Glowing, radiant skin for you!
How can you achieve gorgeous, glowing radiant skin?
Sun, stress and injury have caused many a photoaged skin. Hence, I would like to share with you some skincare pearls, to ensure you be the light of the party this Xmas. Be bold and beautiful!
Essentially, skincare can be divided into S.E.A.
Sun protection – which can be further divided into T.C.S. T stands for time, and the sun is hottest between 10am and 4pm so try to stay out of it. C is for cover, so use your hats and sunglasses. S is for sunscreen, so slap on that SPF.
Exfoliation – with glycolics being the foundation
Antioxidant – So drink your green tea! Not forgetting your Heliocare.
Others – Of which retinoids and whitening agents like Hydroquinone play a major role.
Today I will share with you about retinoids, the quinessential antiageing formulation.
Retinoids
1) What are the indications?
– Acne, Ageing, Skin rejuvenation
2) How do you use them?
– Herein lies the key. Retinoids can be irritating to the skin, so the principle is start slow, start low, and work your way up.
3) How long do I wait for effects to occur?
– Generally give it 12 weeks.
4) When am I considered unsuitable for retinoids?
– If you find that using the lowest concentration and starting at once every 3 days causes you to have prolonged stinging, redness and peeling for days, then you need to consult your dermatologist about the usage.
5) How can I soften the reaction to retinoids?
– A good practice is to apply it 20min after a wash, to allow your skin to recover.
– Using of moisturizer either before or after the retinoid helps to reduce the irritation.
– Short contact treatment is another modality, but applies to a particular type.
6) What can I expect?
I generally divide it into subjective and objective.
Subjective is what you can feel, and namely, itch, warmth, stinging, burning.
Objective is what everyone can see, and namely, redness, peeling…
Generally, you will feel before you see, so I always tell my patients to control it before it manifests.
7) What are the benefits?
– Skin lightens and brightens
– Skin thickens
– Wrinkles and fine lines go away, hence it’s antiageing properties
– Normalises skin renewal, and reduces oil production.
So dear readers, once your skincare regime is up to speed, nextup comes the various aesthetic procedures to help you achieve your beauty goals.
Skin lifting machines like Thermage and Ulthera can provide the added boost to your skin, tightening, toning and refining to give you a soft, bright glow. They can be used in the young as a active preventative measure against ageing, and in the matured audience for defying ageing and gravity, improving neck sagging, jawline, jowls, laugh lines etc.
Lasers can help with pigments ( freckles, sunspots, age spots, melasma) pores and pimples to improve both skin texture and tone. These are suitable for general skin types.
And to round it off, injectibles like fillers to provide the volume to areas of tissue loss ( commonly the temples and cheeks) and botox to reduce dynamic wrinkle lines (commonly over the forehead, corner of the eyes and frown lines).
I hope this has been useful. So be bold and beautiful! Merry Xmas everyone!
