The Ghost of Skincare Future

The Ghost of Skincare Future
Coming into the festive season our skin seems to take a hit at every turn. No matter how fabulous our skincare routine is, it can’t compete with the changes in diet and lifestyle from mid November to the resolute January 1st.

And there are three main offenders that will collectively and individually dehydrate, destruct, destroy and disturb your skin. They’ll compromise your skin structure, strength and glow too. So what are these skin-disrupting festive faves?

Caffeine, sugar and alcohol. This means if a Martini Espresso is high on your Christmas list, then you might be combining all three, which is seriously bad news for your skin.

I call this gang of three ‘SKINFLAMMAGERS’ because they irritate, damage and weaken the structure of skin, cause accelerated ageing and inflammation too. They work hard to have us looking older, more tired and with more fine lines and wrinkles.

It’s not about being a killjoy, or avoiding fun during the festive season, but more about understanding what might be triggering your skin. You don’t need to panic and overcompensate with your skincare routine, but it’s worth being aware of what’s going into your body and how it’s affecting your skin.

Sugar: not so sweet
Sugar has always been a ‘no go’ in the skin care industry. Even if you never add sugar to your food yourself, you’ll be amazed at where it’s hiding.

Studies show that too much sugar causes "sugar sag", leading to sagging, dull skin. Consuming large amounts of sugar accelerates the loss of collagen and elastin. Refined sugars have no nutritional value at all, are addictive and disrupt your sleep - they actively affect our skin health and aging process.

Very simply, excess sugar in the diet enters the body, sticks to collagen, breaks it down and ultimately destroys any strength or support. The natural ageing process of the skin is accelerated, and we get wrinkles sooner and much more pronounced. Sugars can also be the cause of inflammation, puffiness (under the eyes and chin especially) and can exacerbate some skin conditions.

Collagen and elastin are the construction workers for our skin, keeping skin firm and maintaining health and strength. They also work to repair and replenish skin cells to actually create collagen and healthy-looking skin.

It is always fascinating to see how the foods we are eating on a daily basis are the foods that are causing our skin conditions – eliminate the foods, eliminate the condition.

Check out the ingredient list on a bottle of tomato ketchup and just imagine the next time you squirt, that you are squirting a little pile of white sugar to dip your sausages in. All those delicious packet sauces to eat with pasta, sugar is high on the ingredient list. Start to look at the labels on your ‘normal weekly products’ and you’ll be amazed.

And it’s not just inflammation of the skin, regularly eating foods with a high glycemic index can lead to inflammation in the body, which affects the skin too.

The coffee/caffeine moment
Next is caffeine, and it’s everywhere. From coffee to cola and energy drinks, your caffeine consumption can seriously add up without you really realising.

Coffee in all its forms is a dehydrating diuretic. Containing tannins (dehydrating) and caffeine (diuretic – meaning it makes you go to the loo a lot), it’s a double whammy that leads to dull, dry skin.

Coffee also disrupts the digestive system, causes high levels of acidity in the gut and acts as a mild laxative meaning that the body has little chance to absorb nutrients from the rest of your diet. Caffeine affects the kidneys too, impacting on mineral absorption – all key factors to maintaining fresh, healthy and glowing skin.

Dehydration from caffeine containing drinks may also cause skin redness or inflammation. Dry skin patches are likely to first appear around your nose and chin area.

While coffee doesn't cause acne, some studies suggest it can exacerbate and irritate it, making it worse. Caffeine makes you feel alert and awake but also leads to a heightened stress response in the body.

The high acidity of caffeine triggers the stress hormone cortisol too. This can increase the amount of oil produced by your sebaceous glands, making your skin more prone to breakouts.

Coffee is also known to inhibit collagen production, blocking your body from building essential scaffolding that supports and maintains smooth skin. This can lead to the accelerated appearance of wrinkles and dry skin.

Putting the final nail in the caffeine coffin, it stops you having a good and restful night’s sleep. Tiredness causes stress, stress causes hormone fluctuation and hormone fluctuation makes it very difficult for the skin to maintain balance.

The final round
Alcohol is a triple threat when it comes to your skin. It’s extremely high in sugar, is another diuretic and accelerates dehydration in the body (causing your body and skin to lose fluid).

Dry skin can look dull and grey, and starts to form wrinkles more quickly. The results of alcohol consumption are seen much earlier and much more immediately on the thinner parts of our faces: dry lips and sunken grey, crepey eyes with bags of inflammation and puffiness.

Alcohol's water-loss effect combined with its high acidity will disrupt digestion, lowering the absorption of nutrients and minerals too. It also disrupts your sleep, which affects your skin. Flushing and redness can be caused by alcohol as the release of histamines causes the blood vessels under the skin to dilate.

There are many research reports that show the relationship between skin conditions such as psoriasis, dermatitis and general breakouts and excess consumption of alcohol too.

Save your skin this festive season
It’s not all bad news. In almost every case, after reducing or eliminating any or all of these skinflammagers for just one week you will see clearer skin, more glow and less puffiness.