Dispelling Skincare Myths

When you have acne or aggravated skin, more often than not achieving healthy, beautiful glowing skin is about doing less to allow it to heal, rather than doing more to fight or fix the acne or imbalance. We’ve been taught by skincare marketers that great skin means more products more magic potions, that achieving great skin means fighting against your skin’s natural processes or flare ups.

Our obsession with using more and more products to enhance alter and augment our appearance has harmed our skin’s health. The skin has its own ecosystem, made up of a diverse milieu of microorganisms that are together called ‘the skin microbiome’. Just like our gut health, most of us have depleted delicate balance of of our skin through the use off too many invasive, aggressive or synthetic products. These have stripped our skin’s natural protective barrier, leaving it vulnerable to invasion and infection from environmental toxins and bad bacteria. In some skin types this causes acne, in others dehydration leading to premature fine lines and wrinkles. So allow us to dispel a couple of myths, which have many of us confused about skincare.

Skincare Myth: My skincare stings when I apply it. That means it's working.

FALSE:

The fact that your skincare is causing your skin to tingle or burn is because it’s creating a negative reaction in your skin, generating inflammation thereby delaying or preventing healing from occurring. If any part of your skincare regime causes your skin to feel uncomfortable, makes blemishes on the skin appear redder or causes it to become itchy, your skincare is creating inflammation. When your skin is inflamed it’s actively fighting against whatever product you have just applied

Think about it, when you have an injury on any other part of the body you don’t continue to aggravate it, rather you allow it to heal, keep it clean and watch for the redness to subside, as an indicator that your skin is starting to heal. Your face is no different. Rather than skincare which feels uncomfortable you, you’ll get best benefit from skincare which calms the irritation and soothes the redness, allowing your skin to heal and repair naturally.

Skincare Myth: Oils clog pores and cause acne?

FALSE: How do we know? Because our blends regularly heal angry, active pervasive and persistent acne.

Why have people developed this false understanding?

Some, not all oils are occlusive, meaning they coat the skin, creating a block between the skin and air, enveloping each cell.

These more occlusive oils (or butters or waxes) can take a longer time to absorb, or they simply don’t absorb at all on some skin types before they are rubbed or washed off. This can impact the skins ability to detox and exfoliate in a healthy way.

The skin’s external layer contains dead cells, which it naturally sheds. When the skin is coated with a waxy substance this process is impaired and the pores can become clogged.

Examples of occlusive oils are Coconut, Macadamia or Castor Oils, some waxes like Beeswax and Mineral Oil, like Bio Oil (eurgh). Occlusive oils can still play a role in skincare blends, they just should not dominate a product.

We often hear how light, yet hydrating our skincare oils are: That’s because they’re not predominately occlusive.

We hear that our products improve inflammation and acne in skin. That’s because they allow skin to detox and exfoliate, uninhibited by pore clogging oils and waxes, whilst simultaneously soothing and healing the underlying aggravation.

WE KNOW:

We know that when the skin is optimally fed, it's own powers of repair and regeneration are amplified and it returns to balanced, radiant health. With a little persistence, consistency and time you can heal, reset and repair your skin from the problems of the path and return to a balanced, glowing skin.