How a JBC Skin Therapist Deals With Menopausal Skin

At Jersey Beauty Company, we want you to embrace every stage of life and know how to look after your skin’s unique needs in the process! Menopause is a natural a stage of life - all women will go through menopause. It’s very much a transition for your body, and your skin. Your hormone levels change and this can cause significant changes for the skin’s structure; up to 30% of your collagen can be lost in the first 5 years after menopause.

It’s also not unusual for someone to find they suddenly have patches of oily skin, when they have never experienced this before! How our skin acts can change, and will likely mean you need to make changes as to how you treat and care for your skin. Whatever menopause hormone changes throw up for your skin, you need to know how best to help your skin through the process – how to make the transition as easy as possible for your skin.

Luckily we aren’t alone facing menopause! We chatted to Guinot skin therapist Jodie, to find out more about all things menopause – when to start changing what skin care products we use, and the products Guinot have developed for menopausal skin.

Pre-menopause or Peri-menopause

You may have heard either of these terms used to say that, basically, our bodies can start to experience changes before the actual menopause, usually marked by the cessation of periods. That means, changes to your skin can also start before actual menopause.

Skin therapist Jodie explains how in menopause your oestrogen levels drop. This is a gradual process that starts anywhere up to three years before you reach actual menopause. This is big news for your skin. Firstly, your skin is covered in tiny sebaceous glands that produce an oily substance which lubricates and waterproofs the skin. In a woman’s reproductive years, a chemical called B-Estradiol ensures this substance is more fluid, which has an anti-acne effect. During menopause however, oestrogen levels drop, which means testosterone is no longer masked. This can result in a thicker oily substance being produced by these glands, which can sometimes cause breakouts and adult acne during menopause. Add to this the fact your cell turnover decreases as your skin ages and you approach menopause, this can lead to having dull, irritated skin. The skin barrier is naturally thinner which can lead to irritation.

So what do we do to protect our skin in pre-menopause or peri-menopause? We ask Jodie for her top tips.

Use the right moisturiser

Guinot therapist Jodie explains that using a good moisturiser, specifically up to the job of skin facing menopause, is vital. By switching moisturiser, we can also look to keep the rest of our existing skin care routine. Which is great for those of us who have found products that work for us and aren’t quite ready to spend a long time finding new cleanser and toner as well!

“You can fit everything in to your moisturiser and your skin routine on a daily basis. You can work with it every morning and every evening. For anyone that is going through those first menopausal signs, yes, we can embrace it. We can do something about it.”

Give ageing skin a helping hand

As well as facing menopause, we also want to protect our ageing skin against unnecessary fine lines and wrinkles. At Jersey Beauty Company we love our skin as it ages and we embraces nature’s changes. We also know that fine lines and wrinkles can be a sign our skin needs a bit more help. As we age, our skin naturally loses elastin, that gives skin its firmness, and collagen, the natural filler in the deeper layers of dermis. As a result, our skin can start to look ‘hollow’ and sagging.

Guinot therapist Jodie explains that Guinot Pleine Vie uses plant placenta from the passion fruit to give the elastin and collagen in our skin a helping hand. The active ingredients help to maintain collagen and elastin levels.

Pleine VieYouth Reactivating CreamSkin50ml: £127.00

Use a product with an anti-glycation ingredient

‘An anti-what’? So, glycation is a process that happens when you have sugar molecules in your system - they bombard the body's cells like a meteor shower, attaching themselves onto fats and proteins, forming advanced glycation end products (commonly shortened to AGEs). Why does this matter to us? Well, the proteins glycation affects are collagen and elastin – the same proteins we now know help keep our skin looking plump and bright.

Pleine Vie has an active anti-glycation ingredient, Jodie explains, which works to break down all of those little sugars. This helps our skin to keep its plumpness, stops it being dull and keeps it healthy.

Use a product specifically formulated to treat reddened skin

During menopause, and in peri-menopause, your skin is prone to irritation. This is because the epidermis – the top layer of your skin that acts as a barrier – starts to get thinner as your skin ages. This makes the deeper layers of skin more prone to irritation and damage. Guinot Red Logic works to soothe your skin and to repair the epidermis. It also reduces the visible reddening of the skin that may have occurred due to damage. Jodie explains how it works –

“it keeps microcirculation flowing through the skin, reducing the redness that's on the surface of the skin, while at the same time being very calming, soothing, and keeping the skin hydrated.”

It can also help if you have rosacea. Just to confuse us, the Red Logic actually goes on green! This helps to visibly reduce the redness whilst the active ingredients in the product work to bring about more lasting change and repair skin.

Crème Red LogicRedness Correcting CreamSkin30ml: £68.00

But I’ve been using the same Guinot products for years, is it really worth changing?

During peri-menopause and menopause it can feel like there are enough changes going on inside our bodies, let alone now changing our entire skin care routine! It’s easy to ask the question, will it really make that much difference changing products? Jodie’s answer – yes! And anyway, a change really is as good as a rest!

As our skin’s needs change, we need to change the products we use. Also, mixing up the products we use helps keep our skin care routine fresh. That’s not to say it has to be an overnight change. Jodie suggests rotating products until you have used up the last of your current moisturiser, maybe using the old one in the morning and the new one in the evening. This will give you, as well as your skin, time to get used to the change.

You can find Guinot Red Logic and Guinot Pleine Vie on our Jersey Beauty Company website, where you can also order free samples of other skin care products specifically designed for menopausal skin.