Are You Using The Right Cleanser?
We’re not going to lie to you, nailing the exact cleansing routine for your skin's needs isn’t easy. But once you’ve crushed the basics, the rest should fall into place…
Cleansing: not the most exciting part of your skincare routine is it? Especially when you weigh it up against all the other good stuff like applying face serum or feeling smug as you smooth on your sunscreen every morning. But the thing is, cleansing is one of, if not the most important acts you can do to your skin. Without a clean slate, the rest of your skincare routine is pretty useless. Not to mention what you do to your poor old pores if you leave them clogged up with hours or even days (eek!) of oil, sweat, makeup, pollution and goodness-knows-what other kinds of gunk and crud. We can’t think of a better way to subject your skin to a whole life of blocked pores, major irritation and continual acne breakouts.
And we doubt any of these are high up on your skin’s priority list.
OK, so cleansing twice daily is important, you get that, right? Good. Now, there are a few other things you should know...
First up is that treating your skin with the utmost of care is a major deal. And you can nail this by switching out scorching hot water for lukewarm water, while using gentle massage with your hands and fingers as you wash your face. And your drying technique? Yeah about that. First up, don’t use any old hand towel that’s been sat in the bathroom for weeks. Instead invest in a ‘yours only’ cotton face towel and wash it with your laundry at least every other day to avoid spreading bacteria all over your precious visage.
Finally, and possibly most importantly, is the cleansing product you use. The overriding rule here is that whatever your skin type, you must always choose the most gentle, kind-to-skin ingredients you can find. You may think that stripping your oily skin with super powerful, astringent formulations is going to nix your excess oil and have you glowing with the perfect skin in seconds. But this is a mistake and will make matters ten times worse. Guaranteed.
Whatever your skin’s wants and needs, we suggest avoiding potent surfactants like sodium laureth sulfate (SLS) and sodium lauryl ether sulfate (SLES) as they can screw up your barrier function and leave your skin open to everything from itching and dryness to breakouts and redness. Nobody needs those in their life and there are plenty of other ingredients out there to gently cleanse your skin without causing as much upset.
Speaking of which, here’s what ingredients to look out for depending on your skin type and condition…
What You Need If Your Skin Is Dry Or Sensitive
Dry skin and pesky sensitivities often come hand in hand since dry skin lacks the natural oils it needs to keep it naturally protected and lubricated. So what does dry skin look for in its perfect cleanser? Well, one thing you definitely don’t need are potent ingredients (here’s looking at you SLS!) that will strip your skin even further and do the very thing you don’t want. Instead, look for cleansers that are high on moisturization and low in potent active ingredients.
Humectants and emollients are the real friends here because they attract much-needed moisture to the surface of the skin and then help to keep it there.
Awesome Ingredients To Look Out For: Hyaluronic acid, glycerin, aloe, vitamin E, oat milk, rice milk, jojoba oil and shea butter.
Where To Turn If Your Skin Is Oily Or Acne-Prone
While it’s tempting to go all-out with drying alcohols, sulfates and potent, bacteria-busting ingredients like benzoyl peroxide, you're way better off erring towards a gentler approach to cleansing oily or problematic skin. Yes, you want to balance sebum production by using non-pore-clogging ingredients but if you strip your skin right back, your sebaceous glands just end up working harder and producing more and more oil to counteract all that dryness.
Our BFF for oily, acne-prone skin is tea tree oil which not only helps tame sebum, but also works hard to fight bacteria and reduce inflammation with less irritation and side effects than benzoyl peroxide.
Awesome Ingredients To Look Out For: Tea tree oil, salicylic acid, witch hazel, MSM, niacinamide and retinol.
What To Choose If You Have Combination Skin
Combination skin is the most common and arguably the trickiest skin type to manage – oily in some places, dry in others, what’s THAT about? – so the key is to choose lightweight, pH-balanced and non-comedogenic formulations to help bring harmony to your skin. Try to avoid skin-triggering ingredients like sulfates, parabens and synthetic fragrance, and definitely don’t use soap as this will make both your oiliness and dryness so much worse.
A fan favorite for combination skin is activated coconut charcoal which gently but effectively draws out toxins and excess oils to help clear out your pores and purify the skin. And don’t forget to use toner which is a real friend for combination skin.
Awesome Ingredients To Look Out For: Charcoal, ylang ylang oil, reishi mushroom, aloe vera, hyaluronic acid, squalene and peptides.
Try: Charcoal Clarifying Cleanser
What Dull, Tired Skin Can Rely On
Most of us can relate to skin that needs a kick up the butt every now and again. We’re talking dullness, poor texture, uneven skin tone and, well, you know the drill. Whatever your skin type, a lack of radiance get us all. Sounds familiar? Then brightening cleansers are where it’s at. And look no further than vitamin C.
Vitamin C is one of the most trusted ingredients in skincare thanks to its whizz-bang antioxidant qualities that help fight oxidative stress due to things like environmental pollution, UV radiation, stress, zero sleep and a poor diet. Vitamin C also helps inhibit melanin production which is great news if your skin tone is all over the place and needs help. It’s a veritable go-to for dull, tired skin. And if you’re one of those lucky few with ‘normal’ skin that’s pretty darn balanced most of the time? This is also a great cleansing choice for you.
Awesome Ingredients To Look Out For: Sodium ascorbyl phosphate (vitamin C), vitamin E, retinol, aloe vera, kojic acid, glycolic acid, lactic acid and rosehip oil.
Try: Vitamin C Brightening Cleanser
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![The Most Effective Ingredients For Sagging Skin]()
One wish: to enjoy the tight, gravity-defying skin of 20 years ago. Sadly, it’s not going to happen, so the next best thing? Skincare ingredients that boost collagen and help your skin appear subtly firmer and just a tad more lifted.
Let’s get one thing straight: skincare cannot perform miracles. We’d love to be able to tell you that our new Caffeine Facial Serum can give you the skin of someone 30 years your junior or that our Vitamin C Gentle Face Scrub will eradicate every single one of your much-loathed dark spots after just one use. But we’d be lying. Skincare is awesome, absolutely. And yes, it can 100 percent help to subtly improve the appearance of acne breakouts, wrinkles and aging skin. But it has its limits. And knowing that your favorite moisturizer or prized facial serum can only do so much is crucial. Otherwise, you will always be disappointed. And that’s not what we want for you.
OK, so now this bombshell is out of the way and you understand that skincare ingredients aren’t going to give you an instant facelift or smooth out your laughter lines like fillers or Botox, here’s what they can do.
Choose the right formulation, crafted with thoughtful, clinically-proven ingredients, and skincare can very much improve the look, feel and health of your skin. And if you’ve ever woken up after trying a new serum for the first time, only to be greeted in the mirror by visibly brighter skin, you’ll know exactly what we’re talking about.
So, which ingredients should you pin your hopes on if you’re specifically looking to lift and firm sagging skin? Well, skin starts to go south because of dwindling collagen supplies so boosting collagen production is your first and best bet. Bearing in mind everything we’ve just said about managing expectations, therefore, here are five topical favorites we believe are the most effective for encouraging healthy collagen and helping you on the road to firmer, more toned skin.
1. Peptides
Without blinding you with science, peptides are chemical compounds made from amino acids. They’re very similar to proteins, but where proteins are large molecules made up of long chains of amino acids, peptides are their baby cousins, containing much shorter chains. Why is this of interest? Because due to their similarity, peptides have the smart ability of being able to penetrate the skin where they work like little messengers, signaling for your cells to produce more proteins. And which protein is most abundant in your skin? Yes, you got it, collagen.
In simple terms, applying topical peptides encourages your cells to keep on producing collagen (and elastin, for that matter), thus helping to counteract the skin’s inevitable loss of this vital protein and staving off all that comes with it – namely wrinkles, lines and sagging skin.
Try: Firming Collagen Day Lotion which contains vegan collagen peptides, amongst other skincare powerhouses like ceramides, green algae, vitamin E and aloe.
2. Retinol
When it comes to boosting your skin’s supply of healthy collagen very few topical ingredients trump retinol. Ask your derm or any skincare expert and we bet 1,000 bucks they will agree. So, what makes it so darn good? Well, it’s been studied for decades and it never fails to deliver the same skin-regenerating results. You see, retinol has an innate ability to communicate with your skin at a deep cellular level to encourage a speedier production of collagen and elastin in a bid to heal and strengthen your skin. Simple as. Well, it’s not that simple, but that’s all you really need to know.
Of course, retinol isn’t for everyone – it’s so good, it can be a tad irritating for some skin types – but if you used it slowly and carefully, always patch testing it first, you’ll find it can be a fantastic way to help keep your skin firm and youthful-looking for years to come.
Try: Retinol Facial Serum which has been formulated with hyaluronic acid and vitamin E, helping it to be as gentle on your skin as possible.
3. Bakuchiol
If retinol isn’t for you but you’re looking for something that does almost the exact same thing and offers very similar results, allow us to introduce you to bakuchiol.
One of the newest ingredients to the skincare world (but an absolute keeper unlike other ridiculous ingredients that are all fluff and no function), bakuchiol is nature’s best alternative to retinol. How so? Because it works just like its long-running counterpart, stimulating collagen synthesis and accelerating cellular turnover at a deep, below-the-surface level.
Bakuchiol is extracted from the seeds and leaves of the babchi plant and has been used for centuries in Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine. The reason it’s gained such momentum in Western skincare recently is that, granted, it's very similar to retinol, but more importantly it comes with way fewer unwanted side effects. Of course, its gentle nature means it works more slowly but if you sensitive skin and have patience, bakuchiol is a great choice for fighting the visible signs of aging –including sagging skin but certainly not stopping there!
Try: Rejuvenating Longevity Serum which combines bakuchiol with antioxidant-rich lingonberry stem cells and snow algae.
4. Vitamin C
If you don’t know by now how awesome vitamin C is then we’ve been doing something wrong! In our minds, this antioxidant wonder kid can do no wrong.
Like retinol, vitamin C is one of the most trusted and clinically-proven ingredients in the entire world of skincare. It’s known mainly for providing brightening benefits but never forget what an excellent antioxidant it is, offering the absolute best in environmental protection by neutralizing free radicals before they get a chance to destroy collagen – and believe us, that is exactly what free radicals will do if you don’t get in there first.
But it's not just vitamin C's antioxidant prowess that’s crucial for preventing collagen and elastin breakdown. Its highly acidic nature also works hard to boost your collagen and elastin levels. So there’s that.
Try: Vitamin C Deep Hydration Night Cream which gives your skin a delicious overnight boost of protective vitamin C, along with skin-loving botanical oils like jojoba, rosehip and evening primrose.
5. MSM
Sure, we’re all about vitamin C for president here at TruSkin, but another of our skin-firming favorites comes in the form of methylsulfonylmethane, or MSM to friends like you.
Very well tolerated by even the most sensitive of skin types, MSM is a naturally-occurring form of sulfur. And if you didn’t know, sulfur is one of the most important elements in the human body, often touted as the ‘beauty’ or ‘healing’ mineral.
What does that mean for sagging skin? Yeah, we’re getting to that. And the answer is simple: MSM plays a key role in the production and composition of collagen and keratin. Its anti-inflammatory qualities also help decrease damage to the skin caused by lifestyle aggressors like stress, lack of sleep and a sugar or carb-heavy diet. Oh, and as an extra sidenote, MSM also boosts the body’s production of glutathione which is one of your most important, naturally-occurring antioxidants. Take that free radicals!
Try: Vitamin C Super Serum+ which partners MSM with its bestie, vitamin C. Why do they love each other so? Because vitamin C helps the skin readily absorb MSM, thus doubling up their combined collagen-boosting effects.
The Most Effective Ingredients For Sagging Skin
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