Aging is an inevitable fact of life that we are not going to contest. However, we believe in the adage of “aging gracefully”. Fortunately, we don’t need to age faster than we should, if only we practice mindfulness on what we eat, what we do, and what we put on our skin. I know this is easier than done. I believe in balance in everything, and you get to define what is balanced for you in consideration of well-known facts around the health standards.
Pre-mature skin aging is caused by factors such as sun exposure, stress, gravity, facial movement, obesity, and loss of firmness in the muscle tissues. This can be characterized by having dry and rough skin, slack and looseness in the skin, thinning of the skin, uneven skin tone, fine lines and wrinkle, and susceptibility to bruises or lesions.
Sun exposure or photo-aging is caused by sun’s harmful UV rays that damage skin’s fibers called elastin. When elastin is broken down, your skin loses the ability to heal quickly, snap back after stretching, and protect itself from bruises and tears. Usually, you don’t see the damage caused by your last summer vacation at the beach until later in life, and nothing can completely undo this damage, but sometimes skin repairs itself. First and foremost, applying sunscreen of at least SPF 30 at least every 2 hours is a good practice, whether you’re indoors or outdoors. A consistent application of healthy protective nutrients from plant-based skincare products as part of your daily regimen can help strengthen your skin barrier and support your healing post-sun.
While nothing replaces a proper sunscreen protection, there are ways to complement this and increase skin protection. Look for skincare products with ferulic acid and gamma-oryzanol. Ferulic acid is naturally derived from rice bran and gamma-oryzanol from rice bran oil. They both function as strong antioxidant that can help minimize the damage of oxidative stress. Moreover, gamma-oryzanol absorbs UV light.
The role that antioxidant plays in skincare and overall health is significant. Food and skincare products that are high in antioxidants need to be a priority to ensure good health. The skin is our primary defense against organisms and chemicals trying to enter our body and invade our cells, UV radiation from the sun, pollution, and various other environmental factors. That is why skin care should not be an afterthought. Our body has its natural antioxidant; however, age, lack of exercise, poor nutrition and stress cause this natural source to get depleted. The consumption of whole foods high in antioxidant helps, and most importantly topical application of skincare products high in antioxidant aids in restoring the healthy levels of various protective molecules in our skin to ward off oxidative stress.
Antioxidants in skincare are typically referred to as anti-aging for the reason described above. They help fight against the formation of fine lines, wrinkles and age spots and deter loss of skin elasticity. All these symptoms contribute to older looking skin. Because antioxidants “sacrifice” themselves to protect other molecules, they become unstable and quick to oxidize when in contact with oxygen. Having many different antioxidants creates synergy among them so they could protect each other and restore each other’s antioxidant capabilities.
Select skincare products that have vitamins C and E, ellagic acid, resveratrol, coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10), alpha lipoid acid, EGCG (green tea extract) flavonoids, and carotenoids (beta-carotene, astaxanthin, and lycopene) to provide you with antioxidant insurance. The Super Antioxidant Vitamin C++ is blended synergistically with eight other plant-based antioxidants to reinforce each other and supercharge Vitamin C. The Celestial Luminosity contains astaxanthin, nature’s most powerful antioxidant known to science derived from fresh water micro algae. Our skincare line always contains a strong profile of plant-based antioxidants to nourish, heal and protect your skin.
