Skin Care by Amy!

Hi everyone,

I’m Amy, from Amy Loves!

I have a few questions for you …

What accounts for 15% of your body weight?
What accounts for 80% of household dust?
What is on average 21 square foot when opened out?

You guessed it, the answer to all questions above is SKIN! These facts normally blow my beauty student’s mind.

The Skin is the largest organ of the human body. Yes, Skin is an organ! It breathes, it absorbs substances and it has many responsibilities including:

Providing a protective barrier against mechanical, thermal and physical injury and hazardous substances.
Prevents loss of moisture.
Reduces harmful effects of UV radiation.
Acts as a sensory organ (touch, detects temperature).
Helps regulate temperature.
An immune organ to detect infections etc.
Production of vitamin D.

Just like we do on a day to day bases, our skin is working all the hours god sends to deliver the goods to look, feel and operate at its best. This is why it is so important to treat it with the utmost love and respect it deserves. Cleansing, exfoliating & moisturising are the most crucial steps to take in order to maintain a healthy looking skin.

Cleansing

Cleansing one’s face morning and night is easy. Would you leave for work in the morning without brushing your teeth? No! It should be the same for your face. Think of all the makeup, pollution in the air and fragments that hit your skin throughout the day – It is vital to wash all of those impurities away before bed and then again in the morning after your skin has been rejuvenating itself over night. Cleansers don’t need to cost the earth, you could even use something as simple and easy as Extra virgin Olive Oil on a cotton pad to wipe over your face before bed.

Exfoliation

So your skin sheds around 30 – 40,000 dead cells per hour … Where does it all go? Well 80% of typical household dust is dead skin cells – Gross right?

Using a gentle exfoliator around 2 – 3 times a week will ensure the removal of dead skin cells, allowing your freshly new grown skin to shine through making your completion look radiant and hydrated. Again, please don’t think you now have to go and spend £££ on a professional exfoliator. If you can that’s great, otherwise I am a big fan of making my own products at home; At least then you know what’s really in the product. A simple exfoliator needs a teaspoon of unrefined sugar, a squeeze of lemon and a dash of extra virgin olive oil, mix it up and away you go!

Moisturising

OK so you’ve driven to work with your heating on, you get to work and spend eight hours in an office with central heating on, then you go home and blast more central heating. All you are doing (apart from keeping yourself rather warm) is stripping your skin of its natural oils. Deep within the second layer of our skin, the dermis, live glands called sebaceous glands. These glands produce a natural, protective and hydrating oil called sebum. The oilier your skin is the more sebum your sebaceous glands are producing. If you are constantly stripping your skin of its natural oils through one way or another it will just keep producing more oil thus Oily skin. Producing these natural oils is essential for a healthy and hydrated looking skin and sometimes our skin needs a little help locking in these natural oils (or producing more if you have dry skin) so we moisturise …. Twice a day! Once in the morning and again before bed. By moisturising twice a day you will ensure a soft, supple skin which will intensely make you look nourished and radiant. After all if you are making 40,000 skin cells an hour, you need to keep them in tip top condition.

I hope this little insight into how important our skin is and why looking after it is so essential has helped you to feel more motivated about skincare. If you have any questions with regards to skin, skincare or beauty please drop me an email at amylovesblog@hotmail.com

Thanks for reading,