Any product that attempts to improve the appearance of skin by reducing visible signs of aging, automatically falls under the “anti-aging” category, without a second thought. It’s as if skin aging is a “problem”, needing to be solved. While aging really IS a natural, normal, and beautiful phenomenon, you should always take the steps that you can for your skin to look and feel like its best self. Let’s discuss:
Is skin aging a problem?
Skin aging is not a problem. It is a natural and inevitable phenomenon that every human experiences. Unfortunately, skin care companies around the world rigorously market their products as anti-aging products, giving off the idea that skin aging is one gigantic problem that their all-encompassing “holy grail” solution can solve. This is a story we’ve all heard before.
The thing is, skin aging is multi-faceted. And the signs of skin aging are diverse within themselves - including but not limited to, the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles, skin tone that appears uneven, an increase in pigmentation, and saggy skin. It is important to keep in mind that although these changes appear on our skin as we age, they do not take away from the fact that skin aging is natural, normal, and a beautiful phenomenon that we should celebrate!
What factors affect skin aging?
The causes of skin aging can be broken down into two main categories; Intrinsic and Extrinsic.
Intrinsic Factors of Skin Aging
The intrinsic factors of skin aging relate to the chronological, physiological changes that occur with skin as we age. These include the appearance of wrinkles, fine lines and sagging skin. Sagging skin is one of the most visible changes that occur with intrinsic skin aging and it occurs due to a decrease in skin elasticity.
We can view our skin as this structure, being held up in place by pillars underneath known as collagen. Collagen is a structural protein found under the deeper layers of the skin and is produced predominantly by human dermal fibroblasts.
As we age, the health of these fibroblasts deteriorates, and hence, so does their ability in synthesizing collagen. In a “chain reaction” sort of situation, the structure supporting skin i.e., collagen, slowly disintegrates, causing a decrease in skin elasticity and therefore, leading to skin sagging. Intrinsic aging is natural, normal, and an inevitable phenomenon.
Extrinsic Factors of Skin Aging
Extrinsic factors of skin aging include damage from the sun due to UV rays, air pollution, a poor diet and lifestyle choices. Skin aging that occurs as a result of increased exposure to UV rays represents perhaps the largest contribution among extrinsic factors..
Skin aging resulting from UV damage is called photoaging and accelerates the visible signs of aging such as hyperpigmented skin, sun spots, wrinkles etc. Photoaging contributes to premature aging and therefore we must take steps to protect our skin- the most important one in this case being applying sunscreen regularly!
How can I take care of my skin?
Taking care of your skin doesn’t have to be solely for halting anti-aging. Skin aging is natural and unstoppable; however, we can take several steps to ensure that we provide our skin with the support it needs to be in its best shape!
One important step is by improving our skin elasticity. As we mentioned, a loss in skin elasticity is associated with decreased collagen production triggered by poor dermal fibroblast cell health. To address this core facet of skin aging, scientists at Revela got busy and used Artificial Intelligence to narrow down ingredients that can help support skin elasticity. And their efforts paid off.
