What is skin? How do we care for it? And why is it important for us as nature lovers, ocean adventurers, and explorers to take care of our skin?
If your skincare routine could be described as 'minimalist' (or let's be honest, verging on non-existent), and a blog post taking you 'back to the basics' of skincare is slightly anxiety inducing, reminding you of the 1000s of ingredients you can't remember the names of, that can defy ageing or magically remove your acne overnight; commercials and Instagram posts of influencers with perfect skin conducting elaborate skincare rituals; then this article is for you!
*Cue the flash back to the advertisement depicting a pimply teen massaging a mysterious product onto their face; splashing water elegantly from their cupped hands to reveal... the skin of supermodel* (We all know in real life this looks like us splashing about like a sparrow in a bird bath and flooding the entire bathroom in the process). Forget the bullsh**. Here's everything you always really wanted to know about skincare. At Saltsi Skincare, we use a naturopathic and scientific approach to designing and formulating gentle, natural skincare that you can trust, with none of the nonsense. However, in order to begin to understand what your beautiful, unique skin needs you're going to need to go back to basics, trust us, we've been there - so what is skin? This might seem like a silly question. Skin is... skin? And it is. But our skin is much more than we think and performs so many different roles on a daily basis that we wish we could employ it! For starters, our skin is actually an organ. In the same way that our hearts, lungs, and brains have a role to play in maintaining homeostasis (keeping our bodies functioning healthily), our skin's main, and often overlooked, role is as our first line of defence from external factors.
So what do I mean by external factors?
Well these can occur naturally - for example: UV Rays and Pathogens (both healthy and harmful bacteria).
And others can occur unnaturally - like chemicals, pollutants, and microplastics.
Our skin's other primary roles include temperature regulation and water retention. You can hopefully now see just how important our relationship with our skin is to our overall health. It is our interface between our environment - our external, and our body - our internal, but let's look at it in a bit more detail. Our skin can be thought of as comprising two main layers: The Dermis & The Epidermis
While the two are intrinsically (big word, we know, but stay with us here) linked, in terms of skincare you can think of things like the amount of water you are ingesting, your diet, and your stress levels as impacting your dermis and the building blocks of your skin. Unless you learn to regulate these appropriately, unfortunately there is no magic potion - or lotion in our case - that can help you. But, your skin can be a wonderful, intuitive guide, indicating which of these needs regulating. So don't be so hard on yourself. We are all human and all unique. Listen to yourself, and your needs, as they change with you. As adventurers, ocean dwellers, and nature lovers, we are most interested in protecting the epidermis, the outermost layer of the skin organ which provides waterproofing and serves as a barrier to skin infection and environmental toxins. The epidermis itself can be broken again into two main layers (for simplicity, as it is an extremely complex system): The Stratum Basale & The Stratum Corneum.
The Stratum Basale is where new skin cells, known as keratinocytes, are constantly forming through a process known as mitosis. As they move upward through the epidermis, they form cellular junctions, joining forces to provide strength to the skin. These cells are surrounded and supported by an extracellular matrix of proteins and lipids, which help further support and strengthen our skin. Our skin cells are eventually shed from the surface of our skin in a process known as desquamation, and you can think of these outermost cells like scales on a fish which must be removed to reveal our soft and smooth skin underneath. It is a common misconception that we must mechanically remove, scrape, and scrub these skin cells off with harsh chemical peels or excessive exfoliation. Desquamation is a completely natural organ function. All we really need to do is provide the right nutrition, lipids, and proteins to ensure this process runs smoothly. When we scrape, scrub, and remove this outer shell, we can expose the surface of our skin to pathogens - leading to acne and inflammation. Likewise, if we dehydrate and deprive our skin of hydration, proteins, and lipids this outer layer of scaly cells will stay on our skin and can actually trap pathogens leading to skin dryness and acne. Dehydration is common in the skin of nature and ocean lovers, as our skin is subjected to the environment in all its beauty. By protecting and nourishing our barrier, we can continue to enjoy the activities we love! Check out our range of products to explore the best skincare routine for you, and read more about how the type of skincare you choose can have long-lasting effects on the places that you love.
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