True Radical Honesty From Our Community

Winter’s a cruddy time for your skin, so if you’re feeling pretty bummed about your dull complexion, it’s time to get your glow on.

Glowing skin is very much ‘in’ right now. It’s always of huge importance if you ask us, but it seems that natural radiance, rather than full-on makeup, is a major beauty prediction for the new year. 'Prove it,' we hear you shout. Sure. The Pinterest Predicts annual report was recently released and guess what topped the list for upcoming beauty trends for 2021? Yes, ‘effortlessly chic,’ radiant skin – aptly being coined Skinimalism. This is all thanks to a massive increase in Pinterest searches for terms like ‘glowing skin how to get naturally,’ ‘face yoga exercises’ and ‘natural everyday makeup’ which shows that maybe (just maybe) the years of facial contouring and graphic brows might be coming to an end.

All hail real, glowing skin. Yay. Gotta love that.

The problem with this trend, however, is that skin radiance doesn’t always come easy – especially when cold temperatures and low humidity are totally working against you. Yes, natural skin means you can say goodbye to hours of makeup application, but if you want to allow your skin to really shine through, you’d better start looking after it. So, if you’re craving ways to enhance the complexion nature gave you, here are some trusted tricks for ditching winter dullness and amping up your dewy skin game.

Work Out Your Skin

Facial massage is one of the simplest and most important things you can do to boost radiance as it instantly improves circulation and encourages the removal of waste and toxins through a process called lymphatic drainage. And the best time to do it? While cleansing your skin in the morning (two birds and all that). Here’s how:

1. First, wash your hands, then wet your skin with lukewarm (never hot) water.

2. Squeeze your favorite cleanser into the palm of your hand, then smooth it all over your face and neck.

3. Place your fingers in the middle of your forehead, spreading them from your eyebrows up your forehead. Work your fingers out towards your hairline a few times, pressing the skin gently.

4. Next, place your fingers over the center of your nose and work them out along your cheeks, rubbing the cleanser into your skin in large circles. Do this a few times, then continue with the same motion over your chin and jawline.

5. Finish by smoothing your fingertips up your neck a few times, then rinse thoroughly and gently pat your skin dry with a clean towel.

Another great way to give your skin a bit of a morning workout is to try your hand at facial yoga. And excellent news: not only will a committed routine of morning exercises boost circulation and add radiance to your skin, but it’ll help strengthen facial muscles to reduce sagging and make your skin look firmer and more youthful in the long-term.

One of our favorite facial yoga exercises (mainly because it’s so easy!) is to pout then smile repeatedly as fast as you can and for as long as you can stand it. Just do it in private, yes? You don’t want to scare the neighbors.

Get Your Vitamin C

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work out that, here at TruSkin HQ, we think vitamin C is the absolute cat’s whiskers as a skincare ingredient. A clinically-proven antioxidant, vitamin C is well-known for helping prevent accumulated skin damage by neutralizing attacks from environmental and lifestyle nasties. Think sun, pollution and cigarette smoke that love to do a real number on your skin, causing everything from fine lines and wrinkles to dullness and discoloration.

Vitamin C is also mildly exfoliating, so when you apply it topically and regularly, it works to effectively reboot collagen and elastin production to help strengthen, firm and smooth your complexion. Couple all this with its ability to help reverse UV-related skin damage and it’s a big fat ciao to uneven skin tone and dark spots. Boom.

The thing is, not all topical vitamin Cs are created equal. This means you could see it listed on your skincare label in many forms including l-ascorbic acid, ascorbyl palmitate and sodium ascorbyl phosphate. We use sodium ascorbyl phosphate – or SAP as we like to call it – in our popular vitamin C products because it’s a) stable, b) less irritating and c) very effective. Literally everything we want in a skincare ingredient, right there.

Try A Professional Chemical Peel

For an extra high-powered boost of radiance, treating your complexion to a professional chemical peel is a great shout.

Chemical peels work by using potent (but safe) skin acids to injure the top layers of your skin which makes them fall off – taking any dead, dull skin cells and unwanted dark patches with them. The first three to five days following a chemical peel procedure aren’t pretty because your skin literally does flake and peel away, but after a week your skin will be visibly smoother, clearer and your glow factor will have gone through the roof. Trust us, we’ve been there.  

Ask your skincare expert about medical-grade peels that contain hard-working, glow-inducing ingredients such as salicylic, trichloroacetic or glycolic acids as these are particularly effective for fading discolorations and brightening an uneven skin tone. We love truly professional chemical peels from medical-grade skincare companies like SkinMedica or PCA Skin as these have been proven to offer results and can often eliminate new discoloration issues in just one session. If you have older, deeper pigmentation issues, however, a series of three or four appointments is usually recommended, followed by maintenance treatments on a less regular basis.

Use Makeup To Enhance (Not Hide Behind)

Embracing the Skinimalism trend is all about making your skin look lit from within, but that’s not to say you should dismiss those extra finishing touches. Makeup, after all, is a great way to enhance your natural glow, so if you’ve already nailed your radiance-boosting skincare routine, invest in a brightening primer to apply after your skincare and before (or even instead of) makeup. A great primer will help blur fine lines, smooth pores and add instant radiance without looking like you’re caked in makeup.

If you’re in the market for a natural-looking base, we suggest choosing a mineral, powder foundation that you can buff and swirl over your skin, rather than a cream or liquid-based formulation. How so? Because creams and liquids are often more tricky to keep light and streak-free.

And for a little extra red-carpet glow? Try a subtly shimmering highlighter. But we mean subtle shimmer, people  – full-on glitter is never cool. Apply this to the parts of your face that naturally catch the light such as your cheekbones and brow bones and keep it as natural-looking as possible by going for warmer, golden shades if you have olive or dark skin, and pinker tones if you’re pale.

Gorgeous.

We’ve always known our flagship Vitamin C Serum was a real champion, but with over 50,000 reviews on Amazon and counting, the nation is clearly in agreement. So, while we pat ourselves on the backs for creating such a well-loved skincare treatment, let’s take a look at what makes Vitamin C Serum such a key player in the quest for glowing, healthy skin…

Launched in the fall of 2013 and produced right here in the US, Vitamin C Serum was the first product to join the TruSkin Naturals family. Like all of our formulations, we wanted it to offer quality and results without unnecessary additives such as fragrance and stabilizers. And all of this without the super-luxe price tag.

Some might say we crushed it.

But why vitamin C? Well, it was simple, really. Vitamin C is one of the most well-researched ingredients in skincare, boldly going where few others dare to go. A powerful antioxidant, it’s known to help ward off free radicals that attack the skin from environmental and lifestyle aggressors such as pollution, UV, cigarette smoke, stress and a poor diet. By neutralizing these nasty free radicals, vitamin C is often harnessed in skincare to help prevent fine lines, wrinkles, discoloration and poor texture.

And that’s just the beginning. Vitamin C, when used in the right form and concentration, also works hard to promote collagen production (that’s the stuff that gives your skin its plumpness, ICYMI), prevent sun damage, heck, it may even help fade acne scars.

There are many forms of topical vitamin C, including pure ascorbic acid, l-ascorbic acid, ascorbyl palmitate and sodium ascorbyl phosphate. We plumped for sodium ascorbyl phosphate (SAP) for our Vitamin C Serum, because it's a more stable and less irritating compound of pure vitamin C (ascorbic acid). This means SAP doesn’t degrade as quickly when exposed to light and air and we think you’ll agree, a stable, less irritating ingredient that is super-effective is much better than something vulnerable but so powerful it has the potential to make your skin flare up.

Another factor working in SAP’s favor is that it contains a salt molecule which helps preserve the vitamin, meaning we don’t have to combine it with other actives (cough, ferulic, cough, acid) to maintain its efficacy and stability. Ever wondered why your ferulic and vitamin C serum smells so bad? That’s all down to the ferulic acid. It’s gross. And we're not into that.

Instead of overpowering your sense of smell with unsavory ingredients, our Vitamin C Serum harnesses the powers of botanical hyaluronic acid, plus vitamin E and aloe vera to infuse your skin with essential nutrients and hydration. The result is a certified cruelty-free skincare treatment that consumers love for offering brighter, stronger, more healthy-looking skin with fewer breakouts, lines and dark spots as a bonus.

Sounds too good to be true? It isn’t…

“This product saved my skin,” explains one recent Amazon reviewer who used Vitamin C Serum to help her acne-prone skin.

“Omg. Guys, literally my face stopped flaring up within three days,” she adds.

Another 40 year-old reviewer agrees:

“My search for an amazing serum is finally over. My skin looks flawless and I have been getting so many compliments about how great I look… as if I just walked out of a spa treatment.”

We can’t thank you enough for loving our vitamin C treatment and making it the number one serum on Amazon. That's some accolade, right?

Just remember, this treatment is concentrated and very powerful, so as with any active product, always do a patch test before using it regularly to make sure your skin is up to the challenge. Simply apply a drop to a small area of clean skin either behind your ear or on the inside of your elbow and leave it for a minimum of 24 hours, preferably 48. Why this long? Because it takes time for your skin to react, that’s all. If, after this time, you see or feel no major reaction, then you should be good to go.

To use, apply between three and five drops to clean, dry skin, smoothing it over your face and neck in upwards motions. If your skin absorbs the serum in a flash, then add an extra drop; whereas if it feels sticky after applying, try to remember to use less next time. After applying, wait a few minutes, then follow with moisturizer. And don’t forget to finish with a broad-spectrum SPF30+ every morning, because vitamin C will help boost the overall effectiveness of your sunscreen.

Gosh, is there anything this stuff can’t do? Well, it won’t do the dishes or walk the dog, but still…

Lastly, if you decide our Vitamin C Serum isn’t a good fit, we offer a 90-day money-back refund, no questions asked.

Because service is just as important to us as skincare.

Now, where's the Moët...

Photo by Noah Buscher on Unsplash

With their countless skincare benefits, antioxidants are to skin what Netflix is to your couch – sheer bliss. Here’s everything you need to know about these super-effective skincare powerhouses…

Sure, many beauty buzzwords are on a need-to-know basis (yes, we’re talking to you glycosaminoglycans), but there are a few key terms and ingredients you really have to understand. And antioxidants are right up there.

Here at TruSkin, we truly believe antioxidants are the key to a healthy, radiant complexion. How so? Fair question, so let’s buckle up for a few facts, shall we?

First, a small science lesson. As far as your skin is concerned, antioxidants are naturally-occurring vitamins and minerals that help prevent damage caused by free radicals. What are free radicals? They’re the result of exposure to light, heat, pollution or other external aggressors and for fear of bombarding you with too much chemistry spiel, they’re highly reactive, unstable atoms with unpaired electrons in their outer shells. This means that to stabilize themselves they tend to snatch electrons from other atoms or molecules (think DNA, collagen and elastin), resulting in what’s known as oxidative stress. And this is where antioxidants come to the rescue. Unlike other vital skin cell components that become damaged when they lose electrons, antioxidants can donate them to free radicals without losing their own stability.

Still with us? Good! :-)

The human body naturally has a very efficient antioxidant defense system. Unfortunately, the inevitable aging process, together with overexposure to the sun, pollutants or other lifestyle nasties such as smoking, alcohol and poor nutrition, disrupts this defense system and free radicals start to take over. This causes damage not only to your skin, but to the health of your entire body.

Staying out of the sun, wearing a high, broad-spectrum sunscreen and having a healthy, balanced diet are all important ways to protect your skin from the visible effects of free radical damage such as lines, wrinkles, sagging and discoloration. But include a hard-working, clinically-proven antioxidant (or two) in your daily skincare routine and you immediately ramp up your skin’s ability to win the war.

Here are some of the best antioxidants the skincare world has to offer…

The TruSkin Big 5

1. Retinol: The Ultimate Age-Fighting Hero

You’ll see retinol splashed all over the skincare shelves. And for good reason. As a vitamin-A derivative that gets converted into retinoic acid when applied to the skin, retinol works by increasing cell turnover to help exfoliate, repair and strengthen the complexion. Unlike full-strength prescription retinoids like tretinoin, however, retinol needs to go through two steps to become retinoic acid. This makes it much gentler and tolerable on the skin and why it’s seen as the darling of anti-aging, antioxidant ingredients.

Great For: Improving fine lines, wrinkles, discoloration and poor texture.

Find It In: Retinol Moisturizer

2. Niacinamide: The Gentle Skincare Giant

If there were a prize for the most unassuming hero of antioxidants, niacinamide would win, hands down. This water-soluble form of vitamin B3 is found in many foods like meat, grains and leafy greens, and its skin-loving powers are often harnessed by the beauty industry. Why? Because niacinamide has the innate ability to strengthen the skin’s protective barrier by increasing its ceramide and fatty acid levels. This not only helps prevent environmental damage, but visibly improves the appearance of the skin.

Great For: Reducing redness, blotchiness, brown spots and enlarged pores. Sidenote: it’s also well tolerated by sensitive skin types.

Find It In: Tea Tree Clear Skin Serum Serum

3. Vitamin C: The Super Antioxidant

Skincare skeptics may try to convince you that topical vitamin C is unstable and therefore pointless. Not so. Vitamin C is a super-effective antioxidant that boosts collagen production, lightens pigmentation, adds clarity, provides UV protection and, well, the list goes on. You just need to find the right form of vitamin C, which, in our opinion is Sodium Ascorbyl Phosphate (SAP). SAP is known for being much more stable than l-ascorbic acid, and many find it to be much less likely to cause irritation. Win-win.

Great For: Boosting radiance, reducing inflammation and breakouts, and improving poor texture.

Find It In: Vitamin C-Plus Super Serum 

4. Vitamin E: The Sun Damage Savior

A seasoned skincare vet and loved by many, vitamin E is a big-hitter when it comes to helping prevent and correct sun damage. It’s also a darn good moisturizer. There are many types of vitamin E, but you’ll most commonly see this lipid-based antioxidant listed in your day cream as tocopherol or tocopheryl acetate. On its own, however, it’s easily oxidized so can quickly become ineffective on contact with the skin. This is why you’ll generally find it combined with another antioxidant powerhouse like vitamin C which instantly makes it more stable and beneficial. Antioxidant cocktailing, hey? You’ve got to love that.

Great For: Treating dry, rough or photodamaged skin.

Find It In: Vitamin C Serum

5. Hyaluronic Acid: The Moisturizing King

Hyaluronic Acid (HA) is arguably one of the best, most effective skincare ingredients available. Found naturally in your body and particularly abundant within the skin’s structure, HA is a humectant, which means it works like a sponge to trap moisture in your skin – up to 1000 times its own weight in water, in fact. The problem is, it gradually depletes as you age, which is why including a topical botanical HA in your skincare routine is such an awesome idea. Along with its moisturizing prowess, HA also reportedly promotes collagen production, reduces inflammation and fights free radicals. Yes, it’s that good.

Great For: All skin types (even sensitive) to help maintain soft, supple skin and fight premature aging.

Find It In: Hyaluronic Acid Serum For Skin & Face