, regular drinking water can be (in some cases) labeled as an acid depending on how it's being used.
In many ways, I feel like these are items that we know we should use, and often buy them, but we're not entirely sure how they work or why we need them. So let's demystify, shall we? We're going to get a little sciency with this, but not to worry I'll be sure to keep it light.
Here is what you want to know
Hyaluronic acid (HA), what is it & more importantly why do we need it? Have you noticed that nowadays you can hardly pick up a skincare product without seeing it listed on the box? Well here it goes, HA is not some type of weird caustic acid that you should be afraid to touch. It's an acid simply because of the electron charges held at a chemical level. Believe it or not, regular drinking water can be (in some cases) labeled as an acid depending on how it's being used. Okay, so back to HA, this is a substance that we create naturally in our bodies. Unfortunately, as we get older we produce less and less of it - enter HA in cosmetics.
Since it becomes harder to produce HA naturally, we need to get it from external sources. The question is why, and how does it work? HA is a glorious skin hydrator, making your skin more supple, soft, and it also has the potential to keep fine lines away. This happens when HA molecules position themselves past the surface layers of the skin.
Let us take a closer look at how this works. I want you to imagine a single chia seed. This chia seed is minuscule and completely unassuming, but the power held within it is what makes all the difference. When you drop your chia seed in water it absorbs many times its weight in water. So HA acts the same way. Every single tiny molecule of HA can hold up to 1000x its weight in water. Believe me, I know that's kind of hard to believe! It's no wonder it's being added to just about everything these days and for good reason! However not all HA works the same way, the differences will come down to molecular size, but we'll get into this another day. The take away now is, HA you cannot go without it because your moisturizer simply isn't cutting it.
Now that we're really good friends with HA, we're moving on to vitamin C. Whoever decided long ago that this would be beneficial for our skin was a God-send! This is another one of those products many of us have in our arsenal but, do we understand how it works? Let me start by saying that vitamin C is an antioxidant. As much as mother earth loves us, it's loaded with free radicals. These come from a variety of pollutants, smog, CO2, greenhouse gasses etc. All of these environmental factors are daily skin aggressors that we battle with our faces when we walk out the door. Applying a few drops of vitamin C twice per day will help to kung-fu these free radical off of our face. Vitamin C works best when combined with vitamin E, and even better when Ferulic acid is invited to the party. This perfect trifecta is a very powerful mixture which does a superstar job at not only keeping dark spots away but also lightening and erasing existing ones! A bonus to this miraculous serum is the fact that it also keeps help your skin, bright and dewy.
Lastly, how to use this dynamic duo. My suggestion is always applying your products from lightest [weight] to heaviest. Here goes: wash, tone, 2-3 drops of HA, 2-3 drops of vitamin C, moisturizer, SPF or night cream depending on the time of day.
So that rounds out our discussion about hyaluronic acid and vitamin C. Now you have a better understanding when you see these products on a shelf and will feel more confident in knowing why you need them, what they are for, and how to use them.
Until nest time,
Veronyka