6 Things your Beauty Therapist Wants You to Know About Keeping your…

We believe the best people to ask for advice are beauty therapists 01

It’s difficult to know what beauty product advice to trust nowadays. Most beauty brands market themselves to be the next thing since sliced cucumber - and why wouldn’t they?

But that isn’t particularly helpful when you’re trying to find the best products to address your specific skin problems or skin type. If you already have sensitive skin, for example, the last thing you want to do is try out a new product or skin care routine that will cause your skin to flare up!

We believe the best people to ask for advice are beauty therapists. Not only do they have a good theoretical understanding of how skin functions, they have a hands-on experience with products and know what works best for who.

We are lucky enough to know a few brilliant beauty therapists and we have rounded up their best beauty tips to give you a guide to beautiful, healthy skin all year. Here are the six game-changing beauty hacks we wanted to share with you. Good skin care begins now!

Whatever your age, whatever your skin type, our Ultimate Guide to Skin Care has it covered.

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1. Brightening Your Skin

Brightening skincare products (like Dermalogica’s Powerbright range) will take between four to six weeks to lighten pigmentation.

You might not know this, but most skins could do with a bit of brightening up - a bit like the weather in the UK! Age spots or brown spots can give your complexion a dull appearance. How do you achieve a radiant glow? Beauty therapist Jane says it’s all about hydration, hydration, hydration.

As long as your skin is smooth, well hydrated and the pigmentation is lighter, you will have brighter skin. There are various reasons why people have skin pigmentation problems. For example, people with acne may struggle with post-inflammatory pigmentation, and people who have abused sunbeds in the past may also need skin brightening.

If you’ve got any issues of hyperpigmentation, or your skin is lacklustre, you really need supercharged hydration and skin products containing Vitamin C. Dermalogica’s enhanced peptides, found in the Powerbright range, are designed to speed up skin brightening and the control of pigmentation.

Pure Light, for example, can hold up to 5000 times its own weight in water. It leaves a lovely dewy finish without feeling greasy.

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2. Minimising Your Pores

When it comes to pores we have bad news and good news. The bad news is that pores don’t close - they simply can’t, and they can get bigger. The good news is there is a lot that can be done to minimise the appearance of pores. As with all solutions to skin care problems, the answer lies in improving your skin health. In a nutshell, the product that will help you is a primer! While most people will think of a primer as makeup, beauty therapist Naomi explains this is not the case for all primers.

“Pores can become blocked though lack of exfoliation and a build up of oil in the gland. First and foremost, cleansing steaming and exfoliating are the best place to start when tackling pores. Steaming is quite a good way of loosening the skin on the face and that’s why we do a lot of it in facials, simply because it loosens the pores so it’s easier for extraction if they are filled with blackheads, papules and pustules. Once steamed, the skin is ready for thorough exfoliation and after that we can think about what to put on the skin."

A product that works really well to reduce the appearance of open pores is a primer. Dermalogica has several types of primers aimed at different skins. The Hydrablur Primer has a silicone base that smoothes out imperfections and gives an even that skin tone and texture. It has a microencapsulated tint which means it reflects the colour of the skin underneath.

The Skinperfect Primer is a fantastic cocktail full of vitamins and minerals for an Age Smart skin. It has a pearl powder tint which is a neutral skin colour but its main function is to hydrate the skin, so it locks in the moisture and drip-feeds it into the skin throughout the day.

Beauty therapist Jane adds that another advantage of the Dermalogica primers is that they help makeup to stay on for longer.

“The primers also don’t contain any ingredients that will block pores, so not only are you going to get anti-ageing properties, you get collagen stimulation, and an even skin tone. First and foremost this is a skin care product, it is not makeup.”

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3. Treating Sensitive Skin

A great cause for concern for many people who want to try new beauty products is the risk of having a bad skin reaction. A quick scan of the ingredients list on the back of any tube or bottle can leave you more confused than informed if you don’t know what to look for. This concern is even greater for people who already have sensitive skin. Beauty therapist Nicola gives her advice on how to navigate sensitivity sensibly.

“Sensitivity can be caused by many different factors; it can be hereditary, caused by the environment, certain medications, hormonal changes, lifestyle choices and diet as well. Using very harsh, foaming cleansing products have also been known to cause sensitivity. A truly sensitive skin will be reddened in colour. It will feel irritated or inflamed on a daily basis and it will react to temperature change in the environment and may feel hot to touch."

To address sensitivity the skin’s natural protection barrier needs to be rebuilt. Guinot has a dedicated range of products for sensitive, reactive skin, which can also be used for skin conditions such as rosacea. An ingredient found in all the products in this range is lymphokine, a Guinot complex that consists of corn, chamomile and oak root. Its main function is to soothe and desensitise flared-up skin.

Every skin needs a cleanser, even a sensitive one, which is why it is essential to get a calming and soothing product such as Demaquillant Hydra Sensitive that will remove makeup and other impurities, but it will respect the fragility of the skin.

A good moisturiser is imperative for any skin type and Guinot has two that are geared for sensitivity. Crème Hydra Sensitive is great for sensitive, irritated skin and rosacea, while Crème Protection Reparatrice protects and repairs very fragile, vulnerable skin that is irritated from the environment.

Another product that people might find unusual to use on sensitive skin is an exfoliator. It is often missed off on skincare regimes for sensitive skin as a way to avoid further irritation. But Gommage Biologique by Guinot is a must! It’s a very gentle exfoliator which will help to rebuild the epidermis and reinforce the skin and that’s exactly what a sensitive skin needs. It is a gel-based exfoliator and you massage it over the surface of the skin in light, circular motions. When you do that the product has an almost enzymatic change, it changes to an oil consistency and it’s the fruit enzymes in there that lift off the dead skin cells, so you don’t have any sloughing and buffing action or any rough grains. Using this on a regular basis will help the skin to repair itself.

Gommage BiologicGentle Exfoliating GelSkin50ml: £40.00

4. Reducing The Appearance of Wrinkles

The number of products designed to reduce the appearance of wrinkles and fine lines worldwide could easily be in the millions, but few are proven to be effective. Beauty therapist Jane explains how an ingredient called Retinol works and how it should be used.

“Dermalogica’s Overnight Retinol Repair is the most potent and powerful product in the Age Smart line. If you have fine lines or wrinkles it is the main product you want to be using. It’s a night-time only product and contains 0.5 % retinol."

Now, 0.5 % might sound like diddlysquat, but it’s a huge amount when it comes to this particular active ingredient. It’s important to understand that Retinol needs to be introduced to the skin quite slowly. It renews everything, increasing collagen stimulation and the skins density, which thins out any fine lines.

If you are new to retinol, Jane would recommend that you start off with one part Overnight Retinol Repair and three parts Buffer Cream.

"Once your skin gets used to that, you can then move on to using two parts Overnight Retinol Repair and two parts Buffer Cream, this way your skin will slowly build a tolerance to retinol. So beginners, use retinol at a 1:3 ratio then build up to a 2:2 when you are ready! If you went in all guns blazing with the Overnight Retinol Repair, it may cause sensitivity and peeling."

Other beauty brands have products with a higher percentage retinol, but Dermalogica’s approach is based on creating balanced results and avoids the high risk of reaction on the skin which will cause inflammation, which effectively causes ageing.

Another important ingredient in wrinkle reducing products is antioxidants. Pretty much 80% of what you will see on any person’s skin will be signs of premature ageing. A common misconception is that once you reach a certain age that there is nothing that can be done to makeup the skin look more youthful.

There is always something you can do for somebody! Antioxidants are a key ingredient in Dermalogica products that target premature ageing. In a nutshell, they neutralise elements that are in the atmosphere that will break down collagen and elastin in the skin. This process slows down the ageing process and helps the skin to renew itself.

5. Improving Overall Skin Health

What many people don’t realise is that by improving the health of their skin, the appearance of their skin will automatically improve too. There are many tips on how to do this and one of our favourites is double cleansing. Beauty therapist, Jane, explains what it is and what it does;

“Double cleansing is all about thorough cleansing. The majority of skincare companies concentrate on the three step formula of cleansing, toning and moisturising."

Dermalogica offers a ‘double cleanse’ approach. Depending on your face mapping prescription, you may need to use a PreCleanse, which is an oil-based cleanser. It works on the basis of oil attracting oil. It is applied with dry hands to a dry face and then massaged on with a little bit of water until the top of it goes milky. This effectively encapsulates the oil, dirt, grime, and SPF from your skin. You rinse that off and apply a cleanser based on your skin type.

The PreCleanse is not appropriate for everybody, however. For example, people with nut allergies or wearing semi-permanent false lashes won’t be able to use it. People with oily skins might be concerned about using an oily product in case it made their problem worse, but the oils bond together, drawing out the skin’s excess oil making it easy to wash away.

Most cleansers are water-based and while they do a good job, there are oil-based makeups and oil-based products such as SPF that they wouldn’t necessarily remove effectively. At the same time, people with drier skins might be concerned that an oil-based cleanser would draw out too much oil, but PreCleanse won’t strip off all oils and rather creates a natural balance, while leaving the skin feeling supple and soft.

Precleanse Cleansing Oiloil-busting emulsifyerView All150ml: £49.00

6. Protecting Skin Against The Sun

We cannot stress it enough. Don’t be complacent in the sun!

Most people are aware of the fact that the sun can damage the skin and lead to signs of ageing. More than ever, beauty products are being manufactured to include sun protection ingredients, but few people fully understand what they are putting on their skin and what it will do. Beauty therapist, Jane, sets the record straight.

“People apply sunscreen to protect their skin from getting sunburnt by the sun’s UVB rays. What they don’t always realise is that they also need protection from UVA rays. UVA rays damage the skin on a cellular level and affect the collagen and elasticity, creating signs of ageing. They are present 365 days a year regardless of whether it’s cloudy or sunny. If there’s ever a reason to put on sunscreen every day as part of your beauty regime, it would be to protect your skin against these particular rays."

In addition to the misconceptions about sun protection, people usually don't apply enough sunscreen often enough, thinking that one application per day will offer adequate coverage. People are going in the sun and thinking they are safe, but they are at real risk of skin cancer because UVA is the one that’s linked to skin cancer. Sunburn you can see, skin blistering you can see, but that UVA damage you won’t see for months or for years. UVA damage can be anything from imperfections, wrinkles, right through to melanoma and skin cancer.

Another aspect that sets Dermalogica apart from other beauty brands is that it puts less SPF properties into its sunscreens while still raising the SPF level. This means you don’t get a tingling sensation that you would expect to get when you apply a really high chemical SPF to your skin.

Everyone needs protection from the sun, it doesn’t matter how pigmented your skin is, so make sure that you build this into your skincare regimen. You can still burn and you are still susceptible to UVA. It doesn’t matter whether you have a darker skin tone. Don't be complacent when it comes to sun protection!

Sun Protection Fact File

UVA rays cause ageing and skin cancer
UVB rays cause sunburn
Sun Protection Factor (SPF) indicates the amount of times your skin is protected than it would be without
SPF alone doesn’t protect against UVA rays
Every sun protection product features two numbers: The SPF number on the front and a UVA rating on the back.