5 Ways to Maintain Youthful-Looking Skin

Are you trying to juggle all year round your to-do list? Do you feel like 10 years older? Is your skin ageing just as quick? It’s not too late to start good habits to maintain a youthful complexion.

First, you may wonder why and how your skin is ageing. On top of the natural ageing process which eventually will create wrinkles and spots, your skin ageing depends on a variety of factors. Your lifestyle, diet, exposure to sun (also known as photo-ageing), stress and pollution factors can accelerate the skin ageing process.

Let’s focus first on the natural ageing process. You might first notice that your skin isn’t as firm as it used to be. One of the main cause is the loss of the elastic tissues due to the breakdown of elastin fibers and a reduced collagen production. This is why many anti-ageing products focus on stimulating collagen production.

When it comes to external factors, free radicals which are generated by our body accelerate the ageing process. Normally, the body can handle free radicals, but if antioxidants are unavailable, or if the free radical production becomes excessive, cellular damage can occur. This make free radicals a major cause of skin ageing (as well as other health damages of course). Antioxidants bind with free radicals, to counter the damage cause by pollution, stress or poor diet.

Now that you understand what causes your skin to age, here are 5 tips and tricks for you to use on a daily basis:

That sounds trivial but what you eat affects your entire body, including your skin. Fruit and veggies that contain anti-oxidants like Vitamins C, B, A and E are great for your skin as they help to terminate free radicals in your skin.

What you can do: Try to have a balanced diet with fruits, vegetables as well as nuts, milk and eggs to bring you key vitamins:

 For Vitamin C, eat fresh fruits and vegetables such as Oranges, Kiwis
 For Vitamin E, you will find them in nuts (such as almonds), mangoes, broccoli and vegetable oils
 For Vitamin A, add a mix of carrots, sweet potatoes, milk and eggs to your diet

The sun plays a major role in prematurely aging our skin especially if you live in the South-East Asia region. Singapore lies just 1 degree north of the equator making UV damage all the more potent. UV damages certain fibers in the skin, called elastin. The breakdown of elastin fibres causes the skin to sag, stretch and lose its ability to snap back after stretching. This is called photo-ageing.

What you can do: Protect your skin by seeking shade, covering up with clothing, and using sunscreen that is broad-spectrum, SPF 30 (or higher), and water-resistant. You should apply sunscreen daily to any skin not covered by clothing.

Cigarette smoke has a huge impact on your skin ageing, wrinkles appearance as well as increasing your skin sensitivity. Having more than one glass of alcohol increases inflammation in the bloodstream, which can hasten sagging over time. It’s hard to avoid drinking in this day and age but do make an effort to only drink in moderation.

Though a very simple step, washing your face before bed is an excellent way to mitigate the external factors associated with aging and to stimulate the internal processes that fight aging. So, don’t skip that step in your daily routine!

In a warm climate like Singapore we often turn to air-conditioning to cool off but air-conditioning often leaves our skin dehydrated. Using a moisturizer will trap the water in your skin and leave it looking youthful.

What to do: when applying moisturizer, pat it gently on your skin and don’t tug or pull at your skin (which will contribute to more fine lines over time!). Start from the jawline and smooth the products up and out. Applying products in a downward motion pulls and stretches the skin in the wrong direction, contributing to wrinkles and sagginess.

If you want to boost up all these efforts, Alcheme’s anti-ageing ingredients such as Ginseng extract as well as Centella leaves, will help reduce wrinkles and boost your collagen production. Its products are also packed with Babchi seeds, which have Retinol-like properties.

Try a unique hassle-free online consultation to find out which ingredients are a perfect match to your skin needs here!