The Simple Guide to Dermalogica Skincare

Why? Because for over 30 years, they’ve been dedicated to delivering skin health results through education, innovation, and professional recommendation, not through sparkly packaging, promises of miracle cures, or overblown hype.

Most of us have a combination of skin concerns, often all going on at the same time. This is because your skin is a living organ. It’s constantly battling weather, external and internal stress, hormones, trying to stay hydrated and well-oiled but not too oily, whilst regenerating and trying to keep an even tone and fight breakouts… when you think of it like that, no wonder your skin has a combination of issues! Choose a cleanser suitable to your skin type and use targeted treatments tailored to the condition of your skin. Read the blog on everything you need to know about combination skin here.

Do you suffer from breakouts or have acne prone skin? Would you like to have a clear complexion? When it comes to treating breakouts and acne prone skin, knowledge is power! Understanding the what’s, why’s, how’s and which’s of treating acne and breakout skin is how you will get a whole lot closer to clearing your skin of those issues. Everyone gets spots - even that friend of yours who always seems to have ‘perfect’ skin. Why? Because everyone has sebaceous glands that can get clogged up. It doesn’t matter what your skin type, every skin has the ability to overproduce oil - which is what leads to the clogging of pores, making the ideal condition for bacteria to grow and break out into spots. This can be more obvious at certain ages - so when someone is in their late teens and puberty hits, sex hormones surge and this can cause oil production to increase which can lead to breakouts. The same goes for women who are pregnant and menopausal. Some of us also have naturally oily skin, making us more prone to breakouts.. So no-one is totally immune to spots. Check out our blog on using gentle cleansers for breakouts here.

Whether it’s an oily t-zone or oily skin all over the face, you need to choose skincare with the right active ingredients for your skin. What is oily skin? The outer layer of your skin is protected by a lipid barrier - this is made up of lipids from sebum, made by the sebaceous glands, which hold together dead skin cells. This lipid barrier stops populations and irritants getting in, and also water and good stuff getting out. Skin oil is a part of the natural order then - it’s all about the amount of oil. So when you have oily skin concerns it is because your sebaceous glands are producing too much sebum (oil) which then sits on the surface of the skin and also clogs up pores, capturing dead skin cells, dirt and pollutants with it. This can lead to bacteria getting stuck too, leading to acne and breakouts. Oily skin is a common skin type, treated by regulating oil production and getting rid of excess oil. While you can use blotting papers, this won’t actually tackle the underlying problem. Oily skin needs ingredients that:- Regulate oil production- Cleanse the skin of excess oil, deep into the pores- Deal with breakouts- Address sensitivity from breakouts and inflammation- Moisturise the skin and replace water lostProducts with Aloe Vera are known to be helpful for those with oily skin. Read the blog here.

Dry skin is when your skin lacks oil. Your sebaceous glands produce oil (lipids) that sit on top of the skin holding together a barrier of dead skin cells to protect the skin underneath. When your sebaceous glands don’t produce enough oil, this means that barrier starts to break down, without the lipids which act like a glue between the cells. Once the barrier is impaired, pollutants and irritants can easily get the layers of skin underneath causing sensitivity and redness. This is why dry skin leads to sensitivity, redness and dry flaky patches where the dead cells shed.

Dehydrated skin is where your skin lacks water. This can be a result of dry skin areas - when the lipid barrier is impaired, it not only means bad stuff can get in but that water can seep out. This a process called transepidermal water loss. The result is that the deeper layers of skin are left dehydrated. Dehydrated skin can be confused with ageing skin. That’s because it often results in fine lines and wrinkles, or in ageing skin, deepening lines. Think about what happens when you leave a grape in the sun. It shrivels as the water is evaporated. It becomes a raisin eventually. Now the result may not be as obvious in your skin (thankfully!) but your skin may start to have silvery fine lines, a rough texture and start to look dull and hollow. This is because as you lose moisture, you also lose plumpness and skin health.

Skincare products specially formulated for ageing skin are increasingly popular. Why is this? As your skin ages the skin’s structure changes and this can cause changes to how your skin looks. So how can you best take care of your ageing skin? As we age, our skin changes naturally. We embrace those natural skin changes. But we also want to keep our skin healthy at every age. Fine lines and wrinkles are a natural part of the ageing process, as we enter our 40s and 50s. But deepening lines and wrinkles, dullness, dryness, age spots and signs of premature ageing don’t have to be! They are actually often signs that your skin’s structure is becoming less compact and needs some extra help. Find out here how free radical effect your skin:

Sensitivity is caused because of an impaired skin barrier. The lipid barrier, as it’s often called, is the barrier on top of your skin to protect its deeper layers from the environment, pollutants, irritants and chemicals. It also acts as a barrier to lock in moisture and goodness. The lipid barrier is made up of loose skin cells joined together with lipids (oil). When the skin’s barrier is impaired or damaged, this is normally because there isn’t enough lipids in the barrier, which affects the barrier function. It leaves gaps for those irritants to get in, and for water to seep out of the skin. Allergic skin reactions and sensitive skin have some similarities. In both cases the impaired barrier allows irritants onto the deeper layers of the skin, which causes a reaction. Allergic reactions are often to specific ingredients, whereas sensitive skin is more of a general reaction to irritants. Hypersensitivity can sometimes be confused for an allergic skin reaction but actually the two are very different. Find out about a great Dermalogica product for sensitive skin in our blog here:

Hyper-pigmentation is localised or generalised brown spots on the surface of the skin that give an uneven skin tone. This can be caused through sun damage and over exposure to the sun. It can also be caused by hormone related issues and ageing as well. As you get older, you might notice a change in the colour of your complexion. This can be caused by a number of factors. The one thing that every type of hyperpigmentation has in common is the irregular production of melanin (the brown or reddish pigment in skin). The amount of melanin in our skin is determined by genetics - but exposure to UV radiation stimulates the production of additional melanin, eventually resulting in hyperpigmentation (often referred to as “age spots”). 90% of people have sun-induced age spots by the time they’re 60; these are harmless, but they contribute to the overall appearance of ageing. Age spots or liver spots on the forehead, cheeks, hands and other areas frequently exposed to the sun. Vitamin C offers photo-protection as it limits the damage from UV induced Free Radicals. In fact, an SPF only blocks out 55% of FR’s from UV so a Vit C serum under SPF offers optimum defence from this key skin ager. Environmental pollutants like ozone can actually deplete skin’s naturally occurring antioxidants, leading to free radical damage - and suggesting a strong correlation between air pollutants and skin pigmentation. Pollution particles are extremely tiny, 400 x smaller than a skin pore! They get in easily and trigger inflammation which leads to free radical production. What does pollution pigmentation look like? Variable: may appear as irregular brown patches on the forehead, cheeks, nose, upper lip, chin or jawline. When skin is irritated or inflamed such as through injury or spots, melanin, our skin’s colour pigment is stimulated as part of the wound healing process. Over time, if the skin is protected from further provocation, the condition may resolve by itself and darker pigment fades. What does post inflammatory hyperpigmentation look like? Darker patches of pigments, may be redder in appearance on lighter skin tones. Think acne scarring. Find out in our blog how Vitamin C works on hyper-pigmentation here:

Dermalogica aims to use both what nature and technology has uncovered, to bring the most innovative formulations possible. Natural implies that the product has been made solely from botanical resources without any use of chemical additives. It also infers that the natural ingredients used should not be processed or altered. Unfortunately, because there is no real definition or regulation of natural products, the term has been used very loosely and inaccurately throughout the industry. The reality is, the term natural is actually meaningless. In this marketing driven society where people are often touting that natural is better we often lose sight of the fact that just because something is natural doesn’t mean it is better than something synthetic. Poison ivy is natural but that doesn’t mean you should rub it on your face. What is a chemical? Everything is essentially chemicals. Everything is made from the same chemical elements, whether they are living or not. The idea that chemicals are bad for you is not great science! Since everything both natural and synthetic are essentially chemicals. There is a real misinterpretation of the information. Organic certification is complex and varies greatly around the world. As Dermalogica uses the best of nature and science we they are not able to be certified as organic.