We’re here to empower you to transform your skin – with the right knowledge and the right products. When it comes to your skin health, many of you already know the importance of SPF, keeping skin hydrated, and using gentle cleansers over stripping ones.
But there are a few lesser known facts about other daily stressors that contribute enormously to accelerated skin damage. This knowledge could be the difference between healthy, radiant skin versus skin that looks a lot like it has been sun damaged.
Daily skin stressors – just the facts.
So what are the critical things to know? Let’s break them down.
Key daily skin stressors (other than the sun’s harmful rays):
- Pollution
- Excessive phone time/blue light
- Internal stress
- Certain types of makeup products
Do these daily stressors damage our skin – and how bad is the damage?
The too-long, didn’t-read version is… yes. It’s bad and it’s real. (At the bottom of this article, we’re including a small sampling of studies that are eye-opening.)
Pollution
Pollution comes down to particulate matter in the air, which ranges from garbage to sulfates to mineral dust. Studies show that next to UV rays, pollution is a leading cause of premature aging. Pollutants are small enough to enter the skin, leading to the breakdown of collagen, the formation of dark spots, breakouts and can even cause inflammation. Pollution can lead to damage that looks uncannily like sun damage.
To take it one step further, different pollutants impact our skin in different ways. For instance, ozone pollution can lead to a depletion of antioxidants in the outer layer of skin while the assault from particulate matter on your skin is one of the leading causes of free radical damage.
Bottom line: pollution damages skin. SPF doesn’t keep pollutants out of our skin. Therefore, pollution goes unfettered in wreaking havoc on our skin.
Excessive phone time/blue light
Over the last ten years, there has been a meaningful spike in how much time we spend in front of blue light given the increased usage of smart devices. Studies show that this can lead to oxidative stress on the skin. And ultimately, oxidative stress can lead to accelerated skin aging. Bottom line: it’s unclear how much phone time leads to how much damage, but studies do indicate that it is not all clear skies when it comes to our exponentially higher screen time.
Internal Stress
Many of us lead lives with increased stress levels more often than we’d like. While we do recommend finding ways to manage stress, we recognize it’s easier said than done. It’s widely researched and studied that stress leads to higher cortisol levels and that can lead to a wide range of issues in our bodies, and for our skin. As it relates to skin, it can lead to breakouts, discoloration, lines and wrinkles, and other signs of accelerated skin damage. Bottom line: stress visibly impacts skin.
Makeup
Certain kinds of makeup can irritate skin, cause breakouts or dry out skin. Everyone is different, so some makeup that is well tolerated by others can be an intensive agitator for your skin and vice versa. Keeping skin protected with a non-pore-clogging, lightweight, healthy barrier between makeup and your skin can go a long way for you. Bottom line: some kinds of makeup products can be very agitating on your skin.
Quick note on free radicals:
All of these daily stressors can lead to free radical damage. Free radicals work against our skin by grabbing extra electrons from our skin’s atoms. When atoms are taken away from molecules in the skin, it can cause damage to skin’s DNA that can speed up the aging process. That damage can manifest itself in the form of a weakened skin barrier, dark spots, dull and sagging skin and ultimately can even cause certain types of cancer. Pollution and other environmental stressors can cause free radicals to form.
How can we protect our skin from these daily stressors?
A great skincare routine will ideally include hydrators, skin barrier fortifiers, a healthy dose of antioxidants and gentle, non-stripping products, and then of course, SPF in the mornings. And a great skincare routine can help fend off these daily environmental stressors, but ultimately, given the constant barrage of these environmental stressors, it’s incredibly helpful to have separate protection against these stressors.
Imagine walking down a dark street that makes you feel like something isn’t quite right. Having an athletic, well-built friend next to you can be reassuring and a deterrent from any potential danger. That’s like having a great skincare routine. Now, imagine you’re walking through a crowd where you know you’re a target and there will be potential attackers. In this case, that well-built friend doesn’t suffice. You want a well-trained bodyguard.
Enter the Skin Shield
The Skin Shield Blurring Primer is your skin’s bodyguard. Over the years, we’ve heard so much feedback about how environmental stressors are impacting skin. We wanted to create a specialized product for you that specifically focuses on fending off these environmental stressors. We wanted it to be that highly trained bodyguard for your skin – and feel amazing on your skin. After all, if it’s heavy, it pills, it looks shiny, or it isn’t delightful to apply, as much as we’d like to have our bodyguard around, realistically, we won’t use our Skin Shield.
In fact, to create that perfect skin bodyguard for you, we had to create our own ingredient complex. It took three years of research with forty chemists, but we kept pushing the boundaries of efficacy and texture because your skin deserves the best.
How is the Skin Shield your highly trained skin bodyguard?
We formulated the Skin Shield to be packed with protective elements for skin.
Antioxidants
First and foremost, we’re excited that this formula is incredibly antioxidant-rich because antioxidants help fight free radical damage that happens on a cellular level. And the best way to neutralize free radicals is by increasing the amount of antioxidants in your skincare routine. “Antioxidants are compounds found in nature that stop or delay damage to the cells,” says Lauri Wright, Ph. D, R.D, L.D., assistant professor of nutrition at the University of South Florida. They can help replenish the number of electrons in a free radical so that it doesn’t pilfer from your skin’s atoms.
Vitamins, especially vitamin C
Vitamins are essential elements that give skin what it needs to help fend off damage. Among the vitamins, vitamin C is a superstar ingredient that is also a powerful antioxidant. Pure ascorbic acid can be a bit sensitizing for some skin types, so we included vitamin C through Camu Camu extract, which is gentler on skin but still includes incredible amounts of vitamin C. Camu Camu also includes flavonoids, anthocyanins and ellagic acid, and together Camu Camu is renowned for fighting off visible environmental damage, helping skin look brighter, more even-toned and smoother.
Ceramides
Our skin barrier is comprised of ceramides and fortifying the skin with ceramides allows for our skin to much better fend off damage. An issue we’re struggling with now is mask-induced acne and ceramides can help strengthen the skin to prevent maskne.
Aloe
We’re familiar with the soothing and anti-inflammatory benefits of aloe, and your Skin Shield has your back when it comes to soothing.
Cica or Centella Asiatica
This Korean Beauty superstar ingredient is known for helping to quell inflammation and calm skin.
BREAKTHROUGH INGREDIENT: VoluSmooth™
We created a 100% plant-based silicone alternative for you, so that you can get that blurred, velvety, beautiful finish – without a drop of silicone. Not only does our VoluSmooth™ Complex leave skin looking and feeling smooth and bouncy, the actual ingredients within VoluSmooth™ work to improve skin from within while fending off damage. Here’s what VoluSmooth™ is comprised of:
Bamboo stem extract: helps to fortify and strengthen the skin barrier to fend off stressors so skin looks vibrant and healthy.
Mulberry extract: helps fight off environmental stressors which can cause accelerated signs of damage, and creates visibly brighter skin, leaving it with a glassy finish
Burdock root extract: antioxidant-rich superpower that helps quell inflammation that has been historically used to treat visible signs of eczema, psoriasis and acne, for skin that looks smooth and clear.
Consider your Skin Shield your specialized bodyguard that has been specifically created to protect you from the stressors your skin faces each day. And this product is part of the signature Peach & Lily Collection that is 100% worry-free, clean, effective, spa-grade, gluten-free, vegan and cruelty-free.
How to use your Skin Shield
Use daily in the mornings after your moisturizer and SPF. Keep your skin protected and enjoy your stunningly smooth and blurred finish.
Wear before makeup: Makeup grips perfectly and lasts longer on a smoother, more cushion-y finish, also serving as that protective barrier between your skin and makeup (and pollution and environmental stressors).
Wear without makeup: For days you want to go bare-faced, apply your Skin Shield for protection and a beautiful no-makeup finish with visibly smoother skin.
Wear under your masks: To keep your skin from dealing with maskne, apply before wearing your face mask.
Meet your skin’s new bodyguard. (hyperlink to product page)
Now, you can face your day head-on, 100% worry-free.
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References worth reading through:
The Impact of Airborn Pollution on Skin, Journal of European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology, August 2019
The Skin Aging Exposome, Journal of Dermatological Science, March 2017
Oxidative Stress in Aging Human Skin, Biomolecules, June 2015
Brain-Skin Connection: Impact of Psychological Stress on Skin, see below once you click through for a repository of more studies
