You’re hitting your late 20’s/early 30s and you starting to notice fine lines and small wrinkles that weren’t there before. You panic.
You feel your life is all work and no play, you are tired, in fact, you are exhausted, you feel overworked and underpaid, you’ve missed a deadline for a presentation, you only caught 5 to 6 hours sleep last night, you forgot about your lunch break so now yours snacking on crap and you’re on your 3rd cup of coffee just to keep you awake and get you through the day.
You’ve not nearly drunk enough water, you’ve run out of time to get to the gym and all you want to do when you get home is crack open a bottle of wine and unwind with a hot bubble bath.
You’re in a vicious circle and now have developed a routine and in the definition of insanity, you repeat this daily routine thinking it may go away, but it doesn’t.
You know you want this to change because you are starting to see that this vicious circle is taking its toll on your appearance.
Your skin looks discoloured, inflamed, dry, you have puffy eyes, fine lines and wrinkles and seem to have aged 10 years in 3 months.
This, ladies and gentlemen are called stress. A little stress never hurt anyone they say, but when stress gets on top and your emotional and mental health starts to deteriorate, so does your skin! It’s time to break the cycle!
Let me break this down for you in the same way stress breaks down your protein building blocks, in a simple and easy to understand form so you can truly understand how stress affects you and your skin.
Stress in my mind is the biggest thing that we forget about when it comes to the ageing process and our daily skincare routine. It’s time to make it a priority management task. Why?
Skin is the biggest living organism in the human body. Each person has dermal and epidermal layers of their skin. Beneath the epidermal layers are what’s called the fibre blast cells and these little bad boys basically help produce collagen and elastin which are the building blocks to keeping healthier and younger-looking skin.
Over time, as you begin to age, these cells start to wear out and as they do, so does the production of collagen and elastin, that’s how fine lines and wrinkles are formed. Imagine coupling this with stress?
So, when you are stressed, your body produces natural adrenalin and a hormone called ‘cortisol’.
Cortisol has many actions depending on what types of cells it’s working on.
It can control the body’s blood sugar levels in other words metabolism, it can act as an anti-inflammatory, and it influences water and salt levels and blood pressure.
In times of added stress, extra cortisol is produced to help the body respond to certain situations. But this causes many problems and ultimately disrupts all of the above.
High levels of cortisol prompt certain glands in the skin causing an excess in the production of sebum oil, which blocks the pores of the skin and creates bacteria and inflammation resulting in acne.
High-stress levels can also cause psoriasis, eczema and rosacea.
When your body produces cortisol, it’s a little like going to the gym, stress sits in the belly and prevents fat burning.
Training and personal exercise produce endorphins and boost your serotonin levels which makes you feel good, combats stress and your body goes into the fat burn. This is good for you, right?
This process works in the same way with your skin. Why aren’t you training your skin in the same way you are training your body?
When you are stressed and produce cortisol, it breaks down collagen and elastin fibres which leads to ageing. You can also produce a lot of weight around the face.
Inflammation, discolouration and dryness are caused because certain vitamins are depleted. That’s why you begin to get dark circles and a puffy appearance.
So, we know it’s a real skin enemy when distributed at high uncontrollable levels, how do we combat it?
The key is to use certain products and ingredients which prevent these side effects, but these are only reactive measures. The heart of the problem lies in the prevention of stress. Let’s address the first point of ‘reaction’.
A good fruit acid always helps, it removes dead skin cells, and helps encourage the formation of new skin cells which in turn exposes blocked pores, clears bacteria and inflamed skin and excess sebum oil. The Fruit Acid Gel Exfoliator by Aenea Cosmetics is a top choice and is now available at 10%.
Any moisturiser packed with hyaluronic acid will always help add hydration to the skin, smoothing any inflammation, and adding moisture to reduce dryness. The All In One Cream by Aenea is the perfect product, also packed with avocado oil which ultimately provides all the skin nutrients it needs for a smoother complexion and essential vitamins.
Aenea has also come up with a clever Anti-Stress Super Hero and this really is a superhero for your skin.
Packed with a clever ingredient called Blue Indigo it’s designed to combat cortisol production and using Neurophroline can leave a calming sensation on your mood to prevent the buildup of stress. This is a great little anti-ageing vegan product using the science of Epigenetics.
The real problem is ‘prevention’. Stress can create free radicals and free radicals damage skin tissue, functionality, collagen and elastin production.
It’s great to treat the problem with great products and ingredients but why not prevent the problem in the first place?
Eat the right foods, drink plenty of water, take time out of your day for yourself, go to the gym, exercise, cut back on caffeine, balance your work and home life, spend more time with friends and family, laugh more, exercise those face muscles and control that emotional chimp that keeps feeding you negative thoughts and people please, get your 8 hours sleep a day! This is so important.
A healthy mind is a healthy soul and healthy souls make healthy skin.
Fuse this with anti-stress superhero anti-ageing vegan and epigenetic skincare and you’re on to a winner! Hope this helps!