Wisdom, experience, and perspective are all good things that come with age. And just like you get better with age, we believe you can achieve glowing, radiant skin no matter how many candles are on your birthday cake.
Keep reading to learn about how your skin changes over time and how to keep your skin healthy and beautiful at any age!
What Happens to Skin As We Age?
Skin is an organ- just like the heart or lungs. And just like other bodily organs, the skin changes with age. These changes tend to be more evident, as skin is visible outside our body. In addition to changes that happen with the passage of time, your skin is also exposed to the elements in a way that internal organs are not, meaning that it becomes weathered from environmental factors.
Some skin changes are inevitable, normal bodily processes that occur with age, while others depend on your environment and habits. Here are a few of the changes that occur within the skin over time.
Collagen and Elastin
Two vital proteins that make up your skin are collagen and elastin. Collagen is responsible for keeping your skin plump, firm, and youthful in appearance. When collagen production slows, you’ll notice hollows around your eyes and visible lines on the forehead, around the eyes, and the mouth.
Collagen loss starts early, at age 20. We begin to lose 1% of our collagen annually in our 20s, which means you’ll make much less collagen at age 40. Using skincare products to help boost your ability to produce more collagen can help you avoid some premature collagen loss.
Elastin is the protein that is responsible for giving your skin its elasticity. It causes your skin to snap back into place once pulled or stretched. A loss of elasticity is common with aging and causes the skin to sag and lose contour.
Skin Cell Turnover
The skin is remarkable because it constantly renews itself by creating new skin cells. This is how your body heals from wounds and grows with you. When we are young, skin cell turnover is faster than in adults, meaning new skin grows more rapidly than when we are older. Adult skin creates new skin cells every 28-30 days. In older adults, the process takes longer.
When turnover rates slow, we experience skin conditions like dullness, uneven skin tone, pronounced lines and wrinkles, and even blemishes. However, it’s possible to support skin cell turnover with ingredients that help the skin renew as it did when we were younger, along with exfoliating to remove dead skin cells from the skin's surface.
Lifestyle Habits
Your skin weathers the storms of life- from hours spent lying in the sun without sunscreen, wearing makeup to bed, or simply forgoing skincare altogether. These habits take a toll on the skin. In addition, lifestyle habits like smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, and insufficient sleep can also wreak havoc on the skin, dehydrating it and making it more susceptible to damage.
Free Radicals
One of the biggest enemies of our skin is free radicals. Free radicals are imbalanced molecules that rob other molecules (like the ones that make up your skin cells) of electrons. This creates damage to the skin cell that can cause fine lines, wrinkles, dark spots, dry skin, and rough or uneven skin texture. Free radical damage can come from pollution, secondhand smoke, and even blue light from screens.
How To Care for Your Skin At Any Age?
No matter your age, there are several keys to helping your skin remain healthy and radiant.
1. Cleanse and Exfoliate
Removing surface dirt, oil, and makeup is essential for keeping your skin healthy. Exfoliating your skin can also help support proper new skin cell turnover and ensures that dead skin cells don’t hang out on the surface of your skin, creating blemishes or dullness.
Get the job done quickly and easily with NuFACE Prep-N-Glow® Facial Cleansing Wipes. These dual-sided wipes act as a cleanser and an exfoliator in one. One side cleanses away dirt, oil, and makeup, while the other gently exfoliates for clean, glowy skin.
2. Load Up on Antioxidants
The best way to protect skin from free radical damage is to use skincare formulated with antioxidants. Antioxidants help support our skin cells during exposure to free radicals. NuFACE Super Antioxidant Booster Serum contains green tea and superfruit blend, developed to protect skin from free radical damage.
Choosing an eye cream rich in antioxidants like vitamins A and E can also help care for the delicate skin in your eye area, particularly prone to signs of aging.
3. Plump Up With Peptides
Both collagen and elastin are skin proteins that are made up of amino acid peptide chains. Boosting your skincare routine with a peptide serum can help to boost the production of collagen and elastin, helping skin to remain youthful and radiant!
NuFACE Super Peptide Booster Serum contains a proprietary IonPlex® blend and triple peptide complex that smooths and hydrates for noticeably firmer, more youthful-looking skin.
4. Moisturize and Hydrate
All skin types need hydration. Whether you are in your 32 or 72, you need to hydrate from the inside out by drinking water daily, as well as applying topical skincare that moisturizes skin and locks in moisture. Moisturized skin is more healthy, plump and radiant- giving you a youthful, refreshed glow, no matter your age!
Look for skincare products formulated with hyaluronic acid, which holds up to 1000 times its weight in water to plump skin and lock in moisture. Aqua Gel Activator and Silk Crėme Activator are both excellent moisturizers formulated with hyaluronic acid. In addition, NuFACE Microcurrent Activators contain IonPlex® blend, a precise concentration of glacial water and ions that deeply hydrate skin.
For added hydration during your skincare routine or a quick burst of moisture throughout the day, consider using a replenishing mist like Supercharged IonPlex® Facial Mist formulated with IonPlex to hydrate skin before applying serums and moisturizers or during the day for a quick refresh.
5. Use Microcurrent
Skincare isn’t just topical toners and serums. Aesthetician-created NuFACE Microcurrent Technology goes beyond traditional skincare- to the MUSCLES, to tone, lift and contour the face and neck. Microcurrent utilizes low-level electrical current that helps to re-energize the skin and muscles to lift and tone them. This is a painless, easy treatment that can be done in just minutes a day from the comfort of home.
Ensure an effective, safe treatment with NuFACE Microcurrent Devices, which are FDA-Cleared and created by aestheticians. This will ensure an effective, safe treatment that yields the results you are looking for. NuFACE Devices have a myriad of treatment uses, from lifting and tightening sagging skin, smoothing wrinkles, and helping to restore facial contour.
6. Try Red Light Therapy
LED Red Light Therapy has been proven to help increase collagen and elastin production, as well as enhance cell turnover. As you may remember, these are vital to keeping skin youthful and healthy.
Red Light Therapy uses flashing red light to penetrate the skin and increase these natural processes. Opt for a red light device that has been clinically tested, so that it is safe to use. Additionally, you may want to look for a device that contains red, amber, and infrared light - this combination has been shown to yield powerful skin-rejuvenating results.
7. Wear Sunscreen
No matter your age or activity level, wearing sunscreen is a must. An SPF 30 or higher will help you preserve your skin and protect against sun damage and pigmentation caused by sun exposure.
Hands down, sunscreen is one of the best skincare products you can use, and the benefits of using it over time cannot be understated. Before you buy, make sure your sunscreen is broad-spectrum. This means your sunscreen will protect you from UVA (burning) and UVB (aging) rays.
Radiant, Ageless Skin
No one can slow the marching of time - but we can help to protect our skin to keep it radiant and glowing at any age. Lifestyle factors like wearing sunscreen, exfoliating, and properly hydrating are essentials to maintaining healthy skin. In addition, microcurrent technology and LED Red Light Therapy are effective tools to help maintain youthful, beautiful skin at any age.
Sources:
Why does skin wrinkle with age? What is the best way to slow or prevent this process? | Scientific American
SEER Training: Layers of the Skin | Training.Seer.Cancer.gov
Cigarettes Smoking and Skin: A Comparison Study of the Biophysical Properties of Skin in Smokers and Non-Smokers | PMC
