Laura Skin Care

Phone: 707-295-8905

 

Category Archives: Skin Care

Your Menstrual Cycle and Your Skin: A Tough Relationship

   Skin Care  Nov 16, 2016  Comments Off on Your Menstrual Cycle and Your Skin: A Tough Relationship
Your Menstrual Cycle and Your Skin: A Tough Relationship

You’re already well aware of how your menstrual cycle affects your body with cramping, bloating, and other side effects, but you may not realize that your female hormones also impact how your skin looks and feels. There’s a good chance that you find that you start breaking out around your period, becoming just one more thing that you have to deal with in an already aggravating time, but learning about this relationship will help you conquer your skin regime.

Menstrual Cycle and Skin Timeline

For many women, there’s a decided calendar of events that happens when you get your period. You know that when you start feeling bloated or cramping in your back that it’s only a few days away. You can start having these same thoughts for a timeline with your skin. Day one of your cycle is probably presenting itself with skin that is more greasy than normal and more acne prone. By day five of your cycle, your skin has started to go in the opposite direction with it being more dry and flaky. Day 11 of your cycle is going to usher in the period of time when your skin looks and feels it’s healthiest. Day 22 has brought you back full circle to having skin that is similar to how it was on your first day being more greasy leading to acne breakouts. Those that suffer more from premenstrual syndrome may find that their skin starts to backslide out of the healthier period quicker with it happening sooner than day 22.

Treatments to Help

There are a number of things that you can do to help with your skin at a particular point in your cycle.

– When your skin is in the dry portion of the cycle, you should keep hydrated with water and increase the amount of healthy fat in your diet to help your skin become more supple.

– If you find that your skin tends to enter the greasy portion of the cycle quickly due to stress, find ways to incorporate more relaxation in your schedule with yoga, meditation, or other stress reducers.

– Exercise can be a good way to relax, and it can also help during the greasy portion of your cycle. Sweating helps to clear pores.

– A facial can also work wonders for your skin care regime if grease is a problem as the aesthetic will work to exfoliate your skin and help keep your pores clear. This can also be a wonderful time to ask for skin care advice on how you can tweak your daily regime to work better for you.

Take control of your complexion by learning about how your menstrual cycle impacts your skin. You’ll be able to start leveraging your knowledge to prepare better for how you go about your daily routines to get the best skin health.

Tips to Improve your Skin’s Elasticity

   Skin Care  Nov 09, 2016  Comments Off on Tips to Improve your Skin’s Elasticity
Tips to Improve your Skin’s Elasticity

 

What is Skin Elasticity?

Skin elasticity, or skin turgor, is the capability of your skin to change shape and return to its original state. You can notice this phenomena when you pinch a section of skin and then let go to see how quickly it will return to its original shape. The faster it smooths out, the better skin elasticity your dermis will have. Most commonly, your skin’s elasticity will decrease as you get older; however their are a slew of other reasons for poor turgor, including:

  • Severe Fluid Loss

  • Decreased fluid intake

  • Diarrhea

  • Dehydration

  • Diabetes

  • Heat exhaustion

  • Extreme Weight Loss

  • Vomiting

  • Edemas

  • Connective tissue disorders (scleroderma and Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome)

  • Aging

How to Improve Skin Elasticity?

While some causes of poor turgor are inevitable (aging, weight loss, etc), there are ways to help your skin regain its strength and vitality:

1. Drink water.

Many doctors tell you to drink plenty of water to keep you healthy overall, but water is also good for your skin. This fact is especially true if you are dehydrated or have a condition that causes severe fluid loss. If you don’t necessarily enjoy drinking water, for whatever reason, try infusing your favorite fruits into it. No sugar is added, but you get the water you need along with the fruit’s nutrients.

2. Have a Good Diet

Collagen and elastin are the two key factors in skin elasticity. As mentioned, natural aging can cause the destruction of those two factors; however damage caused by environmental factors can also destroy them. Fried foods, sun damage, and cigarette smoke are just some of the aforementioned factors. To combat the loss of collagen and elastin, your body needs antioxidants, so you’re going to want to load up on Vitamin A, which can be found in carrots, apricots, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, and watermelons. Foods rich in Vitamin C, D, and E are also helpful.

3. Vitamins

Some of these can also be included in your diet, but the following are vitamins that are helpful in repairing skin elasticity:

  • Vitamin C is important in the creation of collagen and elasticity. Aging and sun exposure can deplete your Vitamin C levels.

  • Vitamin E is an antioxidant, which as mentioned before, helps protect against damage caused by sunlight and free radicals.

  • Vitamin D helps develop new skin cells so that they can create that protective barrier that holds in moisture to maintain flexible skin

  • Vitamin B (12 and 6) and folate help collagen and elastin function together. Biotin and Niacin also contribute to healthy skin.

4. Creams and Lotions

A more topical solution for improving turgor is using the correct skin products. Essential oils such as chamomile and neroli are great for this purpose. Chamomile helps smooth broken capillaries to increase elasticity, and neroli helps cells regenerate, which along with increasing skin turgor, also helps reduce varicose veins and scarring. Cocoa butter is also a good tool for healthy skin elasticity.

Best Foods for Your Skin

   Skin Care  Oct 17, 2016  Comments Off on Best Foods for Your Skin
Best Foods for Your Skin

Everyone wants clear skin. People want to look and feel good about themselves. It’s a little hard to feel good about yourself when your face is dotted with blemishes. It will help you to know that what you eat can have a huge impact on your skin. Junk food can cause your skin to break out and certain foods can help to heal your skin. Also, some foods are really good for you to a certain point, but if you eat too much of them they can have a negative impact on your epidermis. So, to boost your overall health as well as your skin’s health, here is a short list of the best food to improve your health.

Best Foods For Your Skin

1. Chocolate

Good news, chocolate lovers! Chocolate contains high levels of antioxidants known as flavanols and cocoa hydrates and firms your skin. Of course, you don’t want to get so excited that you forget the adage all things in moderation. Make sure that your chocolate bar has a higher cocoa content than sugar. 60% or higher is best.

2. Greek Yogurt

Greek yogurt is particularly beneficial for a few reasons. One of those is that it has far more protein and far less sugar than average yogurt. Also, the particular protein that is in Greek yogurt helps skin to remain firm and helps to prevent wrinkles.

3. Squash

Squash is a great veggie for your skin because it contains carotenoids, which are powerful antioxidants. These antioxidants will work to fight against skin cell damage, so squash helps to improve skin tone and give you a luminous glow.

4. Walnuts

Walnuts are an unknown superfood when it comes to skin health, because they have omega-3 fatty acids which help to improve your skin’s elasticity. They also contain copper, which, surprisingly helps to boost collagen production, which also helps to improve your skin’s smoothness and elasticity.

5. Peppers

Green and yellow peppers have carotenoids in them as well which help to fight skin damage. Peppers help to increase the firmness of your skin, and help to reduce the appearance of wrinkles.

6. Fish

Fish are an excellent source of protein as well as omega-3 fatty acids. These omega-3s will help to fight inflammation and help to preserve your collagen which helps to keep your skin firmer.

7. Kidney Beans

Believe it or not, kidney beans can really work wonders for your acne riddled skin. Kidney beans are great for your skin because they have high levels of zinc. Zinc has been linked to helping lower acne, while conversely, if you have been having breakouts lately, you could have unusually low levels of zinc in your diet.