Islamabad: An expert has revealed how to tackle five common skincare problems, from fine lines to visible pores. Megan Felton, 26, of Texas, is the co-founder of beauty service Lion/ne, which offers 1:1 personalized skincare consultations to help clients develop their unique skincare routine. The process centers on the OBSERVER Diagnostic Tool, a skin analysis camera, to pick up on skin concerns the naked eye cannot see.
Such as pigmentation, fine lines, as well as the ‘skin’s mood’, deep within the layers that will surface over time. Once the analysis is complete, experts advise on the most effective skincare products and ingredients to suit their needs, budget, and lifestyle preferences.
Top 10 Beauty Tips by Hakeem Muhammad Irfan
1. Dry and dehydrated skin:
Megan often sees clients complain about their dry skin, but she has revealed there is a difference between dry and dehydrated skin, with the former being a skin type rather than a side effect of lifestyle factors.
She said: ‘The difference between dry skin and dehydrated skin is that dehydrated skin will have a lack of water in the stratum corneum (top layer), but dry skin is a primary skin type and has more to do with a lack of oil production.
‘There are many reasons that the skin can become dehydrated; sun exposure, lack of sleep, stress, hard water, products that are too harsh or too light. I mentioned stress above, but commuting and stripping products may also be culprits here.’ ‘If you have dry skin and don’t exfoliate the product may not be able to penetrate the skin.’
2. Blackheads and visible pores:
Blackheads can be eliminated by using non-abrasive exfoliants and cleansers, while large pores are harder to ‘shrink’.
The American expert explained: ‘Unfortunately, contrary to popular belief and skincare marketing, we cannot ‘shrink’ our pores. However, we can minimize their appearance by making sure we are cleansing properly, maintaining normal oil flow, absorbing any excess oil, not using heavy/greasy moisturizers, and exfoliating regularly.
‘Ingredients to look for are BHAs, retinol, and SPF (sun damage affects cell structure and pore size too). ‘While the reason we get blackheads is the build-up of dead skin cells and oil, which goes black due to this oxidizing. ‘But you can get rid of them by going to an aesthetician and getting them professionally removed or using a BHA.’
3. Dark circles:
Megan has revealed numerous clients are conscious of the purple-ish circles under their eyes. Controversially the businesswoman has revealed they are here to stay and are often caused by genetics, sun damage, stress, and sleep.
She said: ‘Sadly you are much more likely to reduce dark circles by investing in a good concealer. ‘Dark circles are often something we are genetically predisposed to, and getting in some extra sleep/trying to reduce stress levels will help with dark circles more than skincare.
‘Eye creams are not in the skincare priority category. We do recommend them as something nice to do to treat yourself and they can be hydrating, but they aren’t necessary. You can do your best through skincare by adding in brightening products like AHAs, Azelaic Acid.’
4. Fine lines:
We are all far too conscious about the signs of aging on our face, and any fine line we assume is a wrinkle. But that is not always the case, and the creases can mean a whole host of other things other than a sign of aging. But how do we tell the difference?
Megan said: ‘Sweeping fine lines under the eyes are often a sign of dehydration, a skin mood that most of us experience. You can see them if you look very closely in the mirror. ‘If one day they are more prominent, up the water intake and make sure you are hydrating the skin with your skincare routine as well as hydrating serum and moisturizer.
Megan added: ‘We start to lose collagen and elastin at the ripe age of 25. Ingredients to incorporate here are antioxidants, hyaluronic acid, PHAs, retinol, and SPF.’
5. Sun damage and tanning:
When the sun shines we instantly run outside and basque in the rays before comparing tan lines. However, a suntan is not a measure of how much our skin loves the sun, but in fact, how our bodies reject it.
Megan explained: ‘Another common factor that we see is sun-damaged skin. In fact, most of our clients that think their skin tolerates the sun well/don’t burn, actually have a lot of pigmentation! All skin types and skin phototypes are impacted by the sun and it is sometimes very shocking to them when we show the amount of pigmentation they have under the skin.
‘Tanning is simply a defense mechanism of the body. In fact, skin gets darker to protect itself from further damage from UV radiation, therefore tanning is not good for our health.
‘It is important to find a sunscreen product that will not only protect against erythema, but that also includes antioxidants, cell repair and protection, hydration and lipid support, and DNA repair agents to reduce cell damage.’
Megan advises applying an antioxidant before lathering up the sun lotion to boost the skin’s protection from 55 percent to 97 percent. While a mineral SPF containing zinc is recommended for higher protection against UV rays and does not contain any toxins that could damage the reef or our bodies.
