Anti-Aging Treatments
By Rachel Lamont
What is aging?
The easiest way to describe aging is as a natural breakdown of the elements of our body tissue. Our tissues are always breaking down and rebuilding, but with age we get more breakdown than rebuild: like taking one step forward but two steps back sometimes. In the skin, this translates to a loss of firmness creating fine lines and wrinkles, dermal thinning, build-up of dead skin cells, less oil production and so on. The skin is not functioning optimally anymore.
How to keep you skin and body from aging? Well that is a big question...There are many treatments and products that address different aspects of aging like dryness, fine lines and wrinkles due to loss of firmness, cell turnover etc. But for true anti-aging results there is no one approach: it is an accumulation of healthy choices and the continuous use of products made with natural, good for the skin ingredients.
What are Peels?
Peels safely remove the outer most top layers of the epidermis that has become old and damaged by time: dull, wrinkled, scarred, pigmented, or is otherwise no longer serving its purpose. To reveal healthier skin underneath, we remove the old skin cells and grow healthier new ones in their place. We do this in the natural world of skin care by using exfoliants and natural peel agents. As well as creating a good environment for healing and growing the new skin cells. Here at The Natural Art of Skin Care we can help make this process understandable and achievable. Step-by-step! We have a variety of natural peel agents to best suit your skin:
Glycolic Acid - derived from Sugar Cane and is a AHA (Alpha Hydroxy Acid). It is an acid that is used to remove lines, wrinkles, pigmentation, and scaring. One of the most widely used in the skin care industry.
Lactic Acid - comes from sour milk and is an AHA - naturally exfoliates without interrupting the skin's natural moisturizing factor. Derived from sour milk, yogurt or beer, it is also an AHA used for its potent acidic properties to gently exfoliate and clarify the skin without the worry of dehydrating the skin. Great for work on pigmentation too.
Salicylic - Derived from willow Bark and is a BHA (Beta Hydroxy Acid). In this case it helps to break through oil and clogs and remove skin cells to reveal brighter newer looking skin. It is commonly used in acne peels as it has the ability to somewhat "reset" the sebaceous glands.
Natural Enzymes - papain from papaya, protease from pumpkin, bromelain from pineapples, malic from apples, etc. These are mild and great for sensitive skin types.
Sometimes we even use enzymes to "pre-peel" in house since they only digest dead skin cells, whilst leaving everything else intact. Used for pigmentation, fine lines, wrinkles, pigmentation and sensitive skin.
Important notes if you are considering a peel:
In-house peels are stronger than anything you can buy at a drug store. They require training and skill to use, and all peels should be overseen by an experienced medical esthetician. Peels give great results, but need to be taken seriously. There is no safe level of sun exposure whilst getting a course of peels. Please use extreme caution and wear sunscreen, physical sun protection, and don't plan to be out doors for long periods of time.
Talk to your skin care professional to help better determine where peels will fit into your schedule.
Time to feed the skin
In any good relationship - you cannot take without giving back. This goes for skin care too; especially when you are peeling and taking away. If you take time to peel you must take time to feed your skin too...This is why skin care is so important to your overall goals of staying young or reversing the clock to more youthful skin. The ingredients within the products that you spend your hard earned dollars on should feed your skin with natural, healthy vitamins and nutrition-rich ingredients to continue the anti-aging process for luminous, youthful skin. That's why at The Natural Art of Skin Care we only sell products with all natural, good for the skin, healing ingredients from popular organic lines such as Eminence and DerMed that yield fantastic results for clients with all skin types.