Beauty: Fresh, flawless skin

With 2023 trends focusing on "no-makeup" makeup and fresh skin what can you do to make your skin look as flawless as possible?

The skin is one of the largest organs in the body in surface area and weight and reflects what’s going on inside the body. If we're tired, stressed or dehydrated, one of the telltale signs is our skin looking dull and feeling dry.

If we understand the skin structure and biology, we can understand why looking after the inside, through eating a healthy varied diet, drinking lots of H2O and taking skin specific supplements shows on the outside.

Human skin consists of two main layers: the epidermis and the dermis. Beneath the dermis lies the hypodermis and subcutaneous fatty tissue.

The epidermis is the quite thin, relatively tough and makes up the outer layer of the skin. The epidermis is the skin you can see and feel. The dermis is a thick layer of fibrous and elastic tissue (made mostly of collagen, with a small but important component of elastin) which gives the skin its flexibility and strength. The dermis contains nerve endings, sweat glands and oil (sebaceous) glands, hair follicles and blood vessels.

Every hour, we generate millions of skin cells to replace the millions we lose daily through a process of skin shedding called desquamation. In order to keep the new skin cells healthy, we need to feed the body with the correct nutrients in order for our body to have the correct ingredients to produce collagen and elastin. These key nutrients are iron, vitamin C and zinc and without these, the body cannot make collagen or elastin proteins and we notice skin prematurely ageing.

Good sources of iron include liver, red meat, beans, nuts, dried fruit and leafy greens. Vitamin C can be found in citrus fruits, peppers, strawberries, broccoli and sprouts, while good sources of Zinc include meat, shellfish, nuts, dairy foods and whole grains.

As well as eating a varied, healthy diet, skin specific supplements can enhance the skin and increase the efficacy of your current skincare. I would recommend the Advanced Nutrition Programme supplements whose years of extensive research have led to them bringing scientifically proven supplements to market which is game changing for the beauty industry.

In addition to working from within, I would also work on the surface of the skin too, making the skin look immediately improved and hydrated in as little as a lunch hour with treatments such as dermaplaning and hydrofacial, which can speed up the skins desquamation and skin cell turnover. This exposes new and more hydrated cells and means you can leave the salon with fresh, glowing skin!

Using an SPF daily is also imperative (minimum SPF 30) even on the dullest of Rochdale days.

Juliette Armand has developed a wonderful SPF 30 product that doubles as a colour corrector and BB cream; it blurs lines, leaves a healthy glow and radiance to the skin, counteracts redness, gives a more even complexion colour and texture, all in addition to protecting the skin from premature ageing and pigmentation from harmful UVA/B rays.

I hope these tips give you the confidence to try the "no-make up" make up trend this year, with your flawless skin glowing from within.

Emma Fitton

The Retreat, 22-24 St Mary's Gate, Rochdale, OL16 1DZ | 01706 868898