How to Spring Clean your Skin Care Routine
As you start cleaning out your closet, you also need to do the same with your skincare drawer. Skin care products have a “shelf” life just like other products. The active ingredients degrade over time due to exposure to sunlight or variation in temperatures. To get the full benefit of your anti-aging treatments, you want to be sure that your products are new and fresh for the best results.
To transition your fall and winter skincare routine to a spring and summer regimen consider the following options:
- Switch to a lighter moisturizer to accomodate for increasing temperatures and increased oil production in the skin
- To reduce the risk of acne breakouts due to increased sweating in the summer heat, add a toner or consider switching to a toner with 2% salicylic acid. All skin types can also benefit from routine use of a glycolic scrub which will increase exfoliation, encourage cell turnover and keep the pores clean.
- Tailor your use of Retin-A to accomodate for your skin’s increased skin sensitivity to the sun. Some patient’s take a Retin-A vacation over the summertime, while others switch to a Retinol product which is safter to use during times of frequent sun exposure.
- Try substituting an anti-aging serum instead of a moisturizer becuase they are lighter-weight than creams and lotions.
- Try a monthly Silk Peel (microdermabrasion) to rejuvinate the skin without increasing it’s sensitivity to the sun.
If you do nothing else, the most important part of summer skin care is—you guessed it—sunscreen. Make sure you are using a daily sunscreen with UVB and UVA protection. You would be amazed to see just how much damage the sun can do below the surface of our skin. You can see the harmful effects from the sun through a process called the VISIA™ Digital Complexion Analysis at our office. A digital image is recorded under natural as well as ultra-violet light and is then analyzed using an advanced computer program. This makes it possible to scan your skin and record surface and subsurface skin conditions such as wrinkles, spots, pores, evenness, and photodamage. It gives us a glimpse of what our skin would look like if we did not do anything! SCARY!!! Based on your unique complexion profile, we are then able to customize a skin care regimen and treatment protocol specific to your skin’s needs.
And, don’t forget to maintain your skin even though you are busy with the kids home from school and summer vacations. We have developed a maintanence package which is the perfect way to prolong the effects of your laser treatments and prevent further damage. The best part of the package is that it is a total “no-brainer.” You simply come one a month for a Silk Peel, Chemical Peel, IPL or IPL/laser genesis treatment. We have spaced the treatments so you will be receiving the ideal effectiveness from each. In total, the maintanence package constains 6 Silk Peels, 4 IPL treatments, 2 laser genesis treatments, and 2 Chemical Peels. And, the best part…we grouped all of these ideal treatments together and discounted it by 25%!!! Depending on the areas that we are treating, you can save between $650-$1275 a year!
Details of each treatment are below:
Silk Peel: Resurfacing technique using a dual approach to microdermabrasion that combines exfoliation with the infusion of solutions to revitalize your skin. The gentle exfoliation combined with the cool, soothing delivery of solutions gives twice the results as standard microdermabraion. After the 15 minute SilkPeel, your skin will have an immediate radiant glow that leaveing your skin looking healthy and renewed. No downtime
Chemical Peel: Surface dead and damaged skin cells are removed bringing about a more youthful and radiant appearance. Skin cells are forced to turn over at a more rapid pace increasing cellular renewal and slowing down the aging process. The depth of a peel can be modified for each individual’s need and focused on presenting problems and lifestyle considerations. Minimal social downtime with 2 days of dry/flaky skin.
IPL:
This procedure simultaneously addresses a variety of concerns including broken capillaries, rosacea, diffuse redness, age spots, freckles, diffuse pigment, enlarged pores, fine lines and mild texture changes. Each treatment is set at a specific range of settings based on the patient’s need. No downtime
IPL/genesis:
IPL is used in combination with laser genesis. Laser gensis is a procedure which simultaneously protects the epidermis, targets microvasculature and stimulates collagen production. It also mproves wrinkles by gently heating the dermis; corrects diffuse redness, rosacea; smoothes skin texture, and shrinks pore size.
Remember, springtime is not just for cleaning out the closest, but for cleaning up your skin too!