Category Archives: Skin Care

Benefits of Vitamin D

Benefits of Vitamin D – Especially In Winter

During the winter months, the lack of sun exposure causes our Vitamin D levels to significantly drop. This is because Vitamin D or the “sunshine vitamin” as it’s often called, is produced in the skin in response to sunlight. In addition to sun exposure, we can also get Vitamin D through certain foods and supplements to ensure we have adequate levels in the blood to maintain good health.

If you feel tired, worn out and achy much of the time during the winter months, you may be lacking in Vitamin D and not even know it. Below are a few positive effects Vitamin D provide to your overall health and well-being.

Vitamin D Reduces the Risk of Cancer

Numerous studies have shown that people who improve their vitamin D status enjoy a lower risk for the development of a whole host of deadly cancers by 30 to 40 percent including colorectal, breast and prostate cancer. This is because Vitamin D plays a crucial role in helping maintain cell growth when a cancer cell is developing in the body.

Strengthens the Bones

One of the key roles Vitamin D plays is that it helps the body absorb calcium and phosphorus from the foods we eat, which are crucial minerals for good bone health. Just like exercise, getting enough Vitamin D is a strategy that can make the bones stronger at any age.

Protects Against Autoimmune Disease

Vitamin D is a very potent immune modulator that helps prevent autoimmune diseases like MS and inflammatory bowel disease.

Helps Protect Against the Flu

Vitamin D has been proven to fight all types of infections including influenza. It has been found that taking 1,200 units of Vitamin D during the winter time can reduce one’s risk for getting influenza by about 40 percent.

Promotes Good Skin Health

As a natural immune-booster, Vitamin D is essential to good skin health. Having sufficient Vitamin D in the body can help minimize skin conditions including eczema & acne, boost collagen production, promote elasticity, and help lessen fine lines and dark spots on the skin.

If you suspect you’re lacking in Vitamin D during the winter months due to being indoors most of the time or a poor diet, speak to your doctor. Your Vitamin D levels can easily be checked via a simple blood test. If you are deficient, your doctor can recommend dietary changes or provide you with Vitamin D supplements.

Seborrheic Keratosis

Identifying the Symptoms & How To Treat This Skin Condition

At Dermalure, we proudly provide a wide variety of highly-effective skincare products related to keratolytic therapy, known as the treatment of warts and other skin growths. These treatments are proven to work on a number of different conditions, one of these being seborrheic keratosis.

 What Is Seborrheic Keratosis?

Seborrheic keratosis is a common, noncancerous skin growth that can frequently appear on older adults. Seborrheic keratosis usually starts out as a small, rough area and can end up looking like warts, moles, or even skin cancer. Despite its similarity to melanoma, it’s not actually cancerous and won’t cause any detrimental effects that aren’t cosmetic.

Symptoms of Seborrheic Keratosis

Some of the symptoms of seborrheic keratosis include the following:

  • Seborrheic keratosis can range in size from a small fraction of an inch to over an inch.
  • They’re usually round or oval shaped.
  • They’re flat or slightly elevated and have a scaly surface.
  • It varies in color from white to black, though most are tan or brown.
  • They can be found anywhere on the body, but they most commonly appear on the chest, shoulders, and back.

Who Is at Risk?

Typically, the people who are at risk for seborrheic keratosis fall into one of these groups:

  • They are older or at least middle-aged. The likelihood of getting seborrheic keratosis increases as a person ages.
  • There is a history of seborrheic keratosis in the family.
  • They spend a lot of time out in the sun and leave their skin exposed.

When Should You See a Doctor?

It’s best to see a doctor if:

  • A growth bleeds or is irritated from when your clothing rubs against them.
  • The growth is an unnatural color such as purple or blue.
  • Many growths develop over a short period of time.
  • There’s only one growth (this condition usually causes several growths).
  • An existing growth changes in appearance.

Contact Dermalure Today!

While seborrheic keratosis is mainly a cosmetic issue and doesn’t pose any real dangers, removing this skin growth is still a viable and often preferred option. At Dermalure, we provide keratolytic therapy, such as glycolic acid, in order to treat this condition. If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us online or at (877) 336-4652. We hope to hear from you soon!

How Chemical Peels Work

The Science Behind Acquiring Your Youthful Look

You’ve got acne, blackheads, oily skin, scars from acne, sun or age spots, discoloration or a multitude of other skin ailments that just don’t make you look your best. Both men and women of all ages who face such beauty challenges have turned to chemical peels to eliminate these unsightly nuisances and enhance their features. Chemical peels are common treatments at any dermatologist office, skincare boutique, or  beauty spa. Now you can even purchase and apply your own chemical peels at home.

Although the word “chemical” might sound scary, nothing is actually “peeled off.” The process involves washing your face, neck and/or hands with a chemical solution that causes it to dissolve the upper layers of skin, leaving a new layer of skin below. This new layer is brighter, softer, smoother, and less wrinkled that the old skin. A chemical solution is applied to the skin and works by dissolving the upper layers of the skin.

But what, exactly do these chemicals do and how do they work? The truth is there are dozens of different types of chemical peels, all containing different ingredients or varieties of ingredients. And, they can be applied in dozens of different strengths, giving each individual a chance to use just the write concentration of just the right chemicals for their certain situation.

Types of Chemical Peels

Generally, there are three types of chemical peels available today:

  • Superficial or Light Peel

These mild acid peels are the most gentle and only penetrate and remove the top layer of your skin, called the epidermis. These chemical peels can give your skin an instantly brighter look and improve the appearance of rough skin and mild discolorations. They are also used to moisturize and to diminish the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles or scarring from acne. The acids used are usually of the alpha hydroxy (AHA) or beta hydroxy (BHA) types and they can often include natural enzymes from fruits. Superficial peels can boost your skin’s nutrients to produce abundant and healthy new cells. These types of peels are usually pain-free with only a mild irritation or redness experienced which can be soothed with a moisturizing cream. There is no recovery time. Usually six to ten treatments are recommended for best results.

  • Medium Peel

With a medium peel usually made from TCA (trichloroacetic acid), you’ll find both your outer and middle layers of skin removed to exfoliate all damaged skin cells. These treatments are used to penetrate deeper in order to eliminate sun damage, wrinkles, and discolored skin. After treatment, you may feel a burning sensation for up to an hour after treatment. The medium peels may require some recovery time as your face might be puffy, pink and itchy for a few days up to a week after the treatment.

  • Deep Peel

Deep peels are the strongest types of chemical peel and can achieve the most noticeable results. A stronger concentration of TCA or phenol is used  that deeply penetrates the middle layer (dermis) of skin to remove damaged skin cells. These peels are able to remove moderate lines, sun damage, scarring, wrinkles, age spots, and freckles. Because of its strength, it can only be used one time on your face. As you might guess, the deep peel involves quite a bit more pain (you may even be sedated) and can it can take months to fully recover. Your entire face will be swollen for a few days and then scan, leaving itching, peeling skin. There is a danger in getting patches of bleached-looking skin and scarring. This type of peel should only be performed by an experienced dermatologist or plastic surgeon.

How A Chemical Peel Works

Before you decide on a chemical peel, contact a skin care expert about what results you are looking for and which type and strength of peel would be best to achieve those results. In general, the process of a chemical peel treatment, whether at home or in an office is:

  • Cleansing. Your skin will be thoroughly cleansed before your chemical peel treatment. For deep peels, a local anesthetic is usually used to numb your face. You may be sedated and will likely be put on a heart monitor.
  • Application. The selected peeling solution will be applied for a designated amount of time. You should only feel either nothing or a small tingling with a light peel and perhaps a bit more discomfort with a medium peel. Sometimes a fan is used to cool your face.
  • Removal. After the appropriate amount of time, the peel will be neutralized and removed. For light peels, this process can take as little as 10  minutes. For heavy peels, the peel is applied to your face one side at a time for about 30 minutes.

Chemical peels can seem confusing, but they all really work in the same manner. The different ingredients, types of acids, and additives used in each types of chemical peel combine to remedy problems a host of skin care challenges. The popularity of the treatment is growing as men and women fight to look their youthful best. For more information on the chemical peel types and treatments, check out Dermalure’s line of skin care products.

How Cold Weather Affects Your Skin

How Cold Weather Affects Your Skin

cold-air

With winter coming up, we know many people are getting excited for cool nights spent around a fire with a good book, holiday fun seeing family and celebrating with loved ones, and maybe even a getaway or two to snowy mountain playgrounds. But winter brings more than just fun in the snow: that cold weather can do a number on your skin. To find out how winter affects your skin and what you can do about it, let’s dive into the science behind cold weather and skin.

Dry Air Damage

If you understand the concept of humidity, you already understand the core elements of how air affects skin. All air contains a certain percentage of water dissolved into the air: this is the humidity. Air with 100% humidity has as much water in it as it can hold, while air with 0% humidity has no water at all. For skin, humidity is generally a good thing. The higher the humidity, the more ambient moisture around your skin. The lower the humidity, the more the air will suck moisture away from skin and leave it dry.

Hot air is capable of holding more water than cold air, so as temperatures drop during the winter, humidity decreases as well. This has the effect of sapping moisture away and drying out your skin, often leaving it appearing flaky, dry, or even cracked and damaged. This is why winter can damage skin, leaving it cracked and dry.

You can do a number of things to help fight this damage. On a basic level, moisturizing creams and oils can replenish the moisture that the air sucks away from your skin, helping to combat dryness. For more severe dehydration, though, you might consider a chemical peel. Chemical peels lift away the dry, damaged top layers of the skin, revealing the healthier, younger skin that lies beneath. This new skin, which still retains more moisture, is easier to protect from the cold air by using moisturizers.

Contact Your Chemical Peel Experts

Every person’s skin is different, and you’ll need to experiment to find your own perfect regimen of care to keep your skin healthy – and we can help with that. We’ve helped countless customers replenish damaged skin and achieve a youthful, radiant look all year round, and we’d be happy to do the same for you. Feel free to browse our skin care products for new ways to fight winter dryness, or if you have questions about caring for your own unique skin type, you can call us at 877.336.4652 or reach out to us at our contact page. We look forward to hearing from you!

Antioxidants & Free Radicals: How They Affect Skincare

Dermalure understands the importance of maintaining a healthy glow throughout the year, especially during the cold seasons when weather conditions can dry out and irritate the skin. There can be many factors that can cause skin damage and we believe it is vital to understand these sources and preventions.

What Are Free Radicals?

Free Radicals are chemical particles that become very unstable and reactive through an oxygenated process. These reactions can cause cellular damage and speed up the aging process of the skin. The damage created by free radicals can cause blemishes, wrinkles, and skin pigmentation.

There are various causes of increased radical damage:

  • Stress
  • Poor diet and alcohol
  • UV penetration
  • Pollution
  • Smoking and illegal drugs

How To Fight Against Free Radicals

76839504

Antioxidants are molecules that can interact with free radicals and prevent them from further damaging the skin. Common forms of antioxidants include vitamin A, vitamin C, and vitamin E which can be found in certain foods or applied topically in creams or serums.

By removing or reducing the exposure of free radicals, you can slow the aging process of your skin and feel a more significant improvement!

A Radical Solution – Vitamin C

Vitamin C has shown to be a powerful antioxidant when applied to the skin and added to your daily skincare routine. It can increase the production of collagen which helps reduce wrinkles and aids in the restoration of skin damage.

Dermalure’s Vitamin C+ Face Serum is a well-formulated product that provides a wide range of these benefits to improve your skin and keep it looking younger.

The Vitamin C+ Face Serum can be used for: Vitamin C Serum

  • Better defense against environmental aging
  • Neutralizes and protects against free radicals
  • Corrects hyper-pigmentation
  • Protects skin against UV exposure
  • Stimulates collagen production

The serum is also available in various levels of potency (5% to 25%) to cater to the skin sensitivity of our customers.

Contact Us To Learn More About At Skincare Serums

Please feel free to visit our previous post on Vitamin C Serums and Peels to learn more about the benefits of adding vitamin C as part of your skincare routine. If you have any questions or comments regarding our posts or about our products, please feel free to contact us!

How Halloween Costume Makeup Could Cause Breakouts/Acne

halloween-makeup

The Halloween season is a fun and exciting time of the year when many people are busy putting together the costumes they plan on wearing when out enjoying some frightfully good fun. If you’re planning your own epic Halloween costume that includes a full face of Halloween makeup, you should know that cheap costume makeup can play some not-so-fun tricks on your skin.

The Halloween makeup that many retailers sell during this time of the year is often not put through the same stringent testing that other makeup is subject to. This low quality makeup typically contains loads of artificial colors, fragrances, waxes and oils that can cause serious skin reactions and block pores.

Preventing Halloween Makeup Breakouts

Even if all this sounds frightening, there are some steps people can take to lessen their risk for developing skin problems when donning makeup for Halloween. One of the best ways to avoid problems is to go easy on the costume makeup and don’t apply it until you absolutely have to and then clean it all off before heading to bed.

Another way to avoid skin breakouts is to opt for theatrical makeup instead of the cheap makeup found at large discount department stores. This type of makeup is of far better quality and typically includes FDA-approved ingredients that are gentler on the skin.

If you do end up with a breakout or acne after Halloween, a chemical peel can help. When choosing a chemical peel, it’s important not to buy the cheapest product you can find because just like cheap Halloween makeup, low priced chemical peels are typically low quality and ineffective. It’s far better to spend a little more money on a good quality, medical-grade peel designed specifically to help with breakouts and acne.

When it comes to skin care products, you really do “get what you pay for”. You can achieve and maintain healthy and beautiful skin without paying a fortune as good quality chemical peels are affordable and highly effective at doing what they’re designed to do.  

 

How Often Should You Get a Chemical Peel

Chemical peels are great. They lift away the dead, dry cells on the surface of your skin, letting the radiant, youthful skin underneath shine through. When applied by a trained esthetician, they can be one of your greatest allies in looking healthy and beautiful – but if overused, they can be drying and harsh on the skin. So how often should you be getting chemical peels?

What Exactly is a Chemical Peel?

Before going into frequency, let’s discuss what a chemical peel does and the different types available. In general, a chemical peel refers to the process of applying a gel containing a diluted acid, letting the mixture sit and absorb into the skin, then washing it off. Depending on how deep the acids penetrate, skin will start to peel off over the next one to two weeks, letting the young, fresh skin underneath shine through and encouraging more to grow.

Chemical peels come in three strengths: mild, medium, and deep. In a mild peel, the acids don’t penetrate far into the dream, so recovery is quicker and easier but the peel can’t fight deep issues in the skin. Medium peels penetrate farther, so they can alleviate things like long-term sun damage and precancerous skin lesions, but the skin will redden and the peel will require more of a recovery period. Deep peels are a more serious procedure, and the acid penetrates deep into the skin. This means deep peels can fight severe sun damage, severe wrinkles, growths in the skin, and major pigmentary changes – but the recovery is pronounced and may require anesthetics.

How Often Should You Get Peels?

The truth is that every patient is different, so how often you get peels is something you’ll have to decide with your doctor. In general, most patients will get a mild peel every month or so, with more significant peels being used as occasional maintenance or when problems come up. If you have sensitive skin, this treatment schedule probably isn’t for you – you’ll want to use peels more infrequently to give your skin more time to recuperate. If you have tougher skin or are trying to treat a specific problem, we may recommend a more consistent peel schedule.

Contact Your Skincare Experts

If you’d like to find out how frequently you should use chemical peels, we’re always happy to help. Feel free to call us at  877.336.4652, shoot us an email at [email protected], or reach out to us at our contact page. We can’t wait to hear from you!

The Importance of Using a Good Pre-Shave Oil

istock_83567187_medium-min

At Dermalure, our goal is to provide the highest level of skin care in order to rejuvenate a person’s natural skin glow. One such way to help accomplish this is by using a shave oil before and after shaving. We understand that there are many people out there who shave without using any shave oils, so we want to give you a few reasons as to why you should consider using shave oils if you haven’t already.

The Benefits of Using Pre-Shave Oil

A pre-shave oil is designed to be applied as extra protection underneath a lather of foam before you shave. Using a pre-shave oil allows for a number of benefits. Just a sample of these advantages include the following:

  • Pre-shave oil provides an extra coating over the skin in order to protect it from the blade.
  • Pre-shave oil will soften your facial hair to allow the blade to glide more smoothly over your skin.
  • It will moisturize your skin and protect it from irritations or razor burn.
  • It provides a boost of hydration for your skin which is extra beneficial if you happen to have dry or flaky skin.

Applying a Pre-Shave Oil

To effectively apply a pre-shave oil, you’ll want to follow these steps.

  • Start your shaving session by heating up the skin on your face. You can do this by wrapping your face in a towel dipped in warm water for a few minutes or you can just begin your shave after having taken a shower. The heat will cause your pores to open and your hairs to soften.
  • Next, apply just a few drops of pre-shave oil to your hand and rub it together in your hands. There’s no need for any excessive amounts of oil.
  • Massage the oil into the skin you plan to shave, creating just a thin film of oil on your face.
  • You can then begin to lather up over the pre-shave oil and start your shave.

The Benefits of Using Aftershave

Aftershave is a product used after shaving that’s meant to cool the skin and prevent razor burn. Applying aftershave is simple; all you have to do is pour a very small amount of aftershave into your hand when you’re done shaving, rub it together in your hands, and then spread it evenly across the parts of your face that you just shaved. Aftershave helps in a multitude of ways, some of these including:

  • Aftershave will clear your pores of any bacteria, whether it was on the razor blade, the shaving cream, or elsewhere.
  • It will close and seal up your pores to keep any additional bacteria or dirt from getting inside them.
  • Aftershave can stop bleeding from cuts and help heal your facial skin faster.
  • It will also prevent infections of cuts.
  • It provides a cool and refreshing feeling when you’re done shaving.

Contact Your Skin Care Specialists Today!

If you have any questions or comments about skin care, please don’t hesitate to contact us. Dermalure is committed to customer service and glad to help you with any of your concerns. We look forward to helping your skin reach its natural glow!