Skin care trends dos donts how you can do it better

Skin Care Trends Dos Donts How You Can Do It Better | Refresh Medical Spa in Overland Park, KS

As cheesy as the saying is, healthy-looking skin really IS in! Everyone and their mothers are striving for flawless, glowing skin right now.

Could this be due to the rise of the social media reign in the past decade, or are we all becoming a little more conscious of how we are treating our money makers? Whichever it is, the skin care industry has been booming, saying the least and where a boom comes, comes endless new treatments, products and trends.

Keeping up with all these new skin trends can be somewhat of an investment. That being said, this can bring what we know as “skin care hacks” from out of the works in an attempt to save a little coin. Some of these hacks can be a great addition to your skincare routine, while others can actually do more harm than good, leaving you in a worse place than where you started!

Because we care about you and want to keep your pretty faces intact, we want to break the news on what current skin skin care trends you need to ditch, do, or at least make sure you are doing right!

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1. AT-HOME DERMAPLANING:

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Dermaplaning is a procedure that exfoliates your skin and gets rid of dirt, dead skin, and vellus hair, better known as “peach fuzz.” This procedure leaves your skin feeling smooth, revealing new skin and allows for better cell turnover while also allowing your skincare products to penetrate your skin deeper to get the maximum benefits.

An aesthetician typically does this treatment with a medical grade scalpel that provides a much more aggressive exfoliation and removal of peach fuzz for a better dermaplane result.

Most people doing an at home dermaplane are sourcing their blades from places like amazon or a regular shaving razor where they can get a much more reduced price. These blades are a lot lower quality than a scalpel and are more dull, which in turn makes them safer for at home use.

The down side to that is these types of blades don’t take off hair completely and can make you prone to ingrowns! Something that you might not know without seeing your aesthetician is that dermaplanes are not for everyone! You will want to steer clear if you have rosacea or active acne as dermaplaning can irritate the skin further and trigger flare ups.

hyaluron+pen

2. HYALURON PEN FOR LIPS:

Let’s start by saying Hyaluron pens are NOT safe. They are also not approved by the FDA for plumping the lips or improving the look of lines.

If you haven’t heard of a Hyaluron pen before, it is a hand held device used to “inject” hyaluronic acid fillers into the face. A Hyaluron Pen works by creating enough pressure externally against the tissue to “push” the hyaluronic acid filler into the dermal layer of your skin without the use of needles. Most commonly, it is being used for lip plumping.

This unregulated product can potentially cause:

  • Inflammatory reactions of the skin

  • Abscesses

  • Staining of skin

  • Bacterial and fungal infections

  • Asymmetry

  • Spreading of transmissible diseases due to cross-contamination between users

  • Damage to skin, eyes or blood vessels due to excessive pressure or operator error

So why are Hyaluron pens seen marketed in so many places?

This is because they offer a needles-less, pain free filler. Though that sounds preferable when being compared to a normal needle filler treatment, the benefits of using needle is the control your injector has of where the filler is being injected, which also means they can create the volume and shape where the client desires in a safe and effective way that gives the result that you are wanting.

Using a hyaluron pen for your lips is like taking a shot in the dark, you don’t really know how it’s going to turn out since you are shooting an uncontrolled filler into the skin with no technique!

microneedling

3. AT HOME MICRONEEDLING: 

Microneedling is one of the most popular anti-aging treatments to minimize skin laxity, diminish pore size, decrease the look of fine lines and wrinkles, improve the look of scaring, texture and acne.

These treatments are typically administered by a nurse or aesthetician that has been trained and certified to administer the treatment and post care.

There are lots of tools and devices out there that you can buy for at home use including microneedling pens and rollers. These devices are made with shorter needles and without radio frequency, which aids in the effects of the treatment substantially.

Unsurprisingly, microneedling with a lesser-grade device at home is not going to be as effective as an in-office treatment, which uses a numbing cream and more penetrative needles for long-term results that typically take at least 3 treatment sessions compared to at home microneedling which sometimes requires daily use to see any type of improvement.

Some risks with at home microneedling include:

  • Infection due to reuse of the tool. Professional treatments use new, disposable tips for each treatment to avoid infection, while when treating at home you have to be adamant about sanitization of your tools and properly cleaning your face before use.

  • Risk of damaging your skin with the wrong techniques. If you put too much pressure, it can cause ripping skin, irritation, or even scarrings or hyperpigmentation on the skin.

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4. AT HOME FOOD MASKS: 

We beg you, please stop putting food on your faces. From homemade face masks with yogurt to face scrubs and exfoliators, we hear you all are using everything but the kitchen sink on your skin.

Though it is true, foods contain vitamins and nutrients that are technically beneficial for our skin, ingesting them and absorbing the nutrients is quite different than applying them to your face. Medical grade skin care products are formulated with high concentrations of the specific ingredients needed to produce an effective result whereas foods that contain those ingredients at much lower concentrations.

We thought it would be fun to share a few examples of DIY skincare trends that sound life changing, but can actually be detrimental to you!

Exfoliators: The trend of using coffee grounds as a face scrub is actually quite bad for your skin, as it’s abrasive and harsh, especially if your skin is sensitive. They can cause micro tears in your skin leaving it susceptible to skin damage, bacteria growth, and accelerated aging.

Rather, we recommend using medical grade chemical and mechanical exfoliators such as the ZO® Exfoliating Polish or Dual Action Scrub.

Masks: The goal behind these DIY masks are primarily to treat acne. I am sure you’ve heard of apple cider vinegar toner or an apple cider vinegar and clay mask to be the perfect solution for pimples and even cystic acne.

This ingredient is widely promoted on the Internet for many health reasons including as a natural chemical exfoliant that will remove the build-up of dead skin cells, bacteria, pollution, and dirt. Contradictingly, apple cider vinegar has a pH of 2.78 while your skin stands between 4.6 – 6.2! This can leave your already inflamed skin and acne even worse than how you found it.

Some alternatives to masks are the ZO® Enzyme Peel and the Complexion clearing masque.

Skin brightening: Please, no more lemons! Deemed as mother nature’s lightener, lemons have a pH of about 2, which can really mess up the skin’s natural pH. Plus, they’re way too acidic and eat away at our protective barrier!  Even worse, they make the skin more sensitive to the sun, which can lead to blistering or really bad discoloration that could last for months.

Instead, use a retinol or medical grade brightening serum will safely and effectively help to reduce pigmentation on your skin and remember, SPF is a MUST to prevent more pigmentation caused from the sun!

5. Slugging – Slugging means coating your skin in a thick layer of petroleum-based products before bed such as Aquaphor, which then acts as a means of preventing water loss from your skin. The results? Supposedly softer skin. Another benefit of slugging is that it locks in benefits from products applied prior to this step.

Like most skincare, some things will work better for some than others, and although slugging isn’t necessarily dangerous, it still shouldn’t be treated lightly. While layering up petroleum-based products can help with dry patches, using it on already oily skin will not only make your skin shinier, but it could also lead to redness and enlarged pores.

To play it safe and not risk the chance of a reaction from sensitized or oily prone skin, you can resort to a medical grade hydrator or moisturizer. Ranging from thin to thick, you can choose a denser nighttime hydrator that is going to supply your skin with the nutrients and moisture it needs while still allowing your skin to breathe.

Some products we suggest are:

iS Clinical Reparative moisture Emulsion

ZO Recovery Creme

ZO Renewal Creme

ZO Hydrating Creme

pore+strips

6. PORE STRIPS

We get it, there is almost nothing more satisfying than seeing your pores literally pulled out of your face and perfectly captured on a strip where you can see how big and gross the gunk in your face really was. Even aside from that aspect, a pore strip seems to solve all your black head problems, leaving your pores empty right after pulling the strip!

How do pore strips work for those who haven’t had the pleasure of using them?

Pore strips are strips of material with an adhesive on one side to adhere to and pull out open comedones or blackheads. Blackheads happen when oil in the pores of the skin is exposed to air and are oxidized, resulting in a black appearance. If the adhesive grabs the oil and pulls it out, the blackhead is taken out!

Unfortunately, the long term effects aren’t as impressive. Although pore strips give you that immediate satisfaction of removing blackheads, it doesn’t get to the root of the problem which is enlarged pores and overactive sweat glands, meaning that these pores will fill right back up and you will be right back to where you started.

You may think that by using these frequently enough will improve your skin over time, but it can actually do the opposite and cause quite a bit of harm. Pore strips can contain alcohol or other ingredients that can irritate the skin, especially for people prone to  rosacea, eczema, psoriasis. Pore strips can damage more sensitive, thin skin and even pull out both skin and hair. That’s why there’s a warning within the instructions to only use pore strips about once a week. Overusing pore strips can make your skin actually look worse.

Pore strips can also inadvertently be making your pores larger. Pores don’t open and close, so clearing them out won’t make them physically “smaller”. In fact, by yanking away at a pore strip, you could be enlarging them!
Products to use instead:

ZO Exfoliating Polish

ZO Dual Action Scrub

ZO Pore Refiner

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7.  THE GUA SHA TOOL:

This is a great tool for many reasons and a trend we will back! A Gua sha tool is typically  a small, curved tool made out of smooth stone.

It is used for:

  • Facial Contouring

  • Lymphatic drainage

  • Reducing puffiness

  • Soften fine lines

When done correctly, you can benefit from gua sha for all of these reasons.

Although it is good, making sure you are using an effective technique is crucial. Most importantly, you should make sure not to tug on skin while stroking across the face. Tugging or pressing on the skin can be traumatic to the area causing redness and premature aging or wrinkles over time. Using light pressure is key!

You can also use your gua sha with a product that gives slip to the gua sha. For instance, a light serum such as Is Clinical Youth Serum or ZO Growth factor Serum.

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8. MAKEUP WIPES

We hear SO many people use these as a form of cleansing and it hurts our souls a little bit every time!

Makeup wipes, more popularly, the Neutrogena wipes ARE NOT a cleanser and do not effectively remove your makeup!

Personally speaking, they can be helpful for removing eye makeup, but as far as removing makeup on the face there are so many downsides! These wipes are more so smearing the makeup on the skin and not fully removing the debris. If left this way without a true cleanse following, it can clog your pores and leave behind bacteria creating breakouts too.

Makeup wipes also contain high levels of alcohol and harmful chemicals which can cause dryness and irritation and disrupt the PH balance of your skin. When you combine that with the texture of the wipes, you open yourself up to the risk of micro-tears. This can cause signs of premature aging over time.

Instead of the wipes, use micellar water to remove makeup and debris followed by a cleanser to get a substantial double cleanse! You can always just use a cleanser to remove makeup if you find one that works for you!

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9. BODY RETINOL

Yes, yes, and YES! It only makes sense that products we use on our face can also be beneficial for our body too!

Retinol is a super product being that it is all encompassing when it comes to skin treatment. It helps with textured skin, acne, scars, pore size, clarity, brightening, decreasing fine lines & wrinkles, and evening skin tone!

These benefits go for areas on the body too! A popular area to use a retinol treatment can be on the back. For people experiencing back breakouts and clogged pores, it can help clear this area! Another area where retinol can really help improve texture and breakouts is the back of the arms! Products such as body washes or lotions with retinol in them can be great for skin cell turnover leaving your skin smoother and firmer!

Just keep in mind, when using retinol, your skin can become more sensitive to the sun. So, be sure to wear your daily SPF especially since Summer time is upon us!

We offer a range of retinol products with different strengths and focuses, so we have the right retinol for you, whatever your goal.

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How did we do? Did you see something that hit home for you? If you did, hopefully, we’ve got you steered in the right direction from here on out!

Achieving your dream skin takes some WORK, that’s for sure, but making sure you are using the right products, with the right technique, and safely doing it, will get you to where you want to be that much quicker!

We promise that the time and investment in high-quality products and treatments by an experienced and educated provider is so, SO worth it, and we would be more than happy to work alongside you during that journey!

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