Most women assume they know what their skin is. However, they may be misleading, since the constant use of various cleansing, toning, moisturizing creams and makeup has such an effect on the skin that it can create a false impression. The basic structure of the skin is, of course, the same in all people. The difference lies in how intensely the sebaceous glands secrete sebum and in which areas of the face they are most active. The hereditary ability of the skin to retain or lose moisture also differs.
Skin type changes with age, but with proper hygienic care it can remain in good condition for a long time. In order to determine your skin type, you first need to thoroughly cleanse it, removing all makeup residues, but not using toners or moisturizing cream. The skin should rest for several hours without makeup. Then you need to carefully examine it in natural daylight using a simple or magnifying mirror.
This is how skin types are determined.
Normal skin is evenly colored. Looks smooth, firm, clean and fresh; it is devoid of such shortcomings as pores, acne, dilated blood vessels, etc. Normal skin tolerates washing well with soap and water, various cosmetics, decorative cosmetics. It is quite rare.
Dry skin is quite common and requires particularly skillful and attentive care, as it is very sensitive to adverse influences, it ages quickly. Dry skin occurs from insufficient activity of the sebaceous glands and increased evaporation of moisture from the surface. In young women, dry skin has a pleasant appearance, it looks tender, thin, smooth and matte. Subsequently, especially with insufficient or improper care, the skin becomes drier, flakes, loses elasticity. Wrinkles appear on such skin earlier than on other types of skin.
Oily skin looks thick, rough and shiny. Sometimes it looks like an orange peel. Excessive sebum, combining with detached skin scales and dust, forms plugs in the openings of the sebaceous glands – “black dots”. Oily skin can easily develop acne, which can become inflamed. Oily skin is more common in youth and remains in this state until 35-40 years. Wrinkles in people on oily skin appear much later than on dry.
Combination skin (mixed type) is most common. In young and middle-aged women, in places of increased sebum secretion – forehead, nose, chin – the skin is usually oily. On the temples, cheeks and neck, and especially around the eyes – dry. Mixed skin requires different ways to care for different parts of the face.
To determine whether your skin is oily or dry, two to three hours after washing your face, blot different areas of your face with tissue paper or paper towel. If an oily spot appears, the skin in that area is oily.
Our skin reflects the state of our health better than the most accurate device. But you should treat it like a sensitive and accurate equipment that cannot be replaced or handed over for repair. Therefore, cosmetics, in the broadest sense of the word, should be dealt with by everyone who wants to maintain good healthy skin as long as possible. You need to start systematic skin care as early as possible.
SKIN STRUCTURE AND ITS FUNCTIONS
The skin is a complex organ and plays a large role in the life of the body. In part, it helps the work of all organs: it participates in respiration and metabolism, regulates body temperature, and is a secretory organ. Healthy skin is one of the important prerequisites for improving the overall health of a person. The correct mode of life, balanced nutrition, keeping the body and clothing clean, systematic exercise – all this helps to improve health and prolong life.
There is hardly a person who would not want to have clean, beautiful skin. It’s nice when it is smooth, firm, elastic. Outwardly, the skin looks very simple. But the first impression is deceiving. Before us is an important and complex organ. It protects our internal organs from hordes of microorganisms, from the adverse effects of the environment.
In an adult, the area of the skin is from one and a half to two square meters, its mass is up to 18% of the weight in an adult and up to 20% in a baby. In terms of its thickness, the skin is not the same, it is most dense on the palms of the hands, feet. The thickness of the spaces of the skin covering the neck, thighs, back, and also the skull is about 4 mm. The thinnest skin on the eyelids is 0.4 mm, as well as at the external auditory canal – 0.1 mm. The type of skin largely depends on objective and subjective factors, among which can be named, first of all, age and belonging to a particular race, nationality, gender. Skin condition can vary depending on the profession, living conditions. Climate and seasons have a significant impact on the condition of the skin, changing both its color and elasticity. If you look closely, you will notice that people have light skin, as it were, milky. Such people are said to be white-skinned; others, on the other hand, are naturally so dark-skinned that they seem to have spent many hours in the sun. In many ways, the color of the skin depends on the coloring matter – melanin, as well as on the blood vessels, their depth, the thickness of the stratum corneum. The thicker the stratum corneum and the deeper the blood vessels lie, the paler the skin. The more melanin pigment in the skin, the darker the skin. If the blood vessels are closer to the surface of the skin, then it becomes pinker.
The skin helps us breathe, removes 800 g of water vapor per day – twice as much as the lungs. The skin, secreting sweat, frees the body from harmful metabolic products and poisons that enter with drinking, food, air. Leather is also a conditioner that we literally wear on ourselves. The brain, by regulating sweating and the release of heat from the skin, provides us with a constant temperature – 6.6 ° C both in winter and in summer. On a piece of human skin, the size of a five-kopeck coin, there are more than a thousand nerve endings, 645 sweat glands, 75 sebaceous glands, 65 hair follicles, 25 meters of nerve fibers and 6 meters of blood vessels.
The skin forms three layers. The first, external – the epidermis, the second, the skin itself – the dermis and the third layer, located under the dermis, the subcutaneous tissue – the hypodermis.
The epidermis is formed by epithelial cells lying one above the other in several tens of layers. The thickness of the epidermis is not the same everywhere. On the skin of the soles, it is the largest – 1.5 mm, and on the skin of the eyelids – the smallest, only 0.03 mm. The outer layer of the epidermis, stratum corneum, consists of aged and keratinized cells. They are constantly exfoliated from the surface of the skin, replaced by young ones, migrating from the deep layers of the epidermis. Full renewal of the epidermis on the sole lasts about a month, and on the elbow 10 days. Let’s say a middle-aged person loses 600 thousand skin particles every hour, which is 675 grams per year. In the deepest layer of the epidermis, melanocytes are located – cells that produce the pigment melanin. The color of the skin depends on the amount of this pigment: the more there is, the darker the skin. The formation of melanin is enhanced by ultraviolet rays, which is why we tan.
The dermis consists of densely interwoven collagen, elastic and reticular fibers, as well as a few cells. The dermis layer directly under the epidermis forms numerous protrusions and is called the papillary layer. According to the location of the papillae on the skin (fingers, palms, feet), irregularities are visible, various lines that fold into a unique pattern that does not change throughout life. In the papillary layer, bundles of smooth muscle cells are hidden, which attach to the hair follicles. When we are cold, these microscopic muscles contract, the hairs rise, the surface layers of the skin contract, and bumps form. A reticular layer is located under the papillary dermis. Elastic fibers of this particular layer give the skin elasticity, and collagen fibers – strength. Sebaceous glands are located in the papillary dermis. The fatty secretion, mixed with the secretion of the sweat glands, forms a thin film on the skin surface, called the water-fatty mantle. It performs a very important function – it protects the skin from the harmful effects of wind, cold, sunlight and microorganisms.
The hypodermis (subcutaneous tissue), located under the dermis, is a layer of connective tissue that serves as a heat-insulating lining and softens mechanical stress on internal organs. The thickness of the hypodermis ranges from 2 to 10 mm. Subcutaneous tissue consists of collagen elastic and reticular fibers, as well as lobules of adipose tissue. Depending on the amount of fat secreted by the sebaceous glands, the skin is distinguished between normal, dry, oily and combination.
WHAT NORMAL SKIN REQUIRES
Normal skin is characterized by the fact that it is smooth, elastic, its pores are invisible and not contaminated. She actively resists skin diseases, has a good tone. In practice, such skin is extremely rare, therefore, if you have it, then try to keep it in good condition by systematically caring for it. Do not overdry it, because of strong sunburn it can deteriorate, peel off. Frequent use of lotions with a high alcohol content can also contribute to dry skin.
In the morning, you can wash your face with boiled water or water at room temperature. Contrast washing helps maintain skin elasticity. For this, the face is washed or wiped first with water at room temperature, then colder. Water can be replaced with a decoction of medicinal herbs or infusion of rosemary, lemon balm, mint. If the water is very hard, add a pinch of baking soda. It is better to use high quality toilet soap when washing your face. After drying the skin with a swab dipped in eau de toilette (you can make it yourself from rose petals or mint leaves), rub the skin. Cosmetic lotion should not contain a lot of alcohol, as it contributes to dry skin.
After water procedures, a cream intended for normal skin is applied to the skin along the massage lines. Such skin can be nourished with a semi-oily cream and a hydrating day cream, which also strengthens and nourishes the skin.
Evening. After removing the makeup with a special cream, you can again wipe your face with cosmetic milk or cosmetic cream. For repeated cleansing, both creams and lotions are used. Masks or wrapping masks are useful for normal skin, but they are not often carried out, once a week. At the same time, components are selected that are useful for normal skin, for example, yolk and honey, yolk and any vegetable oil. It should be remembered that honey is harmful to skin with dilated blood vessels. Masks are selected taking into account the season: in spring and summer, it is better if they are vegetable and berry. You should systematically cleanse your skin using a scrub, steam bath; to maintain the skin, make compresses from a decoction of medicinal herbs, massage for the face.
As already mentioned, this type of normal skin is most often a property of youth. In order to maintain the quality of normal skin as long as possible, a number of measures are also required, although they are, of course, simpler than those required by dry or oily skin.
Daily care for normal skin includes morning procedures (washing with cold water or cold herbal infusion, rubbing with a piece of ice), then softening damp skin with creams recommended for normal skin, evening face cleansing with lotions and applying wet liquid creams at night.
Special care for normal skin consists of applying on it 2-3 times a week oily creams recommended for dry skin, as well as applying softening masks 2-3 times a week. For these masks, dairy products are used – sour cream, yogurt, milk with cottage cheese – and fruits, berries, vegetables that are at hand.
A correct, healthy lifestyle, started on time and regularly taking care of normal skin prevents its early fading, premature appearance of wrinkles and other age-related changes.
OILY SKIN FUCK
Oily skin is shiny, often pale in color and rough in structure, in which the orifices of the excretory ducts of the sebaceous glands, or pores, are especially visible. Shine is caused by increased secretion of the sebaceous glands. And while oily skin is often covered in pimples and acne during puberty, it has one advantage – excess sebum prevents it from drying out.
Dust and dirt tend to fall on oily skin rather than dry skin. Water is especially useful for her, so the ideal way to clean is with soapy cream and cleansing briquettes. Although some people with very oily skin can successfully use regular soap. Light, non-greasy cleansing lotions can also be used.
If the degreasing effect of soap, water and lotion is beneficial for oily skin, excessively rough treatment removes too much fat from it, which leads to additional secretion of the sebaceous glands. A vicious circle is formed. The most you can apply to your skin is a light, two-minute fingertip massage using soap or lotion and water every morning and evening. After cleaning, remove excess grease with an astringent. Very oily skin does not require additional moisturizers, however, if you only have slightly oily skin, it needs to be moisturized from time to time, especially in areas with dry climates. There may be some dry areas on the face such as lips, neck, cheekbones and forehead that need to be moisturized regularly.
Morning. It is useful to wash your face in boiled water in the morning using a special soap, for example, “Safeguard” soap; experts consider it to be one of the most important personal hygiene products. Other popular soaps recommended by beauticians and dermatologists can be found on store shelves. For washing, you can use a terry cloth or mitten made of soft fabric, as well as gauze. Do not use a stiff brush as it can cause premature wrinkles.
It is good to wipe your face with a piece of ice with healing additives. Eau de toilette refreshes oily skin. For this, a moistened tampon is applied to the skin of the face with light movements, then a nourishing cream is applied along the massage lines. When choosing a cream for yourself, carefully study its description and take into account the degree of its fat content (the cream can be both oily and semi-oily, a hydrant).
After completing the morning procedures, you can move on to makeup. The foundation for the skin should also be chosen according to its type.
During the day, oily skin can be gently blotted, powdered with compact or loose powder. In the evening, after you remove makeup, paint from eyes, lips, foundation, you can wash your face with warm water and soap.
Toilet soap should be chosen specifically for oily skin. Useful for oily skin contrasting washing when warm water alternates with cold (cool). After washing the water on your face, you can not wipe it off with a towel, but dry it in the air, then wipe it with a decoction of herbs that contain medicinal additives that narrow the pores. You should not apply cream at night, as the skin of the face may wrinkle, so use cosmetic milk (almond or other) or cosmetic cream.
A steam bath, which should be done once a week, and once every two weeks if you are pressed for time, will help you clear your skin of acne. Deeper cleansing – peeling – can be performed using a cosmetic product scrub. Packaged masks such as lifting are available. These new cosmetics have proven themselves well and received approval in many countries around the world. After the steam bath, you need to make a mask of vegetables or fruits or a wrap mask. Sometimes for cleansing (exfoliating) the skin, they use ready-made masks (this mask resembles a masquerade mask) with slits for the eyes. It is “put on” on the face, well fixed and left for some time. Detailed instructions are attached to the finished mask.
An increase in the fat content of the skin can be caused by various reasons – dysfunction of the endocrine system, intestines and others. Of course, if the cause is established, you must first of all try to eliminate it, that is, to cure a disease that adversely affects the skin. Daily care for oily skin involves particularly thorough cleansing.
It is not recommended to often wash your face with hot water, as the activity of the sebaceous glands only intensifies from this. It is enough to use hot water 2-3 times a week. On other days, use cold water to wash your face, which tones the skin, improves its nutrition, tightens pores and reduces oiliness. It is useful to wipe the skin with ice from an infusion of equally divided St. John’s wort, calendula, mint, serpentine root, rowan leaves.
Special care. If oily skin is peeling or after water procedures there is a feeling of tightness, dryness, use a liquid cream before washing or make a mask of curdled milk, and after washing, apply a nourishing cream to wet skin.
For oily, porous skin, masks are useful: protein, protein-lemon, protein-camphor, fruit and vegetable, yeast, hydrogen peroxide. Care for mixed or combination skin is based on the type of skin on different parts of the face: for oily areas, use products for oily skin care, for dry ones – for dry skin.
DRY SKIN AND ITS NEEDS
Such skin literally looks dry, sometimes flakes and often seems taut. Due to the lack of a protective layer of sebum, it reacts strongly to temperature changes. In people with protruding ruptured blood vessels, the skin is often dry, since their capillaries are located close to the surface, and this contributes to a faster loss of moisture. Dry skin is less likely to develop acne than oily skin, but it cracks and coarsens more easily, especially when exposed to air.
The products you use should be soft and alcohol-free. Use oily cleansing creams. It is necessary to regularly and abundantly moisturize the face, neck and skin around the eyes. If you are using makeup, apply the liquid cream powder over a moisturizing base.
Dry skin of the face ages early with even greater overdrying. Dry skin should not be overheated in the sun, special preparations should not be used to give the skin an artificial sunburn, and cosmetics containing a large percentage of alcohol should not be used. Contraindications for dry skin can be both hot and very cold water. Even weather conditions, such as strong winds, can have a negative effect on dry skin. Therefore, care must be thought out and carried out systematically.
Morning. Rinse your face well in the morning with boiled water and a cooled decoction of medicinal herbs: chamomile, yarrow, mint, lemon balm, sage. Wipe (after drying) the skin with a cotton swab with toilet water, which contains a small percentage of alcohol (for example, rose water). A moisturizer will help make the skin more elastic, you can replace the cream with a hydrating emulsion or a hydrating cream. They stimulate and nourish the skin. It is useful after a few minutes to reapply the already oily or semi-oily cream, spreading it along the massage lines easily and neatly. When making up, the foundation should be composed of fatty additives that will help smooth application. Dry skin requires constant “nourishment”, otherwise it can flake off.
Evening. After removing the makeup, the facial skin is wiped with a cleansing cosmetic milk or cosmetic products (cream, cream). A tampon dipped in a flavored broth or eau de toilette will also cleanse your skin. After that, a cream is applied specifically for dry skin. This cream contains a high fat content.
Apply a mask made from fatty dairy products such as cottage cheese (fatty) once a week to “nourish” the skin. Washing with cool water with the addition of natural milk is very refreshing for dry skin. A rinse with mineral water is also beneficial.
Special care. If the skin is dry, but retains a pattern of porosity, in addition to that described, it is recommended to wipe it in the morning with ice from the infusion of St. John’s wort, chamomile, mint, leaves or rowan fruits.
To soften porous areas, use liquid or oily creams instead of thick ones.
Two or three times a week it is good to make masks from yeast with hydrogen peroxide or milk, protein-yolk-lemon or vegetable.
Diet has some effect on dry skin. Therefore, it is necessary to include in food greens, fruits containing vitamins such as A, C, E, D, F. Food should be varied and at the same time nutritious, but not heavy. For dry skin creams are selected, on which powder is applied, while the powder should be only for dry skin.
Dry skin can be covered with moisturizer throughout the day. A day cream containing vitamin E is also indicated for dry skin. Cosmetologists have developed nourishing creams for dry to very dry skin. Using them, you can get a good result after a certain time. The skin becomes soft, feeling like a surge of freshness. Such creams can be oily and soft, they are good to apply under the foundation, as the fatty base keeps makeup longer. The cream can be applied both in the morning and in the evening.
MIXED SKIN
The most common type of facial skin is a rather oily central area including the forehead, nose, chin, and dry skin on the cheeks, around the eyes and on the neck. Dark skin tends to go to extremes: it can be either very oily or very dry.
With mixed skin, differentiated means and methods of caring for it are recommended, since washing is useful for oily skin, but not for dry skin. However, if the difference between dry and oily areas is not very great, then it is easier to use cleansing milk for the whole face. The toner for dry skin should be thinner than the one you use for the oily center of your face. It is useful to treat dry skin areas more often with a moisturizer. Many people wipe mixed skin with mint water; contrasting washings work well: with warm and cold water. Cosmetologists prescribe recipes for lotions for rubbing separately oily and dry skin areas. They are pleasant in smell, include distilled water, aromatic fragrances, a minimum amount of alcohol. Nourish and moisturize combination skin with a semi-oily or hydrating cream.
Morning. They wash their face, wipe it with cosmetics for combination skin. Apply a nourishing cream under the make-up foundation. In the evening, after removing the makeup with a fat cream or cosmetic milk, cream or other cosmetic preparation, a thin layer of a fat cream is applied to dry areas of the skin, a cream for oily skin or an emulsion is applied to the fatty areas.
For mixed skin, masks, wrapping masks, skin cleansing with a scrub, lifting mask, as well as massage and compresses from medicinal herbs are useful.
Skin care should be systematic, involving “novelties” in cosmetics and on the advice of a cosmetologist.
By using the best time of year day and night creams, you will keep your skin looking youthful.
In addition to the listed skin types, cosmetologists distinguish another type – aging skin. Such skin can be both dry and oily, as well as mixed. The skin loses its color, firmness, elasticity over the years of aging of the whole organism. It becomes flabby, defatted and dehydrated. Wrinkles are formed as small, the so-called “goose” or “chicken” feet near the eyes, and deep – nasolabial or frontal.
Aging skin requires increased attention and care, and cosmetic procedures and products can prolong its youthfulness. First of all, the skin should be protected from overheating (strong sunburn), frost and wind.
Currently, cosmetologists have developed a mass of creams, lotions that contain nutritional supplements, medicinal herbs that help slow down skin aging. It is useful to apply compresses from medicinal herbs such as rosemary, sage, mint, lemon balm, chamomile, yarrow, horsetail, parsley, linden flowers, etc.
In the morning you should wash your face only with boiled water. You can wipe your face with a piece of ice containing a decoction of medicinal herbs. Contrast rinses have a good effect – alternately with cold and hot water. Try to avoid soap as it can dry out your skin. After washing, the skin is allowed to dry naturally or it is blotted with a towel, then a moisturizing or hydrating cream or emulsion is applied. The skin must constantly receive stimulating supplements from cosmetic preparations. So, a fat cream is useful during the day; apply it a little along the massage lines, gently tapping with your fingertips.
In the evening, the face is cleaned of makeup with a special cream, then wiped with lotion, eau de toilette and a nourishing night cream is applied. They systematically carry out cleaning, masks, massage of aging skin.
FACIAL SKIN CARE
Fats and water from time immemorial to the present are the main means of cosmetic effects on the skin and hair, the basis for the preparation of most cosmetics.
The value of water in beauty care is enormous. It not only cleanses the skin, but also activates the vital functions of the body, hardens and trains it, has a beneficial effect on the nervous system. Daily water procedures have become part of our everyday life, are our urgent need.
Everyday care of any skin is intended, in fact, to solve three problems: its cleansing, softening and protection from the harmful effects of the external environment. In the process, particles of its own vital activity, dust, decorative cosmetics are removed from the skin, optimal conditions are created for all its vital functions: respiratory, heat exchange, excretory, protective and others.
Cleansing is necessary for any skin at any age. The most common cleansing method is washing with water. However, the stratum corneum under the influence of water has the ability to swell. For this reason, we only adhere to the recommendations for washing your face in the morning. To cleanse the skin in the evening, we recommend using lotions, liquid creams, vegetable oils, juices, and more.
We remind you that you should not often use soap or soap cream – they dry the skin: a short-term action of cold water and rubbing it with ice are very beneficial for the skin (but only in the morning – cold procedures at night can provoke insomnia); systematic washing with warm or hot water accelerates skin aging, enlargement of pores, increased dryness with dry skin and oily with oily skin.
Softening the skin at home is carried out with the help of emollient creams, cosmetic masks, lotions, vegetable oil, oil compresses. Preventive (hygienic) and therapeutic massage of the face and neck has a softening effect on the skin.
Apply the cream to the skin of the face and neck using pressing or patting movements. The skin accepts the cream only in minimal amounts. There is evidence that facial skin can absorb no more than 0.75 g of fat in one cosmetic procedure. A thick layer of cream on the skin, especially if left overnight, can be harmful instead of good.
In the morning, the cream is applied to damp (after washing with water) skin. Excess moisture and cream are removed with a towel or napkin. In the evening, after cleansing the skin with lotion, the cream is applied with a cotton swab dipped in water, saline or herbal infusion. Absolutely any skin also needs protection. None of us manage to protect ourselves from the wind, sunlight, cold or too humid air, which means that this must be somehow resisted.