"Is Exfoliating Maximising Your Skin's Potential?"

Exfoliation is a crucial step in any skincare routine, helping to remove dead skin cells and reveal a smoother, more radiant complexion. Here, we'll explore everything you need to know about exfoliating, highlighting Dermaviduals' unique approach and their effective products designed to enhance your skincare regimen.

What is Exfoliation and What are its Benefits?

Exfoliation is the process of removing dead skin cells from the outermost layer of the skin, known as the epidermis. By using physical or chemical agents to gently polish the skin, exfoliation reveals a brighter and more radiant complexion. This process leaves the skin feeling smoother and softer while also enhancing the absorption and effectiveness of other skincare products.

Risks of Over-Exfoliating

While exfoliation offers numerous benefits, overdoing it can be harmful. Excessive exfoliation can compromise the skin’s protective barrier, making it more vulnerable to environmental damage. It can also strip the skin of its natural oils and moisture, disrupting the natural cell turnover process. This can prevent the skin from performing its essential functions properly. Therefore, it is crucial to find the right balance and choose an exfoliation method and frequency that suits your specific skin type and condition.

How Often Should You Exfoliate?

For most people, a weekly exfoliation is sufficient to maintain a healthy skin barrier, which balances oil and water to facilitate natural cell shedding and hydration. However, it's best to consult with a Skin Treatment Therapist to get personalised recommendations tailored to your individual skin type.

Exfoliating with Dermaviduals

Dermaviduals emphasises preserving and protecting the skin's natural barrier, avoiding harmful ingredients like emulsifiers, fragrances, preservatives and colours. Their products are gentle yet effective, supporting the skins natural functions and promoting long-term skin health.

Key Exfoliating Products from Dermaviduals

1. Individual Mask

Formulated with kaolin clay in an aqueous gel base, the Individual Mask not only increases hydration but also remineralises the skin, having antimicrobial anti-inflammatory properties. What’s great about our Individual Mask is that it’s fully customisable to your skin! Your Skin Treatment Therapist can add 4ml of serums to perfectly target your individual needs. The individual mask is available for purchase in clinic individually, or in the ‘At Home Facial Kits’.

2. Customised Enzyme Peel

For in-clinic treatments. A professional enzyme peel filled with skin-purifying ingredients such as natural pineapple and papaya enzymes, and a mix of kaolin clay and bentonite for gentle resurfacing and removal of dead skin cells.

Seasonal Skin Changes and Hydration Tips

As autumn transitions into winter, skin often becomes drier and more sensitive due to colder temperatures and lower humidity. This seasonal change necessitates adjustments in your skincare routine to maintain hydration and protect your skin.

Tips to Keep Skin Hydrated

1. Use a Gentle Cleanser: Switch to a mild, hydrating cleanser to avoid stripping the skin of its natural oils. The Dermaviduals’ cleansing milk is a beautiful, nourishing milk cleanser.

2. Moisturise More Frequently: Coming into the cooler months, a richer moisturiser should be used to avoid water loss from the skin. In the winter months, we may increase you to a more nourishing moisturiser - or create a bespoke moisturiser with oils.

3. Hydrating Masks: Incorporate hydrating masks into your routine to boost moisture levels. The Dermaviduals DMS Mask with Vitamins will be a lovely option to nourish the skin and optimise hydration.

4. Humidify Your Environment: Use a humidifier to add moisture to the air, especially in heated indoor spaces.

5. Stay Hydrated: Drink plenty of water to keep your skin hydrated from within.

6. Protect Your Skin Barrier: Avoid over-exfoliating and use gentle, barrier-supporting products like those from Dermaviduals.

Exfoliation is key to healthy, glowing skin, but it's essential to choose the right products and methods for your skin type. making the necessary adjustments to your skincare routine to keep your skin hydrated and protected during the seasonal change.

Remember we are always here to help! We offer complimentary Skin Care and Skin Treatment consults tailored to you and your specific needs.

Glow Up: Perfect Skin Prep for Any Special Occasion

Preparing your skin for a special occasion such as your wedding day, requires thoughtful planning and a dedicated skincare routine. Achieving noticeable improvements in skin health and appearance, whether you are targeting lines, acne or pigmentation, takes time due to the natural cycles of skin renewal. So if you're looking forward to walking down the aisle with radiant, glowing skin, it is crucial to start early and follow a consistent regimen. Our skin subscription service is designed to help you reach these goals by providing personalised, expert-recommended products and treatments tailored to your unique needs. With these services, you can embark on a skincare journey well in advance, ensuring you look and feel your best on your special day.

Let’s discuss why good skin takes time!

1. Skin Regeneration Cycle: The skin undergoes a natural regeneration process approximately every 28 to 30 days. This cycle involves the shedding of dead skin cells and the emergence of new cells from the lower layers of the skin. It takes multiple cycles to observe a noticeable difference in skin tone and texture. This is because the skin’s surface doesn’t immediately reflect the deeper changes occurring at the cellular level.

2. Collagen Production: Many anti-aging treatments, such as our skin needling and IPL aim to boost collagen production. Collagen is a protein that provides skin with its structure and elasticity. However, the synthesis of new collagen fibers is a slow process. The quality and amount of collagen produced also decreases with age, so it often takes several months before improvements in skin firmness and the reduction of wrinkles become apparent.

3. Reduction of Pigmentation: Treating hyperpigmentation, whether due to sun damage, melasma, or post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation, involves the gradual lightening of dark spots. Ingredients like vitamin C work to inhibit melanin production, but this process takes time. Furthermore, pigmentation often extends into the dermis (the deeper layers of the skin), and therefore a consistent treatment and skincare regime are required to achieve improvements in skintone.

4. Skin Barrier Repair: For overall skin health and resilience, the skin barrier must be strong and intact. The philosophy of Dermaviduals is centred around the importance of nourishing the skin barrier, as opposed to ablating it, as this leads to water loss through the skin. Damage to the skin barrier can cause issues like dryness, diffused redness, sensitivity, and inflammation. Repairing this barrier involves using gentle, hydrating, and nourishing products consistently over time to restore its function and appearance, which cannot be rushed. Damage to the skin barrier will be identified by your therapist, and a regime to address this will be devised.

5. Gradual Introduction of Active Ingredients: Powerful anti-aging and brightening ingredients from the Dermaviduals range need to be introduced gradually to avoid irritation and damage to the skin barrier. The skin requires time to build tolerance to some ingredients, and the benefits become evident only after sustained use.

6. Professional Treatments and Recovery: Our intensive treatments such as IPL and skin needling require multiple sessions spaced 4-6 weeks apart. Each treatment session stimulates skin recovery, repair and regeneration, with cumulative results becoming more visible over time.

7. Consistency and Patience: A large part of skin results are compounded from a consistent daily skincare routine, and these are crucial for achieving and maintaining skin goals. Patience is essential, as skipping steps or frequently changing products can disrupt progress and prolong the time required to see results. As part of this, sunscreen is an imperative part of preserving the collagen induced from your in-clinic treatments.

8. Cumulative Effect: The cumulative effect of skincare routines and treatments plays a significant role. While an individual treatment or product application might show immediate results, the consistent application over several months compounds to substantial, long-lasting improvements.

Understanding and respecting the skin’s natural processes is key to achieving significant and sustainable improvements. For those preparing for an important event like a wedding, starting a dedicated skincare regimen several months in advance allows enough time for these gradual changes to manifest, ensuring a healthy, radiant complexion when it matters most.

For more information on our skin subscriptions, please see the Enhance Skin Club tab. If you would like to discuss our skin subscriptions to find out which option might fit you best, please reach out.

Autumn Skincare: Treating Pigmentation & the Importance of SPF

Hey, everyone! Welcome to our skincare blog. We're diving into why autumn is the perfect time to tackle pigmentation and the year-round necessity of SPF protection.

As the leaves change color and the air gets crisper, it's easy to think that sun protection becomes less critical. However, that couldn't be further from the truth, especially when it comes to pigmentation concerns.

Autumn is actually an ideal time to address pigmentation issues for a couple of reasons. First, the intensity of the sun's rays tends to decrease compared to the peak of summer. This means less risk of further pigmentation and more favorable conditions for treatments like laser therapy, or targeted skincare regimes.

Secondly, cooler temperatures mean less sweating and reduced sun exposure during outdoor activities. This allows the skin to recover more effectively from treatments without the added stress of excessive heat or humidity.

But treating pigmentation isn't a one-time fix. It's crucial to understand that prevention is key, which brings us to the topic of SPF.

Using sunscreen daily, regardless of the season, is non-negotiable. UV rays are present year-round, even on cloudy days or during the cooler months when the sun might not feel as intense. Unprotected exposure to UV rays can worsen existing pigmentation issues and increase the risk of developing new ones.

For those undergoing pigmentation treatments, SPF becomes even more vital. It helps maintain the results of those treatments by shielding the skin from further damage and ensuring that progress isn't undone by sun exposure.

In today's world, where the cost of living seems to be ever on the rise, it's essential to find skincare solutions that not only deliver results but also fit seamlessly into your budget. That's where our tailored skin subscriptions come in.

By opting for a weekly direct debit subscription, you're not just investing in your skin's health; you're also making a smart financial choice. Instead of shelling out large sums upfront for skincare products or treatments, a subscription spreads the cost over manageable weekly payments- at a discounted rate.

This approach not only eases the strain on your wallet but also ensures that you never have to compromise on the quality of care your skin deserves. With a subscription, you have access to a curated selection of medical-grade skincare products and treatments specifically tailored to your skin's needs, all without breaking the bank.

So, if you're looking to prioritise your skincare routine without blowing your budget, consider signing up for our tailored skin subscription today. It's a win-win situation for your skin and your wallet, ensuring that you look and feel your best without any added financial stress.

That's it for today! Remember, autumn is a great time to tackle pigmentation, but SPF protection is a year-round commitment. Stay tuned for more skincare tips and insights. Until next time, take care and stay radiant!